A full hour at FTP sounds like a fast-track to a heart attack.

Conner tried to ride his FTP on a GCN episode and even a fit young man couldn’t do it.

In my best Andy Coggan voice:

"Conner, you obviously overestimated your FTP."

kind of confuses what the FTP even is then, if you can't sustain it for an hour-ish.... clearly he was on the wrong side of the threshold

i will admit to not having the patience for youtube videos ! but the first bits of that one were interesting, including the tidbit “the 20-minute test was always a shortcut for what you could do for [around] an hour.”

if the 40K TT hadn’t been popular back then, would we all be using a different approximate length of time for FTP? 😄

This past Christmas eve - all full of cake and cookies, all the guests when home... I needed to burn some of the excess sugar out of my not so young, sorta fit diabetic body...

I loaded up zwift and rode at my estimated FTP for an hour, ended up doing a reverse split and was 20+w over my "FTP" for the last 10 min, and still had fuel in the tank, could have kept on going at the +20w level.

I think the answer to the OP's question - do you know your FTP? - after watching all the videos from all of the coaches and experts, after proving what they say in actual testing - the answer is no.

I think the best we can hope for is a range of +/- X%W (5%, 10%, 15%)?? And FTP timeframes for different people to actually be able to perform at said level - 40min to 1++ hour for different people.

I'm a diesel by nature - a grinder. I can maintain steady state efforts that are relatively high compared to my abilities. Higher intensity, short hard efforts don't end well.

My testing needs would be different from an explosive short effort type rider. They may crush the 20 min test, but fail completely at an hour long effort.

Best I can tell - FTP is a range that can vary from day to day, week to week. It's nothing more than a loose guideline to set training zones, or more importantly for guys like me - the average Joe - to set my power levels for long events.

I don’t know my FTP, but I do know both my 20 min and 1 hour max power. They are both a physical and mental challenge. I can easily be 20W down if I’m not in the right mood, even if physically at my best.

Not if we were trying to estimate the same physiological state ie lactate threshold.

I find it interesting how out mental state influences performance. As I mentioned in another thread, I ride a certain hilly route semi-frequently (because my area is plagued by hills, if you want to get anywhere) and there are a couple of double digit climbs that kick my behind. One day I introduced a more powerful friend to ride with me on that route, and I was amazed at how much better/faster I did the same climbs without feeling nearly as whipped at the crests. I am sure if I rode that alone, I would have suffered like usual.

I usually gauge my fitness by my power numbers and how I did on past segments. One thing I need to be mindful of is not pushing myself to the limit too often because of what I have read about those king of efforts leading to the calcification of arteries.

Yes, it definitely becomes a mental game when approaching our personal limits.

The science still appears to be inconclusive as to whether or not the net effects of pushing ourselves to the limit are good, bad or indifferent. I don’t worry about it too much at my level.

There are a few climbs which I cannot avoid which gets the HR into the 170s and 180s. For some unknown reason my max HR went up from 191 to 202 last year, which is contrary to the maxim for aging. Where I was completely gassed prior in the low 180s, I still have a small bit of power left now. I should talk to a cardiologist friend and see what he knows.

That is odd for sure. My max HR has been consistently around 195 for the last 5 years. I would be shocked if it suddenly went over 200. That’s where my max was about 25 years ago!

I presume you are using the same HRM this year?

have you lowered your blood pressure? either resting or during exercise?

A ramp test gives a pretty good estimate of ftp and doesn't take an hour. I have seen people report they rode their FTP for more than an hour and wondered what their real FTP is.

I'm still avoiding doing a test, it seems painful, even if it's just a ramp test.

i would put myself in that category - i never really go all out for any interval, and because of that the strava / other platform estimates of FTP were often below what i could actually go do for hours at a time. my power vs time curve is just very flat.

No, I don't know my FTP. I've tested two or three times on my smart trainer. Maybe I'll give it a try tonight. I'm betting it will be shockingly low.

I'm a randonneur, 64 y/o, not so fast anymore but then I never really was. A fast flat 200k for me is 8.5 hours, whereas in my peak form nine years ago it was 7.5.

I'm not motivated to train seriously; I ride one 100k and one 200k or longer every month, commute 8 miles daily, some jra 20-40 miles other weekends. Hilly around here so I get inadvertent intervals.

Thus far this is enough for me to finish 1200k brevets in the time limit, which is basically my goal. I should probably train but I'm not going to.

Yes, using a Garmin chest strap with the same unit for 5 years.

Not that I am aware of. Have not checked BP since last August, 127/66 which was considered low range of high.

I think if my HR max suddenly went up by 10 bpm I would seek some medical advice. It’s not supposed to be trainable ie doesn’t increase with fitness. Mine has certainly been a remarkably consistent hard limit for many years and is now slightly lower than it was in my 20s and 30s. But nowhere near the fabled 220-age drop-off.

Obviously some riders never go near their true HR max, but I doubt that you are in that category.

When you hit your new 200+ peak, does it come back down like normal when you back off or stay very high for any length of time. Are all your other HR zones unaltered?

It comes right back down immediately. I stay away from hitting the 200 area. Hit 192 and even that was too much. These day’s hitting the 180s is easy on hard climbs but again the HR comes right back down.

Appreciate the concern, and will bring up the anomaly with my cardiologist. Cheers

I’m sure you are fine. It will be interesting to hear what the cardiologist says about it. I don’t hold back when I hit my own limiter, but I do limit my exposure to Zwift racing, which is guaranteed to hit it!

Zwift racing is brutal, like blood sport. Absolutely no mercy.

40K TTs weren't that popular even back then -- they were, however, what Coggan especially liked to do. If he only did road racing (at which he was also pretty damn adept) it would have been harder for him to "calibrate" his efforts against something that was quasi-steady state. That he had lots of his own data files from both steadyish state and highly variable races enabled him to make that comparison.

I don't like the smaller races where I quickly get shelled off the back and have to tt solo to the finish. I prefer the bigger races where I eventually fall into a group that I can just hold onto.

So after reading this thread (muchly) I confess -
I don't know how to measure this thing = FTP.
Not sure it is considered meaningful anymore.
But, ... happy to learn that on the same machine as before, my 20 min performance is better, , than it was on Page 1.
FWIW, that's progress. I guess.

power to weight is still dismally laughable.

Yeah, figured that out early on... why I much prefer Rouvy.

Kudos to them too with their newly released version, vastly better visual display than what came before.