Back on the flux and Surrey hills ticked off.
A 40km route, with a 5km lead in that it’s basically up Fox hill. And the route finishes at the top of Fox hill, so mandatory roll down required for 48 ish.
Not much flat on that with 3200ft of climbing.
They were already down there, just dumped all of that out of sight until I can be bothered 
Although I do fancy a bit of aero action soon…
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Ok, so I can see some merit in using Zwift for things like a CP20 test.
Just did a 10 mile TT on there
23:22
Managed 326w for 20 minutes, so right on 4w/kg
Only just saw the bit to link to zwift power, so don’t appear on there, but would have been 2nd in the B’s
Next week, I’ll try not to f*ck my legs in the morning
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Nice, I’ve got that and both the PRL routes to finish London
I did the Crit city race, 30K @ 280W. Hard a fairly stressful day at work so head wasn’t really in it, got dropped on about the 3rd corner and it was solo for the first half then got lapped and sat in with a group for about 6 laps. Usual 4.7W\KG winner in cat B.
I got to level 13 at the weekend and only got a pair of polka dot socks 
OK. So either my turbo is ‘settling’ in some way or I’m just getting weaker! 
Just did some race, about 36km. Managed to get into a group of about 10 (lost all my mates I was trying to ride with die to bad tactics, mechanicals and technicals! 
) and work with them all the way around. It seemed to be and another 4 guys always at the front, working. I’m still not making the most of the draft, but riding at threshold pretty much all the way. Managed a 3.1 w/kg average for 144/300 across the 4 cats. Haven’t looked up my position yet, but I was in D, so I’ll be disqualified from zpower.
I don’t know if that ramp test just really flattered me as it suits my style or my turbo was over reading and now it’s settled. I’ll give it another week or so and then maybe try another ramp. My hour power I’d say is not much more than 3.2 (ftp apparently 3.5). Who knows!
All I know is I had another good hour’s workout. I’ve sweat all over the shop. I haven’t experienced any pleasure that has even come close to that one gust of wind that made it into the shed today. Fans must be heavenly!
Now to undo it all with a ton of junk food!
Edit - I’m not feeling like my legs are totally made of jelly, so maybe I’ve just lost a bit of ability to push as hard. Tired from work and stuff maybe. I guess with running I know my body so well, I can tell when I’m on or off. But with cycling, I just don’t have that internal dataset yet.
Edit 2 - sandbag Cat D top 10!
Would’ve been about 30/65 in C
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Another night owl ride for me.
Finally got that 25 volcano lap monkey off my back. Watching the Mandalorian, the hours ticked by quite quickly. Did have to jump off for two comfort breaks though - did it as 6x20 at tempo, so around 245 watts. I’m sure I’ll be regretting it in the morning
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Why are you all chasing these route badges? I assume extra XP or something attached?
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15 seconds quicker on the Tempus Fugit TT last night off 281W. (5 watts better than last time)
Waaaaaaay down the results. I’m not sure how much of the 15 seconds come from the power or from the long socks and enve wheels I had this time around. 
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Yep. And just something else to focus on I guess.
Very possibly this.
I find that the FTP a ramp test gives me is a number that there isn’t a cat in hell’s chance that I’d hold for an hour… I ride a weekly 10 TT and i’m in pieces (like ‘shaking legs, not able to stand very well, and feeling sick‘ pieces) after less than half an hour… yet its still at an average of 15W below my FTP… so maybe I could learn to suffer more at that TT, but i’d need to be up by maybe 20 or 25W for my FTP to be correct!
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I guess, as with everything, you’ll have your own strengths and weaknesses that will play into these tests. I made a comparison earlier in this thread, i think, to my own running performances. My short course, power running way exceeds my tempo - HM type stuff. So i guess it’s the same principle here.
ZwiftPower, with 4 races in the system, has my FTP at 237, which i think is more accurate/likely. Might change it in Zwift so i that i can use the coloured power/effort graph at the bottom of the screen more effectively. I’m not doing any FTP based sessions yet, so i guess it doesn’t really ‘matter’? Anhy thoughts?
I know he could be a bit of a tw*t on ST, but Coggan really is the man when it comes to this topic.
His 7 Deadly Sins should be the go to resource when it comes to FTP. The quicker and dirtier they make the test, 20mins, ramp test etc. the further out the result will be for certain individuals, even if it is reliable on average or for the majority.
Ps. A lot of people still seem to persist with 95% of their highest 20min power, ignoring the clearing efforts a true FTP test includes, that would significantly reduce the result.
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No way I could hold my FTP for 60 mins. I know I can hold around 330w for an hour, but not much more than this
Cheers. Don’t think i’m really at the level where i want to get into the nitty gritty of FTP and the like. Having briefly looked at Coggan and the stuff you guys talk about on here. It’s a bit too intense and ‘physics-y’ for my brain. I don’t have that engineer type brain, so tend to just take an 80/20 approach to the info i.e. understand 20% well and have a vague notion of the other 80% 
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Anyone doing The British Cycling Time Trial Greater London Flat at 1220 today?
I’m about 100k off reaching level 38. My reward when I get there? Vintage gloves!!
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It’s not your real FTP then is it?
I like reading all that stuff but it’s little more than curiosity and work in a similar way to you.
One of Coggan’s favourite phrases on ST was something like “The best test of performance is performance itself” I.E. The only true test of FTP (or what we commonly refer to as that) is genuinely the power you can hold for an hour (25 mile TT for example). The 7 deadly sins are the various ways of approximating that in decreasing order of reliability.
All this supports your finding that the ramp test can be flattering for those with good short term power or under estimate those without a high top end but can hold that level longer.
ETA - I think the 7 Deadly Sins were around before the the ramp test came into popular use so suspect that would be 8th in the 8 Deadly Sins if it were included.
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I’ve always based mine on what I can generally do for an hour.
Either a 25m tt or the local training loop that the guys at my club ride.
I’ve told myself the first outdoor ride i do post lockdown will be an ftp effort on the training loop with the tt bike. Might go all out and use the disc too 
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