Don’t think of it as underperforming. If you’re going to your limit during the test, you’re not underperforming.
The ramp test assumes some things about you as a rider. They’re general assumptions that work well enough for most people, but they don’t work for everybody. If your threshold power and max aerobic power have a different relationship than the one the ramp test assumes, you’re going to get an inaccurate threshold estimate when you do a ramp test.
You’ve got a couple of these under your belt now, so you’ve got options:
- Do your own math. The ramp assumes your threshold is 75% of the highest 1-minute power during the test. Maybe your actual relationship is more like 77% or 80%. Go back and look at the ramps you’ve done, and compare the max 1-minute power to the threshold you ended up using. If it’s consistent, maybe you keep using the ramp test, but change the math.
- Use a different test. There are 8-minute and 20-minute protocols in the catalog, and there’s a pretty popular alternative from Kolie Moore. The longer your test, the harder it is to pace, and the more accurate it’ll be if you pace it well.
- Keep going by feel. Progress is progress
