Originally Posted by
Sierra_rider
Reminds me of when I set my best 20 minute power this season. It wasn't set during an FTP test, but just from me riding up a 30 minute long, steep gravel climb...where I was only trying to not let my cadence fall too low. It blew my actual FTP tests out of the water, even though I was arguably more fatigued during that ride, and I actually held the power over 30 minutes instead of 20.
At first, I thought maybe something was wrong with my power meter. Once I determined that the data was likely correct, my perceived effort level seemed to drop in comparison to power, on subsequent rides. My takeaway from it, is that our brains can be both helpful and a hindrance to our performance.
Same here - I just set my 30 min PB a few weeks ago. Out of the blue, no preparation, I decided on the way to the bike path to do a 10 mile TT. Started below threshold, or what I believed to be threshold, and ramped up from there. At mile 6 I was well above what I thought my threshold power was, at mile 10 I was above that, at mile 15 I was even higher, and I had more left in the tank. At mile 15 I was pushing 20% more than my last 20 min test average.
I typically fail miserably at planned FTP tests.
That being said, I did push close to 1700W on a sprint one day - I was blown away by the number and thought I had superhuman strength. The power meter batteries were dying, I knew this, but they blipped out a reading that I in no way was capable of.