What is your relationship with your FTP? How do you use it, as a tool?
I don’t push the last part of my FTP tests (I loose 10, perhaps 20 W that way), and I like to deduce 15-20 Watts from the results anyway. That way I can do my workouts easily and enjoy myself here on Zwift. I am not competitive in nature, I never race (neither on Zwift or in real life), none of my friends, coworkers or family members even train at all and of course, none of them even know what an FTP is.
I recently realized that I like to “go up a zone” with my workouts. So my zone 2 training I like to do in zone 3, my tempo in threshold etc. Thus my FTP is probably lower than it should be and I was doing myself a disservice with purposefully lowering it.
I was wondering how do you use your “magical” FTP number?
Do you push yourself to the limit with your FTP tests, to get the highest result possible?
Do you hold back like I do?
Do you care about the endurance side (holding it for 40 mins+)
or the peak power (your zone 6 & zone 7)?
in general: What is your relationship with your FTP?
There are physiological differences in how your body reacts to time spent in different zones. It’s not really a problem to make your workouts easier, but they will be less effective. If you’re just in it for fun and good health then it’s probably not important. If your “zone 2” workouts are actually tempo then you’re losing the benefits of zone 2 training, which are substantial. It’s also worth pointing out that zone 2 training is about keeping your heart rate in zone 2, and that is not always the same as your zone 2 power level. This is a pretty good overview of why to do significant volume of training in zone 2 heart rate.
There is no fixed power level that will keep your heart rate in zone 2 indefinitely. Eventually you have to reduce power to avoid your heart rate drifting up. This is especially important for zone 2 training since those sessions need to be relatively long (at least an hour, preferably more). Managing core body temperature during long indoor workouts can be a challenge, and that will affect heart rate.
You do know that you can enter any FTP value in that you want the game to use for workouts, right? And additionally, in workout mode, you can adjust the bias to go up or down from that. So seems pointless to game your own ftp test.
