Oldsport

So I just received my power meter in the mail yesterday. I went out for a ride and elected to do an FTP test on my Garmin 1030. After a warm up, I was expecting to do a 20 min all out effort to get my FTP score. However, the Garmin put me on an interval test for the FTP. There were (I think) 5 four minute sections. During each section the instructions were to achieve a certain wattage range for 10 seconds. At the end of the test Garmin informed me that it could not determine my FTP.

I could not find any instructions as to how to do the test. Do I need to stay seated the whole time or can I stand? I had a very hard time staying in the 10 second zone. I could achieve the power, but I exceeded the upper limit. This is probably because I was standing during the harder intervals. Do I need to stay seated? Any instructions on how to do the test for the 1030 would be appreciated.

gregf83 

macca33

As gregf83 said, just ride around with it for a short period to assimilate yourself to power and understanding what it all means.

If you're using Garmin Express, or Strava, after a number of varied rides, they'll indicate your 'rough' FTP, which may assist when it comes time to do an FTP test, ie, gives you an indicator of the number you need to strive towards during your test.

Then, find a suitable piece of road (flat if possible), or a velodrome, do a good warm-up and ride as hard as you can for twenty minutes. No need to do an 'FTP test' on your Garmin, just ride for at least twenty minutes at a level where you'll be fully depleted at the end. There is no real 'secret' to an FTP test - apart from the fact that they always hurt.

Cheers

firebird854

Hey, it seems that your garmin was trying to walk you through some warmups for the effort. Realistically, the formula is your best 20 minute power *.95, as this will give you an approximation of your hour power. You could of course just ride as hard as possible for an hour, then you will know your FTP.

Also, be wary of your "average" power for these efforts because unless the course is flat and your effort is 100% consistent, there is a good chance your weighted average power will be a better indicator, weighted average power is defined as follows: "When you ride with a power meter, you'll notice how your power jumps all over the place based on the terrain, grade, wind, and other factors. Weighted Average Power looks at all of this variation and provides an average power for your ride that is a better indicator of your effort than simply taking your average power. It is our best guess at your average power if you rode at the exact same wattage the entire ride." I believe Garmin shows this as "normalized power", I frankly recommend simply using strava for this value.

Also, if you're too lazy to do a 20 minute effort and multiple the weighted average power by .95, you could sign up for Xert, it autocalculates your FTP based off of your power history, you would need some history though...

rm -rf

I like the free software Golden Cheetah. It's easy to get started, just import your ride recordings. There's a lot of standard charts and trends pages, and you can customize them quite easily. There's a huge amount of data available in GC, but most of it can be ignored if you just want to see how you are doing. Got a question about some of the calculated numbers? It's easy to google for definitions and discussions.


I don't do any formal training. My main uses of GC:

The Critical Power graph. This shows my best power for any time period from a few seconds to the longest ride I've done. The selected ride is overlaid so I can see how it compares to my other best efforts. The 60 minute Critical Power is quite similar to FTP. I like seeing how my current ride compares to my best efforts at short or longer time intervals. These numbers will be likely be somewhat lower than the real FTP if the data comes just from rides of various lengths that don't include a 20, 30 or 60 minute all-out effort to set FTP.

The ride map can show where my strongest efforts on the selected ride occurred.
Custom intervals can be selected from the map or from the charts.

The Trends pages show changing values over time of Critical Power and various aerobic and anaerobic time interval. And a selection of various training stress scores. I changed the pages to show a full year of trends. I felt unusually slow this spring, but now I can see I'm hitting the same numbers that I did last summer.

GC can calculate power numbers for different heart rate zones, too.

I have a customized ride chart showing Power, W' Balance, Heart rate, Speed, Cadence, Elevation, Grade, and Normalized Power. (W' Balance is sortof an estimate of the short term power reserves I'm using up that replenish during the ride. Normalized Power is more useful than average power especially when the power varies a lot.)

I have the ride summary configured to locate the best power interval of that ride in a list of time periods. 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 seconds, 1, 5, 10, 20, 30, 45, 60 minutes.

I now have a good idea of the power levels I can maintain for 30 seconds, for 5 minutes, or for an hour, etc.

A Critical Power Graph example. The red shaded area is my best power at each time interval, selected from the last 12 months (or can be the current season). The red line is the selected ride, and the white line is an interval from that ride. You can see I matched or set my best efforts for the year at the 30-40 second range, and around 5-6 minutes. (I trimmed the edges of the graph page, cutting off my pitiful watt ranges.)

f4rrest

Strava premium also supplies a CP curve if you have a PM.

