Testing outdoor FTP or RR ride?

kortneyringel

I don't get to ride outdoors much... I'm usually getting on my bike at o-dark-thirty to get it done before I have to start chasing kids around, etc.  Sooo, as a result, I have never tested my FTP outdoors. I haven't even ridden outdoors this year yet.  Yes, it sucks. 

Anyway, I am racing Eagleman in June, and am riding the course tomorrow as a race rehearsal ride.  I'm wondering if I should take this opportunity (since I will do another race rehearsal in a few weeks) to use the ride as an FTP test?  I was thinking of maybe starting out the ride as I would during my race... z2 for 30' and then settling into z3 for 10 minutes or so to get a good warmup in, but then transitioning to the 20' FTP test?  

Or, is it better to go by RPE to see how the outdoor ride feels compared to the indoor ride?  Race is June 9th, so I have a little more than a month.  

It's a fine line, because I am pretty sure that I can go harder outdoors, espec on that course, BUT, E-man is HOT, and on the bike it is easy to get fooled into going harder than you should... so, I want to make sure I really know my outdoor number.

Advice is appreciated!!!

Coach Rich

Do this:

1. Ride this ride as an RR, using HR and RPE as your primary inputs, power as secondary, just observing it.
2. Ride very steady and have a VI goal of about 1.03-1.04. Eagleman is a very flat course so shouldn't be a problem. 
3. A well paced HIM bike will be ridden at ~.85 IF, for splits around 2:30, up to about .80 for 3hrs, then about .78-77 for slower splits. 
4. From this, after your RR, you can sorta extract a sorta FTP which you can use as a benchmark for future intervals and for a goal if you need to test your FTP outside.

But more importantly, if the RR goes well the conditions are similar to what you'll see on race day (heat being most important) than power numbers you get from the RR will be a good guide for you on race day. Bonus if you can augment that number with outside FTP testing between now and race. That said, it would valuable for you to test outside, regardless.

kortneyringel

Thanks Coach. That's really helpful. I was just looking at TSS/IF chart and was looking at around .83 since I expect my race-day split to be around 2:35-2:40... so yay, i used the chart correctly!

The hi tomorrow is only supposed to be 63F. I expect Race Day to be at least 25 degrees hotter than that while on the bike... by the time I'll hit T2, temps will likely be high 80s to low 90s. Obviously, whatever my wattage #s end up being tomorrow, I'll need to ratchet that back to account for the drastic heat differences. I will hit you guys up later on in the Race Execution forum to figure out how this will all play into the inferno of a race day it will be!

Thanks again.