Up FTP or do new ramp test

[jlawn]

I had a FTP of 190 going into IM lousiville. Took 3 months off and came back with a FTP of 150(3 weeks ago). Not conference as I knew that drop would occur.

I did Fuji last Tuesday and did the last 2 ramps at 110% and the 2 prior to that at 110%. Yesterday I did Haku and did the first 2 at 100%, 2nd 2 at 105/110%, then the last 2 at 120%. I didn’t make adjustments to any other workouts in the week, but I wasn’t spent/destroyed at the end of any of them.

I am not scheduled for another ramp test until April 14th.

My question, should I add another ramp test or should I just move my FTP up to 155 or 160?

[russell.r.sage]

my experience is that fitness comes back. If you can do 160, why not?

[vladrath]

I mean not being spent or destroyed means your fresh. But that doesn’t mean you have a huge FTP gain.

That said, if you’re following a TR plan how are you not schedualed for a Ramp test until then unless your doing a specialty phase? If you have taken such a significant time off it’s typically recommended that you go back to base and start your whole periodization plan from the start.

The only reason I would schedual a new FTP test is if you are completely dominating your workouts to the point where your HR is much lower than what it should be during the intense poritions. For instance, I typically would have a HR of 165-175BPM for a SS workout. If my HR was like 150 during a SS workout, I would totally think to do a Ramp test to re-assess. But if my HR was like 163 BPM, maybe I’d just add a few watts to the FTP manually and see how my workouts went.

So, long story short, if you think you are going to move the FTP up more than like 1% I’d say re-assess since it isn’t too taxing and is the most accurate way to go. But if I thought my FTP was just a little higher, I’d just move it up manually and see how the workouts were going.

[mikethg]

Are you following a plan? If so, then just keep in mind that the weekly TSS is going to grow each week. So you might not be destroyed this week, but in a couple of weeks when TSS has ramped up might be different. I usually find the first couple of weeks of a plan are ok, but get harder as it progresses.

If you’re confident that you have a good sense of your FTP being 155 or 160 then just up it and give it a try. If you start to struggle you can always bring it back down. But if you don’t really have a good idea on where it should be then just do the ramp test. They only take 25ish minutes and don’t really interrupt your plan. Then you can proceed with confidence knowing you are setting targets in the right place.

[jlawn]

I am using the plan builder. I am a few weeks into the base phase. I know the fitness will come back quickly which is why I was curious about changing my FTP sooner then later.

[JustinDoesTriathlon]

The great thing about the ramp test is that it’s very light on the body. You can totally ramp test today and have a regular training day tomorrow. The ramp gives less TSS than almost any TR workout.
That’s the long way of saying: if you think you bumped, just give it a test. No harm either way.

[teamkennyg]

I done a ramp test after the recovery week after the end if SS2MV and I went from 213 to 214 which disappointed me so i done a moderate intensity week before i started my build plan. At the end now of my 1st week in build I have moved all workouts up manually by 3% to 4% and had no problem so i changed my ftp to 220 and done red lake +8 ( i think) and found it hard but manageable so definitely near my proper ftp now so YES i would move it up manually maybe 2 or 3% and see what its like and adjust accordingly .

[jlawn]

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

[FatherDamo2]

Just my N+1, if you can increase your intensity to 105% for a week and if it feels like your not fatiguing yourself, then I’d add 5% on to your FTP.

I’ve done this myself recently, I was finding workouts easy, wasn’t tired at the end at all. I know after past years of training what I should feel like, so I set the intensity to 105% at the start of Spanish needles and completed well… the other workout, started and finished at 108%. So this week I upped my FTP by 5% and have been completing workouts fine, in fact last night I added a bit extra during rest intervals as I have a recovery day today.

I believe I had a mixture of bad weeks and ramp and my FTP dropped some 10%, but as you say it comes back fast and who likes to ramp weekly, some will, I don’t as I feel I do bury myself with them. I more than happy to move intensity up and down and change my FTP as required. Feel after all these years I know what is right and what isn’t after doing workouts…

The end of the day I want my TSS and IF fairly accurate and by just upping intensity won’t do that, unless you alter the ftp for that one workout post, or alter before doing them.

And finally yes I do normally ramp test at the start of training blocks as the plans have it scheduled, and I’m never far out!

Hope this helps.

[trpnhntr]

@jlawn

My question, should I add another ramp test or should I just move my FTP up to 155 or 160?

I would do neither. The two workouts you referenced are fairly easy efforts and should not be used as a benchmark of your fitness. They are 60 minutes and have too low of an IF to make a real determination of your FTP.

At most they are assessing your sprint capabilities with the 200% efforts, but not your overall base and FTP.

You’re likely better off waiting until the scheduled test to adjust your FTP. If you find yourself able to complete longer intervals such as over/unders or other threshold-like efforts very easily then you should consider re-testing or increasing your FTP manually