Riveting

If you have a premium account with Strava (or any other software that compiles a power curve), just look at your Power Curve for a given ride, or for a specific date range, go to the 20 min. mark on the curve, get that wattage value, multiply that value by .95, and that's your "calculated" FTP.

The wattage value at the 60 min. mark on your power curve, is your "actual" FTP.

wphamilton

Ride hard for an hour and see what the power is.

rubiksoval

Just ride around with it for a while, as mentioned. Riding with a powermeter is a very revealing thing. Watch how much time you "waste" by not pedaling. It can be a shocking amount. Try various durations over the next few weeks. Try sprints, 1 min, 5 min, etc. Try standing and seated. Get used to what the numbers are showing you for a particular effort. Then you'll have a better idea of how to actually "test". Testing is a process that generally has quite the learning curve itself.

With all that said, 20 minutes is not an FTP test, anyway. It's a 20 minute test.

If you want to test FTP, shoot for 40-45 minutes all out. That'll give you a much more accurate representation of FTP.

firebird854

Umm... nice graph... I kind of wanted to see your power numbers though...

redlude97

Strava premium also has a power curve and estimated FTP function I found reasonably accurate for me compared to 20 min tests. Agrees with my CP chart from golden cheetah too.

Oldsport

There is some great information in this thread. Thank you for your help.

I will plan on riding around for the next few weeks and taking a look at some of the programs out there.

sdmc530

This is a great indication of your FTP...be warned though, it is a soul crushing test! I did this and I was shocked how weak I was.

rubiksoval

Precisely! 20 mins is not even in the same ballpark! Especially if you're a faster-twitch guy.

colombo357

Try the TrainerRoad ramp test, which is live now on their app.

You've already got a PM, so all you need is a stationary trainer.

colombo357

FTP for most of us is a theoretical, physiological limit. We simply don't have the mental fortitude to hold FTP for an hour, or even 40-45 minutes, even if our bodies could.

Doing a 40-45 minute all-out test is going to be counterproductive for someone new to training because it's going to result in a massive under-assessment.

rubiksoval

How will it be an under-assessment? It'll be an accurate assessment. Your ftp is NOT 20 minutes. I don't even remotely understand your thinking, here.

This is exactly the issue with FTP. People want these ridiculous, inflated numbers to brag about on the internet, but then they can't do anywhere near the power they claim to be able to do. It's so silly.

ddub

Have you done the ramp test? If so, did it correspond to your current FTP done with the 20min test?

colombo357

Under-assessment in terms of a baseline for training.

Follow some sweet spot intervals, e.g. 4x10, at an under assessed FTP, and you'll basically be doing tempo intervals with very little gains.

colombo357

Yes, it tested higher, but it's very repeatable and correction is a simple.

The ramp test basically finds your VO2 max power and estimates your FTP at 75%. For me, it's closer to 70%. YMMV.

rubiksoval

So you want to make up an FTP and just train based on what you think it should be?

That's a pretty backwards way of training and not at all in line with pretty much anything that makes sense.

And having to break sweetspot into 4x10 means it's too hard, not too easy. You don't need to take breaks at a proper sweetspot pace. Your numbers are way all over the place.

Jazzguitar

colombo357

ok.

sdmc530

While I am not an expert in the field at all but I couldn't agree more that this statement. I have played with these tests lately because I got a power meter finally. My 20 min FTP was 299 on my indoor trainer, 299!! I was like there is no way in heck I have a FTP that high. I went out doors on a pretty flat route and did it again, Garmin 520 said my 20 minute power for that run was 293. HOLY Crap,.....still in disbelief. I talked to my LBS buddy and he said now do the same test for 1 hour, indoor and out door. This was where the spam hit the fan and my soul was crushed. Indoor 1 hour FTP indoors was 273...I was still pretty proud of this number actually but still not exactly stellar really. The outdoors FTP test was much worse, was 256, not stellar at all. I am going to repeat the rounds of 4 test this fall just before the riding season ends for outdoor and see how it plays out. A true 1 hour test is such a difficult thing to do because of the toughness and the boredom actually, really hard to stay motivated for that long at full power.

Just wanted to put in my 2 cents.

gregf83