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Functional Power Threshold – Part 2

05.06.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

In part 2 of his account of his FTP test, guest poster Don Blount explains how it works.

 Completing the functional threshold power (FTP) test opened a new world of cycling to me. I used to think of cycling as an endurance activity akin to running a marathon. I had worked at building my endurance through time in the saddle and not through specific effort.

I learned that cycling is a power activity more like running a series of short to long repeat sprints with easy to hard recovery efforts in between.

Instead of focusing on endurance I needed to focus on building power and while building power, I would build endurance.

The FTP test provided me with a base number to work with of 162 beats per minute.

So I went to work on building power through interval training at just below or above FTP. From what I could find that would be an effective way to train.

I rode four to five days a week. Two of those rides would be some type of interval workout. I did efforts as short as 3 minutes with 3 minutes rest and as long as 20 minutes with five to 10 minutes rest. I also did fartlek (random change of speed), hard rides into the wind and high gear, low cadence and low gear, high cadence rides.

I could tell I was making progress as the weeks went by but knew I was making significant inroads when I was capable of doing intervals as part of a 40-mile ride.

These workouts were hard and challenging but the variety kept it interesting and gave me more purpose instead of riding for fitness or to keep up with a group. I was riding against myself. Since most of my riding is alone, that was perfect for focus.

After a few rides I noticed that I was getting stronger. After a few weeks I held my own on a group ride of 45-miles with 2,600 feet of climbing. Four days later, held my own again on a 40-mile group ride with just under 2,800 feet of climbing. I was not the fastest up any hill but I made it up them all without that: “What am I doing out here?” feeling.

The best validation I received was when someone who I ridden with before said to me “You sure are riding strong today.” He remembered my struggles.

And 10 days later on a 57-mile ride with 3,200 feet of climbing a different rider said the same thing to me.

I was obviously more fit and more confident in the hills.

At the end of the six weeks, I did another FTP test. My heart rate was the same, which surprised me as I thought it would be lower, but my speed was much higher. My guess is a power meter would show that I was producing more power at that same effort level.

Next I did a recovery week of moderately-paced rides but no intervals.

My disclaimer is I put my program together through books, talking to a few cycling people and scouring the Internet. I don’t know if it is correct for you but it is working for me and I am having fun. That is good enough for me for now.

And all because I took a test.

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Categories // training Tags // FTP

Functional Power Threshold – Part 1

05.03.2012 by Ray Niekamp // Leave a Comment

Guest poster Don Blount tackles some heavy-duty training. In the first of two posts, he explains what it’s all about.

It was an offer that was hard to refuse. It was a test to determine my functional threshold power.

It would only take 10 minutes and it was free.

In short, functional threshold power, known as FTP, is a benchmark of the body’s overall efficiency. It is the effort a rider can sustain for about an hour before too much lactate accumulates in their system and their body begins to break down.

There are a number of ways to test it but Graeme Street, owner of Cyclo-Core and “Recognized Cycling Expert,” according to his video, was offering an opportunity to coach me through a 10-minute indoor test to determine my FTP.

You need a few things to do the test with the video: 1) bike trainer or rollers 2) power meter or heart rate monitor 3) speed/cadence sensor.

I used rollers and a Garmin Edge 305 bike computer with heart rate monitor and speed/cadence sensor.

I was ready. But the problem was that no matter what I did I could not get the video to play completely on any of the three computers in my home. Not a one. The video would begin and play for a bit, but after about 15 minutes, it would stop. I even emailed Street for advice but it still would not work. So I viewed the video on a computer away from my home network. I watched it several times and I took copious notes.

And then I tried it again.

I set up my laptop and rollers in my garage, let the video buffer and launched it again. This time it played, for a short time. The video went as far as the warm up before it froze again.

But by this time I was familiar enough with video’s content to finish on my own. It would have been more effective with Street helping me through it as I had too much left in the tank at the end. This was not a max test but still, I did not ride hard enough.

That test showed a FTP heart rate of 156 beats per minute. I used that in my workouts and it just seemed too easy. So a few days later I did it again and calculated an FTP heart rate of 162 beats per minute. I now use that figure for my riding.

If you are interested in testing yourself and have not done so before, let me warn you this test hurts! It hurts physically and it hurts mentally.

Click here if you would like to see this Graeme Street video. The site says you can take the test anytime within the next five days but the link has been up for about two months. The test itself is free but it also serves as a promo to Street’s training systems.

Regardless of whether you use this video or decide to do it on your own, an FTP test is well worth doing. I’ll elaborate in a future post on how it impacted my riding.

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