Tuesday morning I jumped on the trainer for a serious session. I was going to conduct 20 minute all out effort to attempt to obtain my FTP (Functional Threshold Power – the power you should be able to hold for 1 hour). I did a not long enough warm up with several spin ups for about 10 minutes. It was very early in the morning and still dark outside.
I started up the trainer with a 20 minute time period with a set inclide (slope) of 1 percent. This would allow for me to go as hard as I can. I out on my head phones, turned up the volume, started the vornado fan, turned off the lights and put dark songlasses on. I was going to pedal hard and try to zone out. These are very tough for me. It is a fine edge on how hard to go – I have failed many times by blowing up. It took a couple of minutes or two selecting gears before I found the sweet spot.
I then zoned out and tried not to listen to my legs. They were burning early on and I really wanted to quit several times. I took a glance at the clock and it had only been 8 minutes. I shut my eyes and kept pedaling. I was saying to my self that I would not look again until 3 songs had passed. The songs, although very up tempo, took forever. I was thinking that they must be the 12 inch extended versions (yeah – that is a vinyl reference).
Anyway, the next time I looked up it was 18 minutes. Just a couple of minutes more – this is where I know that I will be successful. I can do anything for 2 minutes.
I wrapped up the session with my legs quivering and exhausted. I will use this 20 minutes average power to build my winter training plan (average power for 20 minutes all out – 5% should give me my FTP).
Since I use a trainer that shows a power number this is really only relative to me. I can’t compare my number to your number because I don’t know the acruracy of my trainier. My like a scale at home – the number does not matter but the precision (repeatability) is what is important.
I did calculate my power to weight ratio (W/kg) for 1 hour. With my FTP is showed me as an untrained school girl. I think I have my work cut out for me this winter.
This is from the Training and Racing with a Power Meter Journal - this is funny to me -
HAHA, man I do NOT want to know what your FTP would rank me as. If YOU are an untrained school girl, I am probably a measly infant that can't reach the pedals!
ReplyDeleteThat sounded painful. I know what all out on the trainer is, I did this trying to hit my target HR. I couldn't breathe, think, see, haha, it was pure pain.
In that 20 minute session, I think you probably biked further than I would in an hour. Nice work.
what kind of power meter are you using?
ReplyDeleteI don’t have a power meter (yet) – but I use a Real Axiom Trainer that hooks up to a computer (kind of like a computrainer). You can program intervals with power like the ERG mode on the computrainer.
ReplyDeleteI typically do a 2x20 to do an indoor FTP as I find it provides better estimations. Realize also that outdoor power will be 10-15% higher than indoor. The number itself doesn't really matter much as compared to others but it is a great data point comparing yourself against yourself.
ReplyDeleteOf course, doing the test properly hurts. A. Lot.
sounds like a pretty grinding session, I like it !
ReplyDelete