How to Properly Conduct an FTP Test

Properly conducting an FTP Test is essential for athletes who desire to train by power in cycling.  Understanding exactly what an FTP Test is and what is being assessed in this workout are the first steps and foundation of being able to properly execute the workout and leverage the data that is gleaned from it in training.

Training and Racing with a Power Meter: Third Edition by Hunter Allen + Andrew Coggan, PhD + Stephen McGregor, PhD

Garmin Rally Power Meter: https://amzn.to/49ipSi5 

Favero Assiomo Duo Power Meter: https://amzn.to/3USDJY1 

Read this Coach Tip Tuesday: https://www.fullcircleendurance.com/blog/coach-tip-tuesday-how-to-properly-conduct-an-ftp-test 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Opening
• 0:16 Power-Based Training
• 1:18 What is Functional Threshold Power (FTP)?
• 4:42 How to Determine Functional Threshold Power (FTP)
• 9:32 The Important Elements of the FTP Test
• 13:11 What is Being Tested
• 17:56 The Bottom Line
• 18:45 Closing

Transcript

(0:04 - 0:19)
Hello, and welcome to the full circle podcast, your source for insights into the science and art of endurance sports, training, and racing. I'm your host coach, Laura Henry. Today is coach tip Tuesday.

(0:20 - 0:36)
Power-based training. It's all the rage, especially since indoor cycling training platforms have surged in popularity over the last several years. Power is the metric that popular platforms such as Zwift, TrainerRoad, Ruvi, and Fulgaz leverage to have riders utilize their software.

(0:37 - 0:58)
And the ability to measure power is available on many new indoor cycling trainers. Additionally, since power meters themselves have become more cost-effective in the last eight to 10 years, more and more athletes are interested in purchasing them and using them for their outdoor training, as well as their indoor training. As I've discussed in the past, power is a great and wonderful tool for athletes to leverage when they are riding.

(0:58 - 1:26)
It does provide the most accurate measure of exactly how much work a rider was doing in a workout or ride. When it is interacted with frequently and consistently throughout all cycling training, power can be a very meaningful way for athletes to ensure that they're imposing a stimulus that is appropriate for them to make adaptations and to see gains in performance over time. In order to train by power in cycling, athletes need to establish their functional threshold power, more commonly known as FTP.

(1:26 - 1:44)
Without establishing an accurate FTP, athletes cannot train by power, period. Some athletes try to get around this by guessing their FTP or by using the algorithmically generated numbers provided by training devices and software. As you'll see, this is a very flawed way to approach power-based training.

(1:44 - 2:16)
It sets an athlete's training up so that it is not imposing the proper stimulus, and this can lead to a lack of adaptation, read, a lack of gains or progress, and even worse, it can lead to injury. The term threshold is honestly a confusing one for many athletes, as there are so many different definitions of what threshold means in terms of athletic training and performance. There are also a lot of different words such as lactate thresholds, anaerobic threshold, and maximal lactate steady state, among others, that essentially talk about the same concept.

(2:17 - 2:40)
Exercise physiologists have known for decades that every athlete has an exercise intensity where lactate begins to accumulate in the blood. Lactate is a byproduct constantly produced in the body during normal metabolism and exercise. Lactate does not increase in concentration in the blood until the rate at which the body is producing it exceeds the rate at which the body is removing it from the blood.

(2:40 - 3:20)
This point where lactate begins to accumulate in the blood is called lactate threshold, and it is a very powerful predictor of endurance athletic performance because it is an indirect marker of biochemical events such as fatigue happening within a muscle. As outlined by Hunter Allen, Dr. Andrew Coggin and Dr. Stephen McGregor in training and racing with a power meter third edition link in the show notes, functional threshold power or FTP is the highest power that a rider can maintain in a quasi steady state without fatiguing for approximately one hour. FTP is a numerical representation of an athlete's approximate lactate threshold.

(3:20 - 3:37)
When a rider's power exceeds their FTP, fatigue will occur much sooner. When a rider rides below their FTP, fatigue does not occur as quickly and the rider is able to maintain their effort for longer. FTP is a highly individualized metric.

(3:37 - 4:02)
Every athlete's FTP is going to be different based on a variety of things to include genetics, chronological age, training age, experience, and more. It is important to note that you shouldn't go into an FTP test trying to cultivate or target a specific number or results. This means that you shouldn't be seeking to get a specific FTP in terms of a precise number of Watts that you're aiming to achieve.

(4:03 - 4:16)
An FTP test is about establishing this tool. It is not a goal in and of itself. Once an athlete's FTP is determined, training can be planned precisely because we know exactly when the athlete will start to fatigue.

(4:16 - 4:42)
And therefore we know how much stimulus is too much or too little for a given athlete. As such, power-based workouts are planned based on percentages of an athlete's FTP, and they are all designed to impose a specific stimulus and collectively to yield specific adaptations for that athlete over time. This, its application in properly individualizing the training of an athlete is why FTP is so important.

(4:43 - 5:07)
Since FTP, which is measured in Watts, is a measure of the highest effort that an athlete can sustain for an hour. The best way to determine FTP would be to have athletes ride for an hour at this effort while recording their power data, again, recorded in Watts. That being said, as most riders will agree, riding for a full 60 minutes at your highest sustained effort is a very, very intimidating proposition.

(5:07 - 5:36)
Additionally, the truth of the matter is that most athletes and especially age group athletes would have trouble correctly executing a one hour effort like this, as it is very challenging for athletes to self-determine what hard effort they can sustain at the same output for a full hour. What happens most of the time is that most athletes will inevitably start off too hard and then fade, meaning that they aren't riding at a sustained effort. They end up starting off at a harder effort and then going to a lower effort.

