My Latest FTP Test Results

On Saturday I checked my fitness by doing yet another FTP test.  The last test I did, in November, was OK but not what I had hoped for.  This time I was determined to do better.  I have been doing most of my indoor workouts over the last month on my “time trial” setup which is just my old bike with clip on aero bars and a “Fast Forward” seat post.  I have heard that you lose a bit of power in the aero position so I was interested to see what the results would be.

Ready To Ride

I woke up about 8AM on Saturday, had a couple of Eggo Waffles and a big cup of coffee then went down to the basement to do the test.  I got on the trainer and worked my way through the 30 minute warm up.

The 5 minute effort

Then the “fun” began.  The five minute interval started off pretty good.  I didn’t look at the Powertap a lot until the last minute.  I ended up with an average power of 342 watts.  That was about 4% better than the last test in November.  So far I was on track.

Twenty Minutes To Go

After 10 minutes of recovery spinning I started the 20 minute interval.  I really wanted to do better this time so I kept my eye on the Powertap to make sure I was going hard enough at the beginning.

FTP test 20 minute effort

I figured that in order to have a higher final number that I needed to be at least 290-295 watts through the 1st 10 minutes.  The last 10 minutes I figured I would try to pick up the pace as much as possible without blowing up.  As I started I felt pretty good but was definitely working very hard.  Halfway through I was averaging 291 watts.  I pushed hard through the end and ended up with 293 watts average for the 20 minutes.  Once again about 3% better than my test in November.  Taking 95% of 293 gives me a new FTP number of 279.  I rounded up to an even 280.  That will be my new “target” number for doing “sweet spot” and FTP workouts.

The File Please

For those of you that have the WKO+ software, here is the actual powertap file, January 17th FTP Test.  You can download it and see how I did.  Maybe it can help you do better in your training.

The Final Analysis

This test was better than the last.  I was much more used to the trainer and was able to dose out my effort better.  The results were very positive, especially considering I did the whole test in the “aero” position.  Depending on who you ask, it seems that FTP numbers in the classic time trial position, instead of in the drops or on the hoods of a regular road bike, are 1-3% lower.  If so, that means that I have improved fairly significantly over the last couple of months.

Of course, many people will say that all this FTP crap means nothing until you “put the rubber on the road” and actually use it in a competitive situation.  While I know through the testing that I am stronger I do want to see how that translates to an actual race situation.  On February 14th I will test my fitness in the Tundra Time Trial.  We’ll see how effective I am when I line up and attempt to complete the 10 mile course in as short a time as possible.