Determining FTP
From an email conversation with some local athletes: former clients, training partners, PM customers, etc.:
Always kinda tough to back into an FTP using a race result. Sprint and Oly, yes. HIM and IM are a different story. The methods of determining FTP, that we use, are:
- FTP Test: we like 2 x 20' with 2' rest between each. Flat course. Create a range of that 42'. Pnorm of that range = your FTP.
- 95% of a 20' TT, but this can be kinda tricky unless you have a lot of data on one particular venue. For me, it's Chantry. I know that if I subtract 7% from my best TT effort up GMR, this is usually right on my real FTP. Why 7% and not 5%? Personally, I know that climbing TT vs flat is worth an extra 2-3% watts. I, and most of us, just put out more watts on a climb vs a flat TT. So when I start to see intervals on Chantry > 1.07 IF, I know it's time to bump my FTP up.
- Power Distribution Chart in WKO: customize the chart to use 5-10w bins vs the default 20w. Then look for the large drop off in power = your FTP.
- Mean Maximal Chart: customize so that it's using Normalized Power. This chart will tell you your highest power for all time periods. Slide your mouse along the line until you get your best power for 1hr.
- Peak60: I also run a chart that displays my highest Peak 60 power (normalized) for the season.
- The Gun Test: when I do intervals, hard pulls, etc, ask yourself "If someone had a gun to my head, could I hold this for one hour?"
Notes:
- Mean Max and Peak60 are more useful for someone who is doing lots of "freerange" riding, ie, you get on your bike and hammer lots and lots. Formal interval training will make these methods less useful, as you're not likely to rack up a solid 60' period of high watts. For example, in the winter many of our folks are on trainers doing very formal intervals, so they stack up huge amounts of watts in very narrow wattage ranges.
- Ideally you are using several methods. For me, for example:
- I do an interval on Chantry and get an IF of 1.09-10. That's a red flag that I'm ready for a bump, call it going from 270w to 280w FTP.
- I check my Power Distribution Chart and the drop off on the chart confirms the bump.
- I check the Mean Max chart and, yep, at 1:00 of ride time I see a mean maximal power of 282w.
- On my Peak60 chart I see a P60 in the last couple weeks of 280w.
- Gun Test says that I "could" hold 275-280w for an hour.
- So I call it 280w, change it on my WKO homepage, effective today, change it in my Ergomo and just observe how the numbers look/feel over the next few rides.
- If I were doing this before a major race, I might call my FTP = 270-275w vs 280w, calc my watts from there, "banking" 5-10w that I just don't spend on the bike.
For you, with a Computrainer and a Powertap:
- Powertap is your primary tool. Fine to do intervals on the CT, but you download the data from the PT, not the CT. Download every ride from Powertap into WKO. Every. Ride.
- Typical "good" HIM pacing is 80-85% of FTP....but that range is a probably 20w wide, which is why it's tough to back into an FTP from a race file like this. Better to figure out your FTP first, calc pacing from that, rehearse it once or twice, race, download the file and just look at it as a race file, not an FTP determination exercise.
Basically, EVERYTHING in power training and racing hinges on the accurate determination of FTP. WKO has many tools to help you figure it out if you just download every file and run the proper charts. Training with power and not downloading and looking at EVERY ride is you basically training with a fancy Cateye.
If any of you say "but Sawiris said I should be doing this..." I'm going to kick you in the nuts. That's a promise.
Here endeth the lesson,
Comments
Make this a perment post? Awesome. You're on fire these days, Coach Rich.
I read this article once from a pro triathlete, should I do what he does as he is a pro and I want to be just like him
I mean all the magazines says he is the best.