Ramp test vs 8 minute FTP test

I came from Sufferfest so I’m fairly familiar with my FTP (254) from the full frontal test and I’ve done quite a bit of training since that test.

I did a ramp test on TR and felt that I underperformed with a 249. I didn’t want to feel like my workouts were easy so the next day I did an 8 minute test and came away with a 269 which is about an 8-9% increase if my math is correct. I’m not certain why the disparity in the 2 tests and was wanting some advice on which value I should use for training. I don’t want my workouts to be too easy but I also want to be able to complete them.

If you want to feel more confident about your FTP test result, take that value you came up with and ride to failure. You can pull up the Hour Record workout and do it in ERG. You can also build up a test following Kolie Moore’s protocols. I think if you can survive at least 30 mins at 100% FTP that number will probably be fine for setting your workouts. If you can’t make it 30 mins, your anaerobic fitness is inflating your FTP result. Everyone has an amount of anaerobic energy they can tap into when they ride above steady state power, this decays / matches burn. With short tests, your matches can help you light it up! With the TR progression in SSB, we start with workouts only 8-15 mins long. So you could survive if you were doing sweet spot or threshold. You might only realize you have been going to hard by using the wrong FTP over time, not during an individual workout. Services like intervals.icu, strava premium, Xert, wko, golden cheetah can use your data to generate a power curve and estimate an FTP based on a 30+ min effort.

This can be as simple as knowing whether a workout actually was as hard as it is intended to be, and adjusting based on that. It requires some experience with knowing how work at different intensity should feel. Fire up Lamarck (4x10 min at threshold) and see which number feels like serious work without coming unglued. You don’t need to “test” to evaluate.

There’s lots of discussions about it on the forum. A ramp test suits the majority of people. I think it’s a bell curve of 75%. However, if you’re outside the bell curve a longer test may be better for that individual. I think I am outside that bell curve. My last ramp test was circa 227w, next day I done a w/o at 246NP for 46minutes and the week after 294w for 20minutes. Although after Christmas I’ve dropped my FTP to 250-260w. I am hoping with the launch of AT, it won’t really matter :+1:

Assuming you have an accurate and calibrated PM, it might be as simple as having a good and/or bad day. Maybe you went into the ramp test off an easy/recovery week, legs were a bit sluggish, and the test effectively served as an opener that meant you were ready to fire on all cylinders the next day?

As to which number to use, go with either and then be prepared to adjust on the day. Depends a bit on your power curve and what kind of workouts you’re doing. E.g. I spent the winter doing most of my training at or below threshold. Lots of Z2 and tempo, typically 1 Sweetspot session, and then a Zwift race every week or 2 to have some fun and touch on the higher end power. Recently started doing structured VO2 work for the first time in months, first couple of workouts were painful and was having to dial the intensity down a few percent to get through them. That part of the power curve responds pretty quickly though and within a couple of weeks I was doing them at 100%, the most recent one actually felt a bit easy and I pushed the intensity up 1-2% on each interval in the last block, doing the last one at 105% (these were 120% FTP intervals so effectively bumped it up to 126%), so I either need to retest my FTP or select some tougher workouts at my existing FTP. Which is where Adaptive Training will hopefully help take the guess work out of combing through workouts trying to figure out what balance of higher intensity, longer intervals and/or shorter recovery represents a good progression from where I am!

Thinking of doing a full 60 min ftp test, does not seem like many people do it but I am starting to think it may be the best way to get the power I can hold for 60 mins. I think the most difficult part of doing this may be the mental aspect. looking for some opinions I guess

I’ve done a few of these and pacing is key…don’t go crazy at the beginning. The longer tests definitely reflect some accurate numbers for my training zones.

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thanks I appreciate the input and will certainly try to keep in mind not to pace like a shorter test.

60 minutes isn’t a magic number of minutes. Just go long and max effort. Some good discussion over here: Kolie Moore's FTP test protocol - #1004 by bbarrera

Thanks and I will check it out