Since I started using TR in May my FTP has gone up ~35w, so I’m assuming that the workouts I am doing now are “more work” compared to those I did 3 months ago.
However, the other day I went back through the normalized power of my workouts on TR and my highest NP in a workout was over a month ago, my workout 2 weeks ago had a higher NP than my last workout as did a workout I did almost 7 weeks ago.
My FTP has been increasing and the workouts are hard (well not the endurance ones) but I’m surprised to not see something that is reflecting what I would think be more work I am doing in the workouts as “80% of FTP” or whatever has become a higher number.
Is it just difficult to compare due to different phases of the plan or is there something that I can look at that would show my increased “output” in workouts?
My FTP has risen but it seems like I’m doing the same amount of “work” as I did months ago with a lower FTP.
This isn’t perfect, but here is an example of the same workout 3 times, at 3 different FTPs.
Top to bottom, FTP was 252w, 247w, 240w.
The top one also had me kick up the low steps a bit as well as the final one. You can see the increase in TSS & IF over what was prescribed.
But I think… despite that difference, the bigger indicator or “Work” done is shown in the kJ (Cal) value. You can also see the NP as higher, and I suspect it correlates to the kJ value.
I would suggest that NP is not the metric you want to be looking at. Just because you have a higher FTP, unless you are comparing the same workout in the past, not every workout will have a higher NP.
As Chad has pointed out, work done is generally looked at in Kj’s and having a higher FTP will mean you are doing more work for a given power and duration.
If you compare 2 identification workouts, the one with a higher FTP will have a higher Kj value and by association more “work done”
Thanks, while I don’t have a lot of repeat workouts, there does seem to be an increase in kj in workouts similar to the percentage my FTP has increased by so it seems to be the metric I was looking for.
