FTP power for winter training

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 -