Nate's Drop in FTP

Training
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Not so sure, I think its rooted in the origin of Ramp Testing (at elevation :rofl:) A lot of work was done by Ric Stern in the 1990s, and he had some field data that suggested you could estimate 40K TT power as 72-77% of MAP. Keep in mind that was a rough range from looking at both MAP results and actual 40K TT results.

Fast forward from the 1990s to 2020 - and we know that FTP is not a good predictor of 5-min power (there is a lot of individual variation). So I really believe if you do ramp testing, you should also do a 20-min or longer test to calibrate your individual % for training at FTP and below. Some info on that in Ric’s How to FTP Test blog post from January 2020 (below).

Again the use of MAP to predict 40K TT power at 72-77% was based field data, a useful rule of thumb. The Sufferfest rather bluntly states the Ramp Test “ASSUMES WITHOUT EVIDENCE everyone’s FTP is directly correlated to power at vo2max.” While that may be true if we carefully parse the statement like lawyers (:man_shrugging: really Sufferfest, DID YOU NEED ALL CAPS?!! :rofl:), I’ve had some pretty good correlation between Ramp Test FTP and what I can actually do for 30-50 minutes. And on the flip side I’ve had Ramp Tests that completely underestimated by 30-40W what I can do for 30-50 minutes.

Here is a 2001 Ric Stern article about ramp testing and MAP training zones. Recently Ric wrote about Ramp Testing, TrainerRoad, Zwift, and why you shouldn’t assume 75% is good for scaling workouts (skip to Does a Few Percent Matter?). Also thought his January 2020 article on How to FTP Test was good and worth sharing.

Just sharing as I searched and didn’t find this info elsewhere. Not intending to sidetrack the discussion. I can absolutely believe the ramp test will reliably estimate FTP for some people, under the right conditions…

which leads me to return full circle to Nate and anyone else in a similar situation. Ric Stern has repeatedly written the test does require you to push yourself to exhaustion and therefore you should be certain that you a) haven’t been ill within last four weeks, and b) you haven’t been recently injuried. :thinking:

Not sure about the rest of you, but I can’t load up another workout after doing the ramp test. To be honest ramp tests make me feel worse than any 20-min or longer test I’ve done.