New user: Auto FTP setting

General Discussion
#1

Hi everyone,

I’m a new user. I took a 20 minute ramp test last week and Zwift set my FTP. The next day it bumped me up. After that I was still finding my training rides to be a bit too easy so I made a manual adjustment. Since then I haven’t had an auto adjustment.

I had a training ride today that called for me to hammer as hard as I could for 10 seconds at a time. Each time I more than doubled the suggested wattage but Zwift didn’t make a change to my FTP. I’m guessing this is because I didn’t have a 20 minute period of time I was exceeding my FTP. Is this the case, or will Zwift no longer auto adjust because I made a manual adjustment? Do I need to do another ramp test? Thanks for any help!

#2

It will auto update once it sees a 20 minute period of exceeding your FTP. I had manually adjusted my FTP during the Zwift Academy due to my Garmin 1030 increasing my FTP. Over the weekend I hit the Colours of Pari second ride hard and Zwift gave me the Oh Yeah! your FTP has increased message.

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#3

hi @Scott_Mintell

Zwift use 95% of you best 20 minute power. So you need to exceed your max power for 20 minute.

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#4

What is the exact point of the FTP test itself, burning you out with previous intervals? Wouldn’t one be able to get a higher 20 minute power with only a warm-up in this case?

#5

Learn something new everyday! Might have to do some more free riding. The word test scares me :joy:

#6

The intervals at the beginning of FTP tests are neither very long nor very hard, and are more for a proper warmup than for putting down any real effort.

20 seconds at 130% FTP is not going to significantly tax any of the systems that you use for your 20 minute power (as opposed to something like the 30 seconds at 205% FTP like The Wringer).

You don’t need any of the FTP tests to measure your FTP, they are only there to provide some structure to what is a very boring measurement. If you can free ride yourself to a higher 20 minute power, more power (heh) to you.

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#7

I am no expert and fairly new to cycling myself.

I always think of it as “science” … somebody who is a lot smarter and more experienced has come to.the conclusion that those pre warmup intervals are the best therefore they must be right :joy:

The more I use zwift however the more I appreciate that hard efforts in the warmup really do help my performance on difficult intervals.

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#8

Your FTP is your FTP and has nothing to do with workout intensity per see assuming your FTP is correct/accurate. Furthermore FTP estimates your 1h power and doesn’t necessarily correlate well with the power you can sustain for shorter durations, in fact many people cannot sustain their estimated FTP from a ramp test or a 20min test for a full hour.
Rather than changing your FTP prior to a workout I would change the bias setting within the workout instead. There are many other variables, type of workout, design, intensity, target energy system etc that will impact whether or not it is perceived as easy or hard besides your individual FTP setting.

Do another ramp test to be sure your FTP is “correct” otherwise there is a risk your structured workouts will not work as intended.