(techno music)
- If you've spent a little time doing triathlon or cycling,
you'll probably have heard the term "FTP."
But what on earth is it?
Well, in cycling terms, these three letter stand for
"functional threshold power."
And knowing your own FTP is a pretty powerful tool
for determining your training zones,
measuring your improvement,
and setting your rate intensities.
Simply put, your FTP is the highest average power
you can sustain for an hour.
But you will be pleased to hear
you don't have to do a 60-minute time trial to get your FTP;
there is a shorter test, the 20-minute FTP test.
And the nice thing about this test,
and probably the only nice thing,
is that anyone can do this, more or less anywhere.
There's no need to go into
a special laboratory to be tested;
you can easily do this yourself in your own time,
meaning you can retest regularly from time to time.
All you need for the test is a bike
and a means of measuring the power,
and that can be a power metre on your bike,
a smart trainer or a static gym bike with integrated power.
And from my experience, having a power metre on your bike
is perhaps the ideal, because it not only allows you
to do the test anywhere, it also allows you
to utilise your power metre and your new FTP data
on every ride.
Before anything, we need to make sure we do a good warmup
with a couple of hard efforts to really prepare the legs.
And this isn't the sort of thing
we can warm up for in five minutes, either.
You should allow yourself a good 15 minutes or so
to really make sure you're ready to nail the test.
The test itself requires you to ride
as hard as is sustainable for 20 minutes.
Now, there are a few different FTP test variations,
but the 20-minute test is a proven test
used by many of the pros,
and relates well to the style of riding we do in triathlon.
Now most importantly, make sure you record the effort.
Trust me; you do not want to lose this data.
You can even set a new lap on your bike computer,
or even a new ride,
just to make analysis of that data easier post-ride.
Now I've performed a fair few of these tests over the years,
both well paced and poorly paced,
and understandably it's easy to get overexcited
and fly out the blocks, or alternatively,
you could be a little overwhelmed by the idea of the test,
and start out a touch too easy
leaving a tonne of energy in the tank for the end.
Instead, you should aim for a consistent effort
throughout the 20 minutes, with an average power
identical from the first and second half.
Well, this is all very well,
but what should you be aiming for?
If you've done an FTP test before,
you may be able to gauge your current level off that
whilst factoring in your training to date.
And if you feel like you've moved on,
you may be able to start at 10 to 15 watts higher
than your average power from last time.
And then after 10 minutes, you can make a call
as to whether you maintain that or you push on.
But if this test is completely new to you,
well, you may need to go by fairly little.
It does take a bit of practise
and not everyone nails it first time.
However, if you're used to using heart rate or speed,
you could go by those numbers whilst recording your power
in the background.
Wherever you chose to do the test,
you want to make sure it's easily repeatable
for future tests.
And for that reason, many opt to do this
in a controlled environment on the indoor trainer
where there's very little disruption.
Or if you're like me, you may feel better out on the road,
and feel like you produce a higher power.
And whilst you tend to feel like you can produce
a higher power on the hills,
I would normally suggest trying to do this
on a relatively flat or rolling road,
so then your zones line up with the type of roads
that you're more frequently training and racing on.
Once you've completed your 20-minute effort,
the number you want to be looking at is your average power.
Now currently, that is only for 20 minutes,
so we want to translate that to your 60-minute FTP.
And to do that you want to take 95% of that average power
and you can do that by multiplying it by 0.95,
or you can input it into a number of online calculators.
And once you have your new FTP,
you can then calculate your training zones.
And again, you can do this
with a number of online calculators,
or even some training software will do this for you.
So there we go, that is what an FTP test is,
and how to do one.
And if you're planning on doing an FTP test,
best of luck, let us know how you get on
in the comments below.
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