Time to test watt I can!
After weeks of training, without skipping any training or interval prescribed by Join, I as starting to feel stronger. Riding with a power meter now helps me to monitor and feel the effort I was doing in terms of power output compared to my RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion). My RPE was going down, while I was pushing harder in my interval. So it was time to do a test and see if my current FTP (270 watts) was still a good baseline for my training schedule. Every training is based on that level.
When you plan a FTP test in Join it will already keep the day before free, so you are well rested for the effort. It plans a good warm-up routine of 15 minutes so you are ready to go! Travelling back from the USA on 2 nights ago did make it a bit tricky, but I was well rested this morning. No signs of a jet lag. There were signs of nervousness though, somehow the prospect of suffering for 20 minutes is not a ride I look forward to (not sure if anybody does).
An effort of 20 minutes is something you need to pace well in my opinion. Starting to fast and you collapse or starting to slow and you have the feeling you missed out on something at the end. So when I started I felt I was going to hard, the power output was way above my current FTP. It took me a couple of minutes before I decided that or my power meter was broken or I was just feeling really strong today. So keeping it steady on 340-350 was the plan....
After 10 minutes it started to hurt, not in the legs, but the longs started to really hurt. So not really sure if I could this up till the end, I decided to just accept the suffer fest for another 10 minutes. Its only temporary, right? Looking back at the power data I kept my output very steady until the last minute, even pushing a little harder in the last 30 seconds. To be honest, the contents of my stomach were close to exiting the way it came in this morning. But I just managed to keep it in 🤮...
I wasn't really sure how the FTP would be calculated after the ride, I think its something like 90-95% of your avg power for 20 minutes. So coming home, I was really surprised when uploading the file to Join, it said my FTP had increased from 270 to 326 😲. That is so far above my end goal for the Cape Epic, it was really unbelievable! I knew training pays off, but this is almost an increase that feels more like a data error. So let me put it a bit more in perspective:
- If you want to compare test, you need do to the same type of test every time. My first 2 test were FTP ramp tests, this was a 20 minute FTP test.
- The first 2 test were done on an indoor trainer and this one was done outside on my MTB. So 2 different devices to measure it and in 2 different environments.
I'm pretty sure I will score a lot less indoors. Indoor feels a lot harder for me. And if you ask ChatGPT, it will tell you this is because of outdoors you can use more muscles groups because the bike is not that static as indoors. Also heat regulation and perception of fatigue is different.
So although I'm really happy with the result. We need to take it into perspective that conditions were different. And of course I will do all my FTP tests outside for 20 minutes from now on 😉. It's way more motivating to work on this (slightly overrated) FTP.
I was just on the phone with Ingmar. He will do an 18 hours ride today to close the gap! Haha, a little competition is good right?!!
Keep chasing!
