jsigone

early morning session in NYC....first time on this course, the floating roads/hills are pretty punchy WOW. 15% grade really!! I still can't get my HR up there like outdoors.

Panic

Question - fairly new to Zwifting, well just finished my first month, and 130 miles. I haven't tested my FTP yet, sort of afraid of blowing up if I do it. Plus most days I have limited time - work gets in the way, so I don't want to start and not be able to finish it.

Almost all of my rides are under and hour, and I've heard that I need a good warm up before doing the FTP test.

Any advice?

Do I even need to do it?

Beachgrad05

Do the ramp test. It will take you less than 20 min most likely. If you have a Smart trainer and set it to ERG mode...will work great.

That is what I did and my FTP ended up pretty close to my estimated FTP on Strava (I use a power meter on my outdoor bikes).

Panic

Thanks.

How much of a warm up should I have before I do the test?

Beachgrad05

Here is info on test from Zwift Insider. https://zwiftinsider.com/new-ramp-test/

I think I just did built in warm up

Panic

Awesome! Thanks.

I'll do it Friday night. Was going to do it tonight, but dumb work call lasted 30 minutes. I was taking it easy, but peddling with the fan blowing. No one said anything.

Beachgrad05

I have workout #8 and one group ride/race to do to finish Zwift Academy 2019!

finished Workout #7 last night

jsigone

Last night I as few minutes late to a "gravel" race on there. I ran of of my workouts I had made up no really knowing the machine and my limits.
Mental note: when creating workout. Ramp downs for %ftp needs to be sharper than the ramp up. Ouch I didn’t think reducing watts slowly was going to not generate enough rpm and hurt so much!! I had to turn ERG mode off to release the clutch on the flywheel and spin out at recovery pace.

Further homework about ERG mode locking up says I should wait longer before overriding the setting or do a firmware update to fix. I haven't done a firmware on the machine out the box yet. I have done the standard spin down after the first ride results did not match my stages power meter. After spin down calculations, both powers seem even are darn near within the tolerance.

This was the "Rolling Wave" I created, 5min spin up FTP 5 min down, 10min spin up 115% followed by 10 down which I was thrashed and blew up, recover spin 5 min spin up to 125% and same thing happened, blew up and recover spin for a bit. Also got my HR 170 of 186 so thats goof and I didn't puke the pizza I just ate.

Panic

So I did the short FTP test. That's brutal. I made it to 360 watts and my legs mocked me.

I saw it pop up 170 FTP, but I can't find it anywhere.

Foolishly, I am hoping to do some races and see how that works. I'll get dropped like a hot rock in a hot rock dropping contest, but it's just for fun.

jsigone

FTP is a guide, plug in what you think your number is to one of the workout and see how it feels, drop down 5-10 watts next time to complete the workout if you have issues.

the first race I tried last week in C cat, I made it 7 of the 17 miles before I blew up. Wasn't the best idea to try after dinner and get in the red zone for that long. But while I was in there, felt like a crit races I used to do. Except there is no freewheeling and hiding in the draft. Funny even in the virtual world, there is allot of surging. I did recovery " race" last night, drop down to D and stayed around 75% ftp by the end of 26miles, Z2 on the heart rate. The pack was gone in the first minute and grupetto formed and stay together til half way then split apart on the punchy climb. That was my longest ride on the machine to date. I'm getting better mental endurance to this machine/app.

Panic

Plug it into a work out? I haven't seen a place for that yet, but I'll look tomorrow. Took today off, legs are a bit sore.

jsigone

if you look at the screen shot in this link https://zwift.com/news/122-workout-s...coaching-group

you can adjust the FTP by the test result or back if off for energy level. FTP # field is in the lower right hand corner. Or you can drag the FTP line on the graph up or down as well.

Beachgrad05

Once you do ramp test that FTP number should now be entered in settings as your FTP. You can adjust it if you feel too high or low I guess. I would suggest you see how things go based on what the test showed. See how workouts and races go then adjust from there?

With Zwift, they look at w/kg. So your FTP/weight in KG = your FTP in W/KG. Mine is 1.6 w/kg.



