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Old 06-12-19, 06:07 PM
  #13561  
Heathpack 
Has a magic bike
 
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Los Angeles
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Bikes: 2018 Scott Spark, 2015 Fuji Norcom Straight, 2014 BMC GF01, 2013 Trek Madone

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Originally Posted by Hermes
Testing...I have yet to take a "test" and not feel anxious and then become affected by the outcome - good or bad. I do not want my brain to ever think...for even a microsecond that an FTP test is a limiter. But I know it will. So I trick my brain with the idea that FTP is just a sign post on the way to another place. It is a suggestion not a law of physics. I think this is very important differentiation otherwise, I am only as good as I test which I have proven not to be true.
I essentially ride tests quite frequently, in that I do regular 20K TTs and a fair number of long intervals. I’m also totally game for riding a test whenever, just rest up and do it, if for some reason it was important to do so. But mostly my numbers are set off routine training or racing efforts, just like yours.

To me FTP is such a loose concept- there’s an FTP for the road bike and a different on for the TT bike, one for an aggressive TT position and one for a less aggressive position, for normal altitude and for high altitude, for trained-to-40K-distance vs trained-to-some-other-difference. FTP doesn’t even literally mean much to me, because I’m mostly racing some distance less than 40K and then I’m going to race some percentage of FTP that will depend on a lot of factors- temps, time on the course, wind, rest, preparation, familiarity with the course, and so on.

FTP is useful to set training numbers and you really do have to have a number. But I agree it doesn’t define what you’re going to do out on the race course, or what you’re capable of.
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