3rd winter on TR but the first time I could consistently train. Took getting a new job but it’s really paying off for my fitness.
Off of Virtual Power now as well and using a 4iiii’s LS Crank PM
Nov. 2 SSBLVI - 204W @ 2.08W/KG
Dec. 14 SSBLVII - 233W @ 2.48W/KG
To say i’m pleased is a huge understatement…
| Date | Plan | FTP | W/kg |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 20th, 2020 | Initial Test | 208W | 2.2W/kg |
| June 2nd, 2020 | Completed Sweet Spot Base MV1 | 224W | 2.46W/kg |
| July 15th, 2020 | Completed Sweet Spot Base MV2 | 240W | 2.74W/kg |
| August 11th, 2020 | Midway Sustained Power Build MV | 244W | 2.83W/kg |
| September 9th, 2020 | Completed Sustained Power Build MV | 249W | 3.04W/kg |
| November 9th, 2020 | Completed 1st half Century MV and Traditional Base MV1 | 239W | 3.03W/kg |
| December 15th, 2020 | Completed Sweet Spot Base MV1 | 252W | 3.21W/kg |
I was going a bit off the rails during the Century plan, so I dialed things back and went with Traditional Base to give myself a bit of a break from all that intensity. I didn’t even bother testing, just watched Netflix while spinning my legs during those four weeks.
In retrospect I was definitely underfueling for far too long. I’m happy with the weight loss, but it was time to shift my emphasis. I started Sweet Spot Base again, this time with a greater focus on fueling myself. So far, so good.
Nice gains! I just tested for the first time at 234 and man to be at 293 by May would be LIT! What volume did you do if you don’t mind me asking?
Hi all, I’m new to structured training. Been using Trainerroad for the past 5 months (I did the SSBHV & am in the middle of the SSPBHV phase). I started at an FTP of 243.
Context
3 days ago i did a TR FTP test that gave me 266, after a 5 day rest week. Today after 3 days of non-activity I did a Sufferfest 4DP test that gave me an ftp of 279.
From Trainingpeaks analysis both tests give me a 20min ave power of 279-280W. I know TR uses 95% of ave 20min power while SUF uses 100% of ave 20min after all the sprint efforts.
Question
Do I keep the 279 ftp from hereon & carry on with the build phase? choose middle ground ftp between 266-279? I LOVE threshold & VO2 max sessions but am a bit nervous with the new FTP so could use some advice.
Thank you
Only way to find out is giving it a try.
Stick to just one test and see how that FTP works out for you with TR workouts.
Adjust as required, plenty of info in the forums on this and which workouts are good to judge if your FTP is correct.
You don’t want to be collecting a bunch of uncompleted workouts for the sake of an FTP with 20 more watts on it for ego. You want one which puts you in the correct zones for training, and you’ll get faster that way more quickly.
Good luck with your journey
Thanks so much for the advice guys, really appreciated.
Here’s an interesting take: after taking a day off yesterday this morning I did a 4hr outdoor ride with the first 1hr as TT. Surprisingly I hit 299w for 21m so I see Int.icu recommends 286w ftp while Training peaks & Xert gives 284w. I suppose for my ego it might be okay to run with the 284w ftp & continue with the build workouts, should they prove unreasonably hard I then decrees intensity by 3-5%
This is exciting & terrifying at the same time given that I’m going into threshold & vo2 max for the next 4 weeks, with my goal event in 6 weeks.
Please excuse that I’m using multiple platforms, I’m testing which platform to use moving forward. My assumption was that the recommended ftp would guide power zones & workouts regardless of platform, but I see not.
In this post, I wrote about my second FTP test result. My first in September was a 20 min effort on Zwift. This last one was a TR ramp test. Essentially the jump was 230 to 260 in about 2.5 months. I’ve been riding less than a year so noob gains are expected.
The last two weeks in SSB II, the 90 minute workouts (Mary Austin and Carpathian Peak) have broken me and crushed my soul. I was able to get to the 60 minute point, but after that a serious struggle. I am pretty new to training with power and am pretty convinced that the ramp test overestimated my FTP. I probably have an inherent strength bias in my performance.
I am thinking about manually dialing it back to 245 or 250 and repeating week 4 of SSB II. Thoughts?
With my lower FTP a few watts makes the difference between blowing up and a threshold session being truly threshold (do able but hard). I wouldn’t want to drop too far initially.
