I did an FTP test today. I do these every 6 - 8 weeks and the idea is to find out what level of power I can sustain whuile riding the bike, which feeds into what power levels I will train at for the in between weeks. I do these tests using trainerroad.com - it's convenient, I can watch TV, I don't have to worry about traffic lights, cars, etc. I just watch the coloured light and listen to the beeps - green means I'm in the right power range, red is not so good. Beeps to start, beeps to stop.
I didn't expect much of a change - I've been in a training slump recently and have not done much bike training, but I did do a run in the morning which I thought would affect my figures adversely.
The early warm up section was a struggle and I wondered if I should pull the plug but the main set went really well and I got a great result - FTP moved up from 184w to 197w. I started at 168w in early June so that's an increase of 29w in 2 months - I'm pleased with that.
However to hit my goal time in my race in late November I need to be at around 235w - 250w FTP. For half ironman effort I will aim to maintain 80% - 85% of FTP - around 200w - for 90km. See the Ribble calculator for details (thanks for the link Simon!). So I need to improve by another 40w in the next 4 months, while also ramping up my swim, bike and run volume. A tough ask but no-one said this would be easy.
Anyway, here's the session on TrainerRoad.
| View from the bike, watching 'Following' |
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