The race instead of the test

giannip said:

So the race was:

Time 58:43

TSS 99.5

IF 1.008

Would you say that's a good starting point to get a close value of FTP ?

The NP was 252

Likely just as good or better than your test would have been. 😉

Were you going hard the whole time? [Cat. 5?] If you weren't, then likely your FTP would be higher, of course.

-Eric

Hi

There weren't too many people at it and quite a few sat in. I did quite a bit of work to keep things goin + pushing the pace.

Didn't feel that good. Legs felt quite "dead" but just putting it down to not having the race speed etc.

+ it's not really an excuse but I ws on the "winter bike" while the rest were on their carbon fibre Pinarellos etc......😉 😄 . I'm leaving my racehorse in the stable untill mid-March

I suppose I could have gone a bit harder but happy enough. 4th place.

If correct then FTP has increasd by 10w or so in 8 weeks.

p.s how do you figure Cat 5 ?

So I've highlighted the race in CP (warmup included in the file). Just wondering, do I have to copy that data to a new file if I want to see 1,5,10,20min power just for that spcific time in the workout ?

giannip said:

Hi

There weren't too many people at it and quite a few sat in. I did quite a bit of work to keep things goin + pushing the pace.

Didn't feel that good. Legs felt quite "dead" but just putting it down to not having the race speed etc.

+ it's not really an excuse but I ws on the "winter bike" while the rest were on their carbon fibre Pinarellos etc......😉 😄 . I'm leaving my racehorse in the stable untill mid-March

I suppose I could have gone a bit harder but happy enough. 4th place.

If correct then FTP has increasd by 10w or so in 8 weeks.

p.s how do you figure Cat 5 ?

I do not race yet, but I have heard that Cat. 5 races are typically 'balls to the wall', so I was just curious. That is, less strategy, and more of working as hard as you can. 😉 But your race doesn't really sound like what I just described...

I would say your FTP is at least as high as you've measured, and possibly 5-10 watts more...

In WKO, you said you've highlighted the race data; if you have other times that have a higher wattage, then you'll either have to identify the ones in the race manually, or yes, copy them into another file.

-Eric

I suppose due to the low numbers, it was mostly a case of through and off the whole time. I tried to up or keep the pace going up the clmbs and whenever it slacked too much.

I'm in Cat 3 as I started again last year (slowly) after 8yrs off the bike and yes, it's usually a case of attack, attack, attack as there's no real team tactics.

so my question is now....could I safely set my FTP to 260 or should I set it at 252 as per NP of the race data?

giannip said:

so my question is now....could I safely set my FTP to 260 or should I set it at 252 as per NP of the race data?

Good question. Maybe some testing is in order.... 😉 😄

What was the AP of the race?

aargh 😄 😄 😄

erm, sorry still getting into al the acronyms. AP?

As in crytical power?

oh................average power ??

little slow this side...

average power was 212

man that was dumb! :eek: :o

[img]eireanndesign.iearklow.jpgOpen ↗[/img]

Screenshot of the race stats

any one else have more wise words to share ?

giannip said:

any one else have more wise words to share ?

On what basis would you choose 260W? If it was an all out effort for the hour, then 252W would be the upper limit I'd pick. Since you've already set FTP at 250W, not sure you've seen a rise on basis of this ride's data. However if it was comfortable, then yes quite possibly.

😄 I'm being over-exuberant.....

In my initial lab test I was given the figure of 243 for power at LT. I therefore decided to set ftp at 250 and do workouts according to that. While the race hard, I wouldn't say it was maximal effort for the full 58min so I was just thinking I MAY set it at 260.

I suppose I'm just opening up cans or worms by guessing like this.......(?)

giannip said:

I suppose I'm just opening up cans or worms by guessing like this.......(?)

You're the only one who really knows how hard you were going and if you had another 8w left for the whole hour. The Avg Pwr was only 212w, so you're relying on the NP and then extrapolating from there since it was a slightly sub-maximal effort. At this point I'd suggest picking a number ~245-260w and then seeing if you can support that number through your typical interval performances. As long as you're still able to complete your interval workouts, your FTP will hopefully build to that higher value by your next test anyway.

or I just have bad genes 😄

Can't think (or is that HOPING 😉 ) that there's no improvement at all in 8weeks..

Seeing as I have been working from a avlaue of 250 I will probably set it to 255 and go from there.

thanks!

What did your peak 1 minute, 5 minute and 20 minute powers look like? I see the peak 5 second from the screenshot, did that occur while contesting the sprint or jumping hard during the race? If 675 watts was your peak during the sprint, you should also be planning some L7 sprint workouts to bring that up a bit.

Taking a look at your 1, 5, and 20 minute best efforts, especially if they were fairly steady will give you some insight into your strengths and help you develop a plan to target your weaknesses. If for instance you did 260+ steady for a 20 minute or longer period then your new FTP estimate probably isn't too far off and you should be able to complete your 2x20s near that level, at least on good days.

Convert your 5 sec, 1 and 5 minute best efforts into W/kg and see how you line up on Coggan and Hunter's chart. Don't worry so much about what category the chart predicts, see whether you're stronger in the short, long or mid durations and figure out what you need to work on. If your FTP is near 250 watts and you're not really light then FTP is probably your priority but your results for the shorter efforts can help determine when and how much L7, L6 and L5 work you need as well.

Also take a look at how many times and how much you went beyond your FTP during the race. Try to remember if any particular efforts pushed you to your max or required you to sit in and recover. These are your matches and knowing how far above FTP you can go and how often helps tell you how many matches you have in your book. This should also help direct future training.

Ideally the race would have been larger and more competitive, but I bet there's a lot of good info in that race file beyond a current FTP estimate but you'll have to dig into it look at the data in creative ways and see what it can teach you. If this stuff doesn't make sense, you should reread Hunter and Coggan's book. If it still doesn't make sense you should hire a power savvy coach like Ric or others on this forum to help you interpret your results and plan accordingly.

Good luck,
Dave

Hi

I have the whole workout (including warmup) in the file, so I am trying to find out how ot extract just the race data so I can get the 5s, 1min,5min, 20min P numbers.

Knowing before the race that I would need some info, I do remember after some hard efforts and I did make a mental note of the time these happened.

What is not really light ?

I would weigh in at about 71kg (156pounds) now.

giannip said:

...I have the whole workout (including warmup) in the file, so I am trying to find out how ot extract just the race data so I can get the 5s, 1min,5min, 20min P numbers.

Seems a pretty safe bet that the peak power numbers occured during the race, not during warmup or cooldown. Just scroll down that same summary bar you posted, turn the eyeball icon on for every effort you want to investigate (1 min, 5 min, 20 min) in turn. Make sure the eyeball icons are turned off for all other segments. You'll see the selections colored black on your chart in WKO+ and that will tell you exactly when they occured. Right click the selected segment in the scroll table and you can choose to zoom segment to see just that part of your ride.

Quoted post said:

What is not really light ?....I would way in at about 71kg (156pounds) now.

Convert your numbers to watts/kg and hold them up to Hunter and Coggan's chart and it should tell you where 260W/71 kg or 670W/71 kg puts you against other athletes. Only you know if 71 kg is your ideal weight but you can pump up W/Kg by raising watts or dropping Kg either approach or a combo of both can help.

Your 4th place finish suggests you're on par or close to your peers, but digging deeper into your data can give you even more insight and suggest ways to improve.

-Dave

Thanks very I will be looking back this evening again.

I will probably have MORE questions....