I saw some where tonight that the ramp test estimate is between 0.72 and 0.77 (the middle ground 0.75 is used). You could try going for the lower end of the spectrum (0.72×ramp 1min max). I think that places you at 250w. I would use that and see how you get on, and if necessary adjust from there. Good luck 
Good info. I think I’ll adjust to 250w and see how that goes.
Interestingly, I run my Edge 530 to log workouts while I do TR and it alerted me this week after Darwin that it automatically detected a new FTP of 250w. I have no idea how it came up with that (20 minute average or some other algorithm).
Tuesday, Dec 22, 2020
271
Tuesday, Nov 10, 2020
265
Tuesday, Aug 25, 2020
257
Tuesday, Jul 28, 2020
244
Wednesday, Jul 22, 2020
242
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
273
Tuesday, Mar 24, 2020
266
Thursday, Feb 20, 2020
259
Tuesday, Dec 17, 2019
255
Tuesday, Nov 5, 2019
239
Tuesday, Sep 24, 2019
249
Saturday, Aug 31, 2019
242
Tuesday, Aug 13, 2019
232
Tuesday, Jul 9, 2019
246
Tuesday, Jun 11, 2019
245
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
242
Wednesday, Apr 17, 2019
238
Sunday, Mar 3, 2019
221
Monday, Dec 10, 2018
195
I almost got my PR in FTP from last spring. Just few more seconds.
It is surprising that you are so fixed in to the numbers even my w/kg is a lot better now compared to last spring. -8kg or -17lb
you guys are making me look slow! 
bought myself a bike in june, started riding casually at prospect park a couple times a week for the first month or two. fast forward to october and i buy myself a trainer and get to work!
height: 6’5"
weight: 210lbs
oct. 19: 152
nov.23: 187
dec. 17: 207
goal is to get in race shape by april / june, depending on covid. basically just waiting for law school to start so i have a ton of time to ride… debating whether to stick with the SSB plans or go with some LSD. only problem with that is anything more than 2 hours on the trainer is maddening 
I missed my 1 year anniversary when I meant to post an update. I started with a notional FTP of 306w from a TT where I did at 322w for 25:10 earlier in 2019. Obviously it was longer than 20 mins and included a roundabout turn halfway, but I didn’t do a 5 min clearing effort. As you can tell there was no structure - I just rode my bike 6 - 8 hours a week outdoors.
Once I got a trainer and TR, I messed around for a week including completing Baird Peak - which was a brutal introduction to indoor rides. I then FTP tested and went through SSBMV1, SSBMV2, GBMV. From there I just did my own thing and picked up tons of knowledge from this forum (not that I consider myself knowledgeable).
I quit ramp testing by Feb or March 2020 and just bumped FTP by feel. I’ve moved to longer assessments like the sort Kolie Moore talks about. These are more to occassionally check my internal guage is still calibrated about right than not knowing at all what my FTP is.
My FTP progress wasn’t quite as linear as it looks below - there were times when I tried to bump by 10w and backed off by 5w after a couple of workouts. The time between increases is getting slower, but not too slow. But things have moved in the right direction so I’m happy enough. I always set to a round 5w number to make zones and %FTP easier to remember/calculate in my head. I recently did an hour at 360w average, but it felt most like threshold when I was just above that, so again by feel I set it to 365w.
Hoping to get out there and do some Cat 4 (UK noob) racing when possible!
Weight is 74kg, so currently 4.93w/kg (may as well do the weigh in before Xmas!)
My Garmin FR945 also comes up with its own FTP estimates (or suggestions…). I accept these but also sort of ignore them as opposed to TR-based FTP from the Ramp Test.
I’m in the East of England - with your power, please tell me that you live on the other side of the country…
Nope east too!! I live in Norwich. I entered my first ever race last year - Kings Lynn 3/4 Road race (but Covid put paid to that). So I just focused on training all year
51yr old male, 6’ 4"…literally off the couch with no fitness after 15 yrs away from cycling.
09/28: 147 113kg
11/10: 190 110kg
12/23 207 108kg 1.91W/kg
…wasn’t feeling great tonight mentally or physically, but it is what it is.
great stuff! Can’t wait to hear about your progress in the coming months 
My first TR ramp test was 1/1/19 and I put up 268w. Most recent one was 11/20/20 at 316w
