I had the chance to do a lactate threshold test with my coach 10 days ago.
Here’s the activity
Lactate results:
I’ve been doing a bit of volume with some short ftp efforts and a bit more of sustained ss.
6 weeks at around 800tss per week + some general strength work in the gym.
After the test I’ve dropped the gym for a week, did my usual bike training and this weekend I’ve decided to try a zwift race as the weather was pretty bad. Link
I was quite surprised of the results as I’ve improved my cp20 (330w), cp40 (302w) and cp60 (309w).
Any help making sense of these results?
Maybe I was just too fatigued / in a big calorie deficit for the ramp test? Maybe is the inefficient rpm held during the ramp test (over 100rpm vs 90-95rpm during the race) ?
And finally, what should I set as my FTP for training?
I will provide some more insights once I get a reply from my coach.
Thanks
If that was my data I’d use 280W for FTP to train as it’s very close to 4mmol/L.
I’m currently working with zone 4 set as 270w-300w which seems fine and aligned with the lactate test.
I was just surprised by the race cp and wondering what to do with that extra data and/or if it’s any relevant.
I’ve also found this post from Joe Friel which indicates correlation between critical power and ftp
CP240 = ~z2 (low)
CP120 = ~z2 (high)
CP90 = ~z3 (high)-z4
CP60 = ~z5 (low)
CP30 = ~z5 (high)
CP12 = ~z6 (low)
CP6 = ~z6 (high)
CP1 = ~z7
Can’t see the race file, but I’d imagine it was pretty spiky and therefore not really suitable for use in determining CP and zones etc.
Shouldn’t your coach tell you where to set your FTP?
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Yes, he did, i kept it for that period of time for 270-300w, it was just a curiosity of mine. The file was, of course, spiky.
After the lockdown ended I did a 20minute test averaging 340w and that moved my ftp to 285-315w
Right now i’m on the last week of a big block (20h/1200tsss a week) and I’m easily holding 310w so i guess my zone 4 will bump up some more. I have a lactate test next week so maybe I’ll update the thread. 
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So, 4 months later, I’ve done a lactate test again, here’s the result
The day after this I’ve done a CP20 test which resulted in 346w (poorly paced though), which is a +6w improvement since the one I did 6 weeks ago (also, lost 3kg, now am 69kg)
My current power zones set by the coach are 290-320w, quite low considering that the 95% rule alone would put me at 328w.
Just for context, I mainly do sweetspot and threshold efforts during my training. Around 15-20h per week. 4x30 sweetspot over 4 hours is a common one and I find it quite easy.
So in conclusion, there’s quite a big difference between Lactate Threshold and 95% of CP20, personally I’ll keep training with the upper end of my coach zones.
(note: watt bike is the power value to be considered)
Why did you make a 5w jump from 4th to 5th step, and a 50w jump to 6th step?
There was a problem with the indoor trainer which changed the average watt of the result.
The protocol was 5’ +30w steps. It’s indicated in the WATT MD column.
