How frequently (miles, total minutes riding, # of day, etc.) should an average rider be reassesing their FTP value?
I use Coach Jack for my program planning (going on 3 weeks). If at some point I were to find the planned routines too easy; should I consider redoing the benchmark? I’m aware Trainer Day offers recommend routine alongside the plan, but I still prefer the tailored training plan.
Maybe have some algorithim that analyzes your actual wattage compared to what the the plan prescribes based on the set FTP, and adjust accordingly would be useful. But at the same time I’m not really familiar what the intention of the FTP metric is. I don’t imagine everyone wants to be pushing their absolute limit all the time.
If it gets to feel too easy you can use the + button to increase difficulty too.
Have you been training for a while or are you new to training?
If you’re experienced I think you could just test at the end of each block (12w or 16w), If you’re new then you may improve rapidly and want to test more often than that.
Over on trainer road, its AIFTP system offers a new reading every 28 days.
Training peaks has an article titled “When is it time to reset your FTP?” The answer in the article is every 30 days or after any major event that affects training.
Zwift offers riders the option to update their FTP every time they ride. It is based on reporting a new power PB in the 8 - 60 minute range. It will only report an increase, not a decrease.
There was an article in Cycling Weekly in June 2023 by James Spragg “Ask a coach: ‘When should I redo an FTP test?’” His answer: “a minimum of two times per year (pre and mid-season) and on top of that only when you are really sure that the last test is no longer reflective of where you are at.”
Keep in mind that an FTP test is a significant workout in its own right. Consider its impact on your training immediately after it and consider the impact on the test result of your training immediately prior.
Yeah I talk to some elites and I know from Andrea with pros, they basically never do tests but in reality the ride more by feel I would say (their power output is more stable other than some seasonal variance)… They have workout targets but most riding is outdoors so there is more give and take.
My opinion is more when you feel like you should take a test but I agree with above, when you feel like you are making rapid progress about every 30 days is right. But yes if you notice workouts getting too easy that’s a good time to either just increase it a bit by feel or take a test.
I don’t think many elite / pro cyclists are expecting to see their FTP shift much by the time they are at that level. As Alex says, they are working on different things other than (just) FTP and might do some specific tests to check that progress, rather than the FTP test.
At the other end of the spectrum, someone who is new to structured training is likely to achieve fairly significant FTP gains fairly quickly. On the flip side, this is also the group that is more likely to miss workouts, fail workouts and otherwise not stick to the plan… all things that can cause FTP to drop.
Testing every month or so at this end of the spectrum probably makes sense.
If you think about the sort of workout that training programmes include: 1 hour total with ~40 minutes of effort, they are pretty much designed to help improve the result of the 20 minute FTP test.
In low volume variants of such plans, missing just a few of the key workouts can really affect the outcome. Much more so than if a pro consistently riding 25 hours per week decides to only do two of the three blocks of 30/30s her coach asked her to do on one wet Wednesday afternoon.
I think the main reason is they hate it. It’s very taxing to go to failure at that high of wattage. It’s harder for elites to go the same % of ftp as normal humans. They save failures for racing. But yes you can even use zone 2 as an indicator for ftp intensifies. And coach’s can do their own estimates on sub maximal training data or max efforts in races.