I’m wondering if these gains post SSBLV1 are even realistic or something is waaaayy off and I should think about ramp testing again. I spent most of 2020 injured because of some super fun perineal pain and numbness. After I found the right physical therapist and did that for a bit I was able to start riding outdoors again in Oct. Eventually I switched from a trainer to rollers and was able to train indoors again too.
I bought Tacx Galaxia rollers which are basically just Tacx Antares with some fancy rockers. So used that as my virtual power settings, made sure my speedo (and TP) had correctly configured tire circumference and to always dial in tire pressure prior to riding. The first week of Jan I started SSBLV1 with an FTP of 151 confirmed with two ramp tests. I finished SSBLV1 and to celebrate bought myself a Quarq Dub spider.
Yesterday I did the self zero/calibration thing on the Quarq (cranks at 12 and 6) and tested which gave me a result of 214.
So let’s say my previous results were off by 20% due to Virtual Power not being as dialed in and my FTP was actually closer to 180. That’s still close to a 20% gain in FTP. I’ve been doing light strength training and eating significantly better during SSBLV1 but this just seems too good to be true. The test itself felt “right”, at about 28 mins I started to feel like I could barely hold on and was just barely able to make it to the 30 minute marker. Came off the bike feeling like one does after a good cyclocross race, except less muddy.
Is this kind of gain normal? I’m really not trying to humble brag here, more concerned something is totally off with my Quarq