Riding above targets during workouts, how should I adjust my FTP?

Training
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This is my third year of indoor training (2nd year with TR), and I’m just finishing Sweet Spot Base I – Mid Volume. I did the ramp test 5 weeks ago, got an FTP of 177w. Throughout the plan, I’ve been consistently able to ride above the target power (particularly toward the end of the workouts), so I’ve been bumping my FTP up by bit by bit. I’m at the end of week 5, my FTP is currently set to 200w.

Today, I did Galena (3 x 20min @ 90%). I felt really good after the first two intervals and decided to go for it on the last one and make it a spontaneous 20 min FTP test, just to see what happened. I kinda expected I’d have to back off or blow up, but I averaged 264w.

This feels too good to be true, and I’m trying to figure out what it means and what (if anything) I should do…

  • Did I somehow mess up the ramp test 5 weeks ago and have my FTP set way too low? I’d been completely off the bike for about 2 months the ramp test felt very hard (I’ve done it a couple of times before, it felt about how I remembered it).

  • Should I be setting my FTP to 264w? That seems like way to big a jump, way way too quickly, and I’m not confident I’d be able to complete workouts at that level (especially during my upcoming recovery week).

  • It’s a Sunday (meaning I got up and did the workout at a more civilized hour than usual), had breakfast an hour a head, and had two intervals of warmup (I usually do best with a lot of warmup). Is today just an outlier?

  • I’ve made two changes to my training this year. First, I’m eating more (carbs, specifically) and having a gel min-workout. Second, I’ve been extending the Tue/Thu workouts to 90 minutes (so I can skip Wednesday and get some extra sleep). Do these changes in any way account for this kind of result?

Anyway, feeling unsure about things after today’s workout, any advice would be appreciated :slight_smile:

2

Nope, you were off the bike for 2 months and had probably detrained. Fitness usually comes back quickly.

No, absolutely not.

Maybe, maybe not. But in general you shouldn’t cherry pick efforts to determine an FTP

Fueling properly will absolutely increase your workout quality and ability to express your capabilities.

It seems like your FTP has risen a lot and it’s time for another assessment. Enjoy your rest week and I’m sure you’ll be ready to smash it :slight_smile:

3 Likes
3

+1 on @stevemz’s other comments and regarding this one, 95% (correction) of this one interval would be 250W using the standard 20 minute test ratio. That would be a ~12.5% jump from your current. Based on this and how you are feeling through the workouts, I’d also stay the course and visualize the crushing the next Ramp Test. You have a target now for that final one minute interval, >300W . Good luck!

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Ahh, right, I forgot about the 90% ratio for the 20 min test, good call :+1:

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Haha, ok, thanks for being a calm voice. I was afraid I was out in left field and the answer would be “of course it’s too low!”. I’ll hold steady and see what the ramp test says next week :slight_smile:

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Typically when it comes to assessing FTP using efforts of 20 minutes duration, 95% is the relevant percentage.

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Correction above @todolist. Thanks.

8

Agree with 95% for 20 minutes. 90% is what you would use for an 8 minute test.

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