I need some clarification. It says do the ramp test until you can’t pedal anymore. What happens when you can barely pedal AND you’re not actually hitting the watts it wants? Do you just keep going anyway or is that the time to stop?
No if you can’t hit the wattage target it is time to stop
The ramp test use your best 1 minute power.
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Yeah, that’s what I figured. I just wanted some clarification. Thanks.
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Always wondering.
When I stop pedaling, my flywheel keeps turning a bit longer. And I see my average power declining.
Is this affecting the calculated FTP?
No, because the ramp test is looking for the power that you sustained, and trailing off at the end isn’t going to affect anything.
Ah, that makes sense for some definition of “best”. That was confusing me given the game, during the ramp test, talks about trying to grind out even 10s more if possible.
Thank you.
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What I find hard about the ramp tests, at 59kg, is that the ‘lite’ version does not go high enough for me to fail and the ‘standard’ version, with 20w increments to too difficult to get the final ‘best min’. For example, last week I completed the ‘lite’ version without failure, I think I would have completed the 260w step and then failed in the 270w step, had those been available. I know, from experience, that I would not make 30sec of 270w step in the ‘standard’ version’, so the best min would still have been 250
Build your own with 12 or 15w increments. All its doing is taking 75% of your best 1min through a depleted state.
The FTP best minute power is not taken from the last full minute of the same power you finished.
If you can only manage 30 seconds of the 270w minute you will find your FTP is based on 75% of a 260w average. [ 30 secs of 250 and 30 secs of 270]
Oh, ok, I hadn’t realized that it was using a ‘running average’ of the ride.
Ramp tests tend to work best for people with higher percentages of fast twitch fibres. If you’re more endurance oriented with more slow twitch fibres then a a more traditional FTP test might give a more accurate result.
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If you can only manage 30 seconds of the 270w minute you will find your FTP is based on 75% of a 260w average. [ 30 secs of 250 and 30 secs of 270]
What does “manage” mean here, though? If we can’t hit the power requirements, are we then not managing? There is a lot of confusion around this topic. It’d be great if Zwift maybe did a walkthrough / example with numbers. I’m really trying to figure out if, despite not hitting the required power, I should’ve kept peddling. I was close already, but stopped mainly because I was way under-performing compared to the power target.
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it won’t make a huge amount of difference; and
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the FTP number you get at the end of a ramp test should be sense-checked as a matter of course. Either do the Zone Benchmarking workout a day or two later or - even better - do 2 × 15 or 2 × 20 at 100% FTP. If you can’t do the workout at an RPE of, say, 8/10 your number is too high and you should lower it, otherwise all you sweetspot intervals will be threshold and all your threshold work will be supra-threshold.
I suppose my meaning of manage in this FTP test situation is - can I keep putting out enough power to keep the last minute average power going up.
Once your power output falls below the on screen 1 minute power average then you are no longer managing to increase your last minute average power so that is the time to quit the test, IMO.
Maybe it depends on the equipment you have? I have a smart trainer and use erg mode so I quit when I get the death spiral and basically grind to a halt. I guess if I had a power meter and was managing my own resistance then I would probably keep going until I could no longer manage to produce approximately the asked for wattage.
That’s basically what I did with ERG: kept peddling until it was clear I wasn’t going to hit the power target. But it’s a bit confusing when the text prompts talk about toughing it out for just 10s more even. To what end? If you’re well below power targets at X, you’re not going to hit them at X+1 with another 10s. So, as Ian said, if I can’t hit the power target I quit. Probably another 20W and I wouldn’t have been able to peddle anyway. It was extremely laborious without standing.
The prompt is trying to get you to eke out another 10s at the power specified by the test. If you aren’t hitting the numbers and you’re in ERG mode you’re going to hit the spiral of death, so the prompt is just trying to let you know that a few more pedal strokes at the current set power will have an impact on your last 1min power. But if you can’t hit the target power then the test is basically over.
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