First Zwift FTP Test | Why do one? | New cyclist aged 40 

So best thing to do is make sure i have a straight chain line?

@@thewattlife Pretty much.

Most devices are better with small chaining because of the slower speed of the flywheel ! I personally find more realistic the big ring(also 52) as the small ring puts too much stress on the joints(i dont think it helps climbing as most say) even with rocker plate !

@@thewattlife Yes !

Nice man, anytime you want to link for a ride or a zwift race hit me up. Always keen

Definitely shows me that i have some work to do.... or some rest to do... cant quite figure it out but probably both!!

I havent heard of that. I was just going to jump into a simple Zwift training plan and then actually start doing some leg strength work and see how that panned out. My big gear ability is horrible... i feel like i need a lot more strength

Thanks man appreciate the advice

Fingers crossed. Would love to get up to 4 w/kg by the end of the year.

Hopefully get it up over 300 by the end of the year

@thewattlife will eagerly watch your progress mate!

Will give this a try and drop it a few cm's

Thanks kindly. Time to get to work with some hard training

Yeah i definitely need to get a fan. My weight is more an understanding of what my race weight and weight in general is when im training and being very active. I broke my leg last year so put on some muscle which will slowly disappear over the summer.

HR is very dependant on the individual, i have a friend who is 41 and will regularly get into the 200's.

@@thewattlifethis is extremely fascinating

Very fascinating, I'm 38 and also have a relatively low max hr of 165 as well. My other cyclist friends are closer to the 195-200 max hr at similar ages 36-41. For a while I was worried something was wrong with my lower hr!​@@thewattlife As ripped as you are what would that ftp be in w/kg?

Nice, i think knowing what the experience is like plays a part too. Im going to re-do one before the off season and then get a plan together

Yeah man i feel you when i comes to health and living a good life, there is definitely a balance, a lot of what i talk about is relevant to me personally. I spent a few years climbing as a sport and no longer really need the shoulder strength so theres definitely so areas i can change the shape of my body. Still planning on lifting some weights to build the power just wont be excessive with upper body sessions ;)

I feel like the odd max effort in a 90 day period isnt the biggest ask but i do know what you mean. I find that racing every now and again has helped. Also starting a new training program soon which should add to things. I I dont really worry about my FTP score as such, more my power curve

Thanks. Good to have a benchmark

I got myself a fan last week and its definitely made a difference to being able to hold top end watts while racing... retest my FTP next week too

Ohhhh thats great to know, so its not a contemporary thing then- its an all time. Makes it a bit better

Yup- there are several FTP tests you can do but a ramp test is a 1 min increase and then you'll be given a rough idea what your FTP is

I think a 'first FTP' is the base line. I have a follow up video from this one where i retest 4 weeks later, and then you can visibly see and measure the improvements ;)

Thats insane and great to know- i need to do more workouts on Zwift, i actually only managed to do a handful when i trained following this. Any workouts you particularly recommend?

@@thewattlife I just did the one from zwift the six week builder

@@thewattlife great video btw

Yuo i agree, i think i am just quite over trained at the moment and need some time off. So realistically it should be higher but its a good place to start. I am also quite new to cycling and broke my leg in Oct last year so this is an entire rebuild back up to fitness

Not too bad- i was 40 years old, 272, 181 cm and 79kg

@@thewattlife my wall was from 300 to 320, it was Like a Stop after 3 Seconds, i dont know If this is any different for the result, but i didnt Tell zwift to Stop ,zwift counted down Like 15seconds and than stoped by itself. I wanna Change my physics, wife and two Kids, and way to heavy. Allready lost 11kg in 18month only by chainging what i eat, now i wanna throw in some fittnes, for me zwift was perfect to get fast in the Bike and be by my Family all the time If necessary.

I do have a history of sport just not really cycling. I broke my leg and had to start cycling 🚴🏻

No idea how to do that?!

…wait- I have the Tacx Neo 2T which doesn’t need calibrating

Im going to try and do another ramp FTP test in a few weeks

I had only recently found out what an FTP test was and up until then had done no cycle training whatsoever. I started using Zwift after breaking my leg last year, in many respects cycle training/racing and events are very new.

Thats definitely on the card, i think the first time round though i thought it would be easier to do something that would give me a rough guide seeing as im new to all this. Hopefully doing one soon

I think the point is more that 20 min tests or even ramp tests are an abbreviated version of roughly finding your FTP while in a training block. Obviously not everyone is going to be able to taper for a week to then do a solid 60 min TT effort. I think of them as rough guides rather than hard and fast results. Also worth pointing out that a higher FTP doesnt always mean wins

What I have experienced is that ramp and FTP tests can produce different results, based on how rested or trained you are. The Coggan/Lim FTP protocol is half an hour long and allows a twenty minute effort and a calculated estimate of what one's one hour function power would be. Since getting everyone to do a one hour FTP in real world conditions is quite difficult, the Coggan Lim protocol was devised and is close to real world conditions

Because its not actually about ftp60, its about bar setting for interval, tempo or endurance work. Without doing an actual VO2max and Lactate Threshold tests there no need to really get on about ftp60 vs ftp20 vs ramp. All have very poor correlations in large high quality studies to any one physiological threshold. An ftp20 min can under or over predict (more likely over) "FTP" by as much as 20-40 watts. Meanwhile ftp60 min is basically useless for actual physiological threshold finding itself and for many can set you up for under-training during intervals. What FTP tests generally are good for is the same thing that fat% impedance sensor on a scale is good for, in its case not at all your actual lean mass, but over time tracking if you're making progress with regards to whatever your real lean mass happens to be. FTP testing is important in the sense that it sets your interval goals and with your heart rate you can see how well it does or doesn't track with your actual experience doing the exercises. Doing a 60min FTP to set your 'threshold' may make intervals far too easy for you, similarly doing a 20min test could set your interval goals far too high. Over time a person simply needs to be aware which test results in setting better goal watts for themselves during exercises and keeps them in the appropriate zones. They can then use repeat testing using the same test to 'raise the bar' and track their progress. You're less 'finding your fitness for an hour' and more asking 'which of these tests sets interval wattage that actually match their stated given zones to my performance'.

New to cycling but have a long history with sport- a broken leg meant I have had no choice but to cycle for the past year

@@thewattlife misleading title then.

@@Wargwarnhe's a new cyclist nothing misleading about it. He didn't say couch potato to cyclist.

Ive done many VO2 max tests- fundamentally the same thing. The idea of working right up to complete exhaustion and pushing well passed your comfort zone, its a horrible thought.

@@thewattlife I thought that's maybe what you meant but sounded it funny. My apologies I was a bit of a troll. I enjoyed the video though, now it's me who hasn't done one before and it's fearing the tomorrow when I have to face it!

Absolutely no worries, i just like riding my bike and sharing some content along the way. Im looking forward to my re-test but still about anxious about actually doing it