There are a couple of recent videos out there of people that tried to hold their “FTP number” for an hour. For instance Conner of GCN, but there’s more. The result of all of them : they failed
Now having said that, is it possible? Well, I would think so if you would approach this “1 hour test” as a real race : do a tamper week, do carb loading (even for 1 hour), do a proper warmup, do specific training,… Being Belgian, there’s a good comparison close by : cyclo cross. All these races are pretty much one hour max efforts. They way these pro riders prepare for these races, the way they train for it, that what you would need to replicate. Which would honestly not be much fun for recreational cyclists like us
Just an update here. Week 2 of using the new FTP as the base number for training. Last night did 2 rounds of 10 X 20/40 and then 1h Z2, felt pretty good in the end.
The only time so far I questioned my life choices and tested my will / sanity was the last VO2 interval on the weekend. That one hurt.
So VO2max is heavily reliant on your W’ so a specific VO2max for someone with a high W’ will be easy and that same workout for someone with a low W’ can be impossible even if both riders have the same FTP. This is less of a problem when your FTP is lower but obviously when it is high then every detail matters. You can plan around in our website and triangulate if this is an FTP problem or a W’ problem. If that is interesting for you, let me know if you need any help. You can google TrainerDay CP/W’ and you will find some articles I wrote on this.
So my W’ is 20kJ and FTP “305W” and if I recall those were 4x2min at 110% FTP. Its not that I could not finish the last interval but it just became mind over matter thing haha. I think that steady 1h at top of my Z2 was much worse, mainly due to the same intensity etc. But I love training and love pushing myself just as much as I enjoy rest and easy days, which I learned to appreciate and respect.
So it depends on the rest intervals, but you can play with our editor and try a few different CP calculators. But if your rests were 1 minute like here I would call this a bit hard but for sure you should be able to complete them
Theoretically the Z2 to start should not affect it but if that is upper Z2 power then that’s not easy especially at your level, not to mention theory never completely aligns with reality… But we are also looking at a suspected that either your W’ is not 20kj or your FTP is too high. I used FTP as CP in this example especially since a ramp test is likely to over estimate and be closer to CP.
I didn’t say I failed physically, it was more of a mental hurt especially during the, what seemed like forever, Z2 1h ending. Mind you all this is done indoors which only elevated the issue.
Yeah at 125% it probably should feel a bit hard and depending on the day or like you say the extended warmup could feel very hard. You are in range for sure.
My point was the poster gave his FTP as “305” (parenthesis his not mine) that came from a ramp and said he did a 4x2 workout at 110%.
The only reference to 125% is yours and came from the intervals.icu screenshot.
The poster said the 4x2s with zone 2 after were very hard.
I think you may be the right that the real FTP is 269. The effect of this then if that is true:
Relatively easy VO2 workout of 4x2 ta 110% becomes a 4x2 anaerobic repeat at 125%
Zone 2 at 65% becomes zone at 75%, much harder especially when he just did the anaerobic repeats
People should train with whatever metric they want, but all of his zones it appears are being messed up. This is what I tried to get at in post #4 in this thread.
I understood. I was just joking. You did the math and you were right. I just saw some # 125% and accepted that as the truth… There is almost no human on earth that should consider 110% very difficult. In this case he would need a 3kj W’ for it to start getting diffcult which essentially means he can’t do any work above his FTP without feeling fatigued. This would be like some old time 40+km TT racer that always goes to FTP and basically never above it… Or he was exahusted from doing other very hard work before it, and zone 2 should essentially not even affect a 110% VO2max workout. So yes FTP is too high or he is seriously fatigued for some reason… Probably from having too high of FTP in his workouts.
Update to this and the ramp test is just a guess. Lowered my FTP number for training to 290W which is more realistic and still plenty hard especially during the long 3-4h Z2/3 interval rides.
This maybe a separate question, but how could this test put me into a 305W (failed at 409W)?
Ramp tests are about 10 minutes above FTP… You have about 6 minutes of anaerobic energy. So while a ramp test is easy to do compared to stead state 8, 20 or longer it can be more inaccurate in some people. It works well to monitor progress it is designed for someone with an average aerobic / anaerobic relationship. Since you are extra strong 25kJ, it will likely over estimate your FTP. Mine is always over estimated also but I know this and just round down about 20%. So right now you are 5% under. You can just use that as an adjustment % if you want to keep doing ramp tests.
