Originally Posted by
jdms mvp
You could in theory, not ever test, but do workouts and gauge 'fitness' from there. IMHO as long as whatever number you work with to set zones is do able in efforts and workouts, that's probably the best estimate to your FTP. It doesn't have to be exact to a decimal.
That's me. I never test. The reality is that I do a bunch of different intervals depending on the particular goals, from 10 seconds to 20 minutes, and for each duration I have a very good sense of what my
PR is, what a repeatable effort is, and various shadings in between.
For whatever length interval, I pretty much know the number I can hit all day, which is lower than the number I can hit 3x in a row, which is lower than the number I can hit 2x in a row, which is lower than the number I can hit once and then not be able to finish the 2nd interval. I have a guess for what my FTP is, but I don't really care about whether or not it's accurate, because I would only be using it to calibrate those intervals anyway, and I feel like they are already calibrated.