FTP from my ramp test is noted lower right

Beachgrad05

I graduated on Friday. I missed 2 stars on workout because of HR issue (put my HR strap on wrong part of arm so was dropping out. Tried to fix..and stopped and lost ERG mode. Took a bit to reset). Then my cat decided to be curious. She was fine until she went to drive side and I worried she’d stick her face in the chain/cassette.

Panic

This has probably been asked before.

Better to get miles in my legs before jumping into the hills or go straight to the hills or... option 3. Some HIIT?

Beachgrad05

I have been doing FTP builder 6 week Zwift workout plan. I did 2 PREP week rides and am now midway thru week 3. I have to finish week 3 workouts by Friday night as I am leaving for Washington State on Sat AM. Be back TUE and hope I won't get locked out of any week 4 workouts. According to plan...week 4 first two workouts are unlocked Monday AM. I get home TUE about 5pm. So hopefully I can get first one done TUE night and keep myself on schedule. Then I head to Palm Springs on Friday and come back Sunday. I might be able to get workout in on Friday before heading out to PS and do final one if needed when I get home on Sunday. There are 5 workouts in week 4. Tho one of them is active recovery and might be "optional"

I can't wait to see if this program has increased my FTP.

jsigone

when was the last time you tested? I just did my 1 month test, but following a 60min tempo ride instead of roll out the bed and test at 5am before coffee

Beachgrad05

I haven't done a ramp test since sometime at start of Zwift Academy. I plan on doing one soon. I think my FTP has gone up.

This is my last workout for week 3 of FTP builder that I need to do tonight. I fly out in AM to Washington to visit family.

jsigone

good job!!! Im still trying to get to level up for Alp D

Beachgrad05

So after flying to Washington state I got sick. I missed two workouts in week 4 as result.

I did mark one from week 5 complete and did later by choosing from workout list. May have had lingering issues from being sick. Had to pause workout in recovery sections during the 4 min at 100% of FTP.


The workout


My actual performance

expatbrit

Well. Winter. Dark at night means back to Zwift, but I took advantage of the Clever Training 20% off sale and swapped my wheel-on Vortex for a shiny (and bloody heavy) Neo 2. I'm mostly a workout sort of guy, so can't imagine I'll use the roadfeel much, but who knows. The glowy underbelly lights are pretty sodding cool, however. Like it. I'm sure I'll be able to test the 2000W limit and 25% or whatever insanity grade it can simulate any time now.

First thing, do an FTP test. Yeah, that worked out really poorly for me as I blew up. Apparently I was both tired, out of sorts, and have lost significant FTP in the last few months. Re-did it immediately after on the short test, and clocked in almost 40W low. Could be the new kit, but as above most likely I'm just out of shape and slow. At least it explains why in the 10% over my old FTP for 5m as 'warm-up' I just died, and even on the short one I was running a reasonable but not excessive 175 HR.




Now, I guess, on to the 4-week FTP builder to see if I can get back towards something semi-reasonable. I'll probably re-test before the end of the the 4 weeks just to see out of sorts I was.5
Finally, it's pretty funny with my grocery-getter bolted up on the direct drive -- rack installed, 9-speed Sora and all!

jsigone

photos of the new machine or it's all LIES!!

nice upgrade.

I'm not eager to do rainy weekday rides yet so I'll be on the zwift tonight. My FTP is still down from last yr, but I'm working on it. Speaking of, I need to do my monthly test soon.

Beachgrad05

Do the Ramp test. Much easier and is fairly accurate.

Congrats on the NEO2. I've heard good things. I'm on Kickr

TrojanHorse

Do some of the courses that have route badges - you get extra XP when you're done

https://zwiftinsider.com/route-achievement-badges/

TrojanHorse

Neo 2 or Neo 2T? I think there were some small issues with the 2 (nothing like kickr's issues last year) but I couldn't tell you what.

Those are cool looking monsters, that's for sure! Go do a race that's > 20 min and you'll figure out what your FTP is in a big hurry.