Was the ramp test using the power meter that you use outside?
I can’t put my finger on what is not right but something seems off.
For perspective, qualifying for the Masters Grand Fondo World Championship last year ~4h 50m race on the rivet 90 -95% of the time feeling like I was going to die or stop at any second the TSS was 299 (on a FTP correctly tested and set 2 weeks before)
If you had said that the ride in question was everything you had and were on a really good day, little fatigue before it, but you could have NOT done not a watt more over the course of the ride the ~280 would be just about believable if you FTP had improved since your last test.
But getting back to the original post, all this TSS talk is a distraction, you seem to be questioning the plan based on your personal assumptions rather than collecting data and trusting the science and coaching knowledge that has gone into the TR plans.
Many (some) of us on here 5 - 10 years plus into training with power do not use the TR plans but then if we don’t we usually have very specific requirements that probably don’t meet our needs without some modification.
If have you never followed the TR plans do so, I’ll be amazed if you don’t see great results. Follow the plans exactly, add in extra sessions if you must but get the core TR planned sessions in as a priority.
When I worked as an analyst we called that ‘shit in - shit out’. Basically, if you use flawed data as an input you can do a lot of number crunching, but in the end your result will be worthless crap…
I’d recommend just doing an FTP test, otherwise we are just talking around circles in an imaginary scenario. Just taking the best 20min of my long and not all-out outdoor rides would underestimate my FTP quite a lot. The best 20min at an FTP test is rested and after the 20 min you are toast, not riding for hours afterward.
Maybe helpful for you in order to easier understand why people think your FTP is underestimated (which is great, yay higher FTP!) / Power data is flawed is to look at what the Intensity Factor (IF) represents:
Simplified speaking an IF of 1.00 would be 1h at FTP. I couldn’t do that and I’m certain I’m not alone (my Time to Exhaustion is way before that). 20min FTP test is riding at ca. 1.05 IF. In both cases, you should be completely toasted afterward. My hard TR workouts are between 0.88 and 0.92 IF (60 to 90min) and I’m glad to get off the bike when they are over.
In your data, you show 0.88 IF for over 4h, whilst I don’t want to say that this is impossible to achieve (for me it would be…), it is certainly something really really hard to achieve and not an “I did this today, wasn’t even that hard.” So in conclusion like others said, it seems like your FTP is set too low, hence you get more TSS. (Or the power reading outside it too high - causes could be leg imbalance on a one-sided PM or well, wrong readings).
I hope that helps and makes it clearer. Be proud, seems like you have a higher FTP than you thought!
So, a question to all the riders with more experience!
I live in the middle of the alps, every ride is about an ascend of 700 to 1400 Meters altitude.
How should i Set up the Plan bilder?
The terrain around you has nothing to do with plan builder - plan builder puts base, build and speciality blocks together, depending on you goal event. It doesn’t pick specific workouts based on your terrain.
There are a few threads on here with ideas of how to train in the mountains and how to find suitable terrain.
I dont have any races or something Like that.
I read in another threads, that someone is choosing TT speciality Over climbing speciality because it would suit better for real mountain riding…
So im Not Sure whats the Best…i am surrounded by mountains, i live on a mountain, we ride always mountains. Real mountains!
With climbs like that, you are talking about sustained power.
So Sweet Spot Base and then Sustained Power Build is a logical progression. The question is then which Specialty plan.
While Climbing Road Race has climbing in its name, it is really targetted at racing, where you climb just below threshold AND have to initiate/respond to efforts off the front, with above threshold efforts. The TT specialty is really about holding a maximal steady effort around threshold, but you will probably be pretty spent at the end of that effort - if you have to do a single climb of that length, and then just descend back to the start, this would be ideal. The Century specialty is about holding and repeating efforts just below threshold - if you do a 700m climb and then descend to the next valley, then have to turn around and do a similar climb and descent to get back, this would be a better fit.
There is not really that much difference between these plans in reality, but there is some. My guess is that if you are a recreational rider rather than a racer, Century specialty is a better fit for how you are likely to ride that terrain. Set your target event in Plan Builder as a Gran Fondo to get the SSB> SPB> Century progression.
