genejockey 

I re-did the Half Monty tonight. Last time I did it, it gave me an FTP of 228, which is 28w less than I got from the last Ramp Test I did on Zwift, which was disappointing. So, last night I did a workout called "Primers", which is supposed to be good for big efforts the next day. And tonight I did "Igniter" as a warmup. Of course, this was all based on a FTP of 228, so they were easier than they would have been.

The Half Monty consists of a Ramp done in Erg Mode, and then a 20 minute sub-threshold ride done in "level" mode where you have an HR target to maintain.

So, comparing last week and this week, I went one step farther on the Ramp. On the 20 minute sub-threshold effort, the HR targets were the same as last week, but I ended up putting out about 26 more watts for 20 minutes to maintain it. The overall result was that my new FTP is 250w, 22 watts higher than last week and only about 6 w less than I'd done on Zwift. When I looked at HR and power, it was interesting - my max HR was just the same, but I hit it at 346W instead of 333. And as I said, I had to put out 26 more average w to maintain exactly the same average HR.

It does make me wonder. I doubt I've magically grown 22 w worth of FTP in 7 days, but higher power at the same HR, compared with 7 days ago is intriguing.