Critical Power as an alternate FTP Test?
I was looking at the alternate FTP test methods listed in the Wiki, and I noticed that Critical Power seemed to be missing (or I'm a bit daft and missed it...very possible).
Is there a reason for this? The folks at Golden Cheetah seem to dig it. It makes alot of mathy sense to me too...
I am really struggling to find a suitable location for 2x20, so I have been using the 5/10/20 test. I'm wondering how that will compare to CP calculated as described in the Training and Racing With A Power Meter book. I also read that CP was originally determined using a 3 and 12 minute interval. I think I'd like to try to do a 5/10/20 test, calculate CP based on the 5 and 20, and then calculate it again based on a seperate 3/12 test and compare/contrast. There is value for me in figuring out FTP on the shortest stretch of road possible.
Any thoughts on using CP, or why we don't use it?
Comments
Also check out Rich's last post in this thread re: how he determines his FTP: http://members.endurancenation.us/Training/TrainingForums/tabid/101/aft/6449/Default.aspx
If you use CP, just make sure you convert your CP to 60 minute power and then you can use that to be your FTP in the EN training and racing zones. I am personally now doing a 3' and 20' test to calculate CP using the monod methods. I've also done 1', 5', 20' and just 5', 20' in the past. Any combination will work as long as you have a short anaerboic effort and a longer effort as well. My CP came out to 281 after my most recent test and that equates to a 285 60 minute power or FTP.
I personally like this calculator, but there are many available if you just search google. http://www.cyclingpowermodels.com/MonodCriticalPower.aspx
Also, I'm a strong believe in validating your FTP in training. what I mean by this is it is possible to have a great (or horrible) test. Therefore I watch my power distribution charts and pay attention to how many watts I can hold ever day in training. There are times that I have had a great test and really struggle to hold that power and other times I have no issue hitting my targets over and over. This helps me to fine tune my FTO prior to a race to ensure I'm using the best possible estimate I can.
Jennifer - thanks for the links, I hadn't read the first one from William.
Matt - As always, awesome information, thanks! That website just gave me something to do at work for the next few days.
So, yes, I'll definitely take your point about validating FTP in training to heart. The engineer in me doesn't like to accept that things like FTP are squishy, estimate type numbers that need to be honed in on, rather than written in stone...but alas that seems to be the case.
To be clear...
We are trying to determine Functional Threshold Power, FTP, the watts you can hold for 60 minutes. You then train at a percentage of this number.
Fine, in training, to be off by a few watts. It's training, you're on a bike, what's the worse that could happen?
But when it comes to calculating race pacing as a percentage of FTP, you want to be absolutely sure that you're working with/from FTP, ie, 60' power.
So, test it, call it anything you want but at the end of the day, on race day, you want to be working from the watts you can hold for 60' with a gun to your head. The danger I see is everyone SWAG's their own little test, FTP determination protocol, definitions get mixed up, and a member reads something from Friel about CP30, calcs 75% of CP30 as their IM pacing and goes poof on race day.
See my four methods article in the wiki. I have other informal methods based on my experience with local TT and training routes. But at the end of the day the ultimate test is my/your experience of having your nose and dial and knowing what you can hold for 60'. This is the validation of all the other methods. If you doubut the numbers that tests or data analysis give you...dial it down, saving those watts for the run.
Not saying you are, but it seems to me lots of folks around here have been trying to work around doing the 2x20' test for an assortment of reasons.
While I do the 5/10/20 test in the winter on the trainer, outdoors, I go out of my way (literally) to find roads where I can get a super close approximation of the 2 x 20 (2') test. My three sites are all at least 8 miles from home, so usually require some driving. The first is a rolling road with a good shoulder no lights for 7+ miles, from sea level up to 300'. Coming back is often a little fast, and I finish a bit too soon, but it works. Second is a public road through a military base with a wide shoulder, and involves a hill at the start, and an out and back section and another turn. Again, as I can't hit the out and back on the return trip, I kinda do it as a 21/2/19 ride. The third is a six mile out and back course insdie the military base, which I do as 16/2/16 do, so i fudge the # a little, and it's not really my "official" course.
I eschew doing an FTP test on a continuous uphill, as my cadence and wattage don't really match what I'm trying to do in a race.
My point is, it's impossible to find a road which is perfectly flat, or even perfectly amenable to exactly 20'. Working around the edges of what's possible is better than not trying the hardest test, IMO.
I actually tend to have stronger results doing 2x20, the times I have pulled it off. I wouldn't call the 5/10/20 easier than the 2x20, just different. The 5 minutes all out in the 5/10/20 test makes the 20' effort very difficult IMO. 2x20 is plenty painful too though
I can't normally flip the 20' section of road because of very strong winds. Sometimes (rarely) the weather does cooperate, but like Matt was saying, it's probably best to pick a method and stick to it. Doing 2x20 indoors is a possibility of course, and because we tend to make less power indoors, that may just be my best option. I'd rather be 10 Watts under than 10 Watts over. This has been an issue every time I've tried to test outdoors, so I'm going to have to figure out something that consistantly works for me and put it to bed.
I saw the other topic about power testing in this forum, and it looks like it got pretty heated, so I suppose my question came at a bad time... but believe me, I'm not trying to avoid work here. Rather, I'm just trying to get solid numbers I can use to race off of, and learn in the process.