(5:36 - 5:54)
They fade. In order to glean accurate data from an FTP test, it is important that the athletes sustain that same high effort for the entire duration of the testing interval. As a result, there are other methods other than riding for one hour of determining FTP that have sprouted up over the years.

(5:55 - 6:11)
While all FTP testing protocols are challenging, there are some that are less intimidating and therefore are tolerated better by athletes. The most common of these is a variation where after a proper warmup, the athlete rides at the hardest effort they can sustain for 20 minutes. Then they cool down.

(6:11 - 6:33)
Using the data from that 20 minute interval, both power training zones and heart rate training zones can be determined. To determine functional threshold power from the 20 minute test, we take the average power from that 20 minute interval. Then we multiply it by 95% or a factor of 0.95. And the result of that equation is the athlete's FTP.

(6:33 - 7:07)
So, for instance, if we have an athlete whose average power is 150 watts for the 20 minute interval of an FTP test, they have an FTP of 143 watts because 150 times 0.95 equals 142.5. We round up or down if the equation's result is a fraction. It has been shown in numerous case studies over the years that a properly executed effort in the 20 minute test is about 95% of the effort that the athlete would be able to sustain if they rode for the full 60 minutes. And that's how we get to this formula.

(7:07 - 7:24)
Once that functional threshold power is determined, an athlete's individualized power training zones can be set. There are many different formulas available to calculate power training zones. I personally use Dr. Andrew Coggin's formula, which is zone one, which is active recovery, is less than 55% of FTP.

(7:24 - 7:42)
Zone two, which is endurance, is 56 to 75% of one's FTP. Zone three, which is tempo, is 76 to 90% of one's FTP. Zone four, which is threshold, is 91 to 105% of an athlete's FTP.

(7:42 - 8:03)
Zone five, which is VO2 max, is 106 to 120% of an athlete's FTP. Zone six is anaerobic capacity, and that is 121 to 150% of an athlete's FTP. Finally, zone seven, which is neuromuscular power, is greater than 150% of a given athlete's FTP.

(8:03 - 8:27)
While an FTP test can be conducted either outdoors or indoors, I have found that conducting it indoors on a bicycle trainer is the best option, since this generates consistent testing conditions year round in all locations. Controlled, consistent testing conditions are important in gleaning accurate data that can be compared against other data points over time. Think of it as like a control test if you were doing a laboratory experiment.

(8:27 - 9:25)
If conducting the test outdoors, it should be conducted on a flat, open stretch of road that is rideable in all seasons without anything, such as stoplights or stop signs, that will interfere with the athlete's ability to ride uninterrupted for that 20 minutes. If conducting the test indoors, it should be conducted on resistance mode on a smart trainer, not ERG mode, or on a fluid or magnetic, aka dumb, bike trainer with the tension set at the same point. Over time, this test is repeated. 

Assuming that the athlete trains consistently and follows the prescribed workouts, meaning that the athlete trains by power for 95% or more of their cycling workouts, FTP tests should be repeated every six to 10 weeks. How often FTP tests are scheduled will depend on the athlete's training and how they are adapted to the workouts that they are doing. For the best and most consistent results over time, FTP tests should be scheduled following a recovery week in the athlete's training plan.

(9:25 - 10:05)
Retesting at this frequency ensures that the stimulus being imposed in training is always appropriate for an athlete's current abilities. It is important to note, and maybe you did notice, that every time I've talked about executing an FTP test, I've referred to the athlete needing to execute the hardest effort that they can sustain for the duration of the testing interval. Effort. 

Effort, aka how you feel. Effort is not a tangible number or metric that will be provided by any fitness device that you can latch onto. Some of the most meaningful measures of athletic performance are challenging, if not entirely impossible, to measure tangibly.

(10:06 - 10:31)
Effort is one such example of this. So, during an FTP test, it is incredibly important that an athlete execute the workout or test on effort, and effort alone. If you cannot trust yourself not to look at numbers that are being recorded, cover all sources of numbers or data, and only look at the data after the FTP test is concluded.

(10:31 - 10:56)
You know who you are if you can't trust yourself not to look at numbers. There are several important directions that must be followed in order to glean accurate results from an FTP test. If you are unwilling to train by power in your cycling workouts consistently, aka to follow power-based targets in almost all, 95% or more, of your workouts, then do not put yourself through the process of doing an FTP test.

(10:56 - 11:20)
There is no point to incurring the mental and or physical cost of an FTP test if you are not actually going to truly be training by power. I typically have a philosophy of something is better than nothing, but fitness assessments to include FTP tests are one of the only times when everything must go as planned and prescribed. If you complete the FTP test, but don't do it as specified, then you will need to redo it.

(11:21 - 11:39)
And, due to the high physiological impact of the test, you will need to wait at least three weeks to redo it. Much to the dismay of many athletes, it is as simple and it's as hard as that. If you are sick or you feel like you are getting sick on the day that an FTP test is scheduled, do not do the FTP test.

(11:40 - 11:52)
Choose something else to do that day instead, or, in my opinion, ideally, rest. An FTP test must be preceded by a rest day to be most effective. Again, this is a control element to the testing.

(11:52 - 12:15)
And if it's completed on a day when there's another workout scheduled, the FTP test should be the first workout on the day. So, again, we want to create controlled, replicable testing conditions over time so that we know that the data that we glean from these tests can be accurately compared to each other over time. We want to eliminate as many outside variables that could influence the result as possible.

(12:15 - 12:24)
The data must be recorded. Must. Getting accurate data is the only reason for doing an FTP test.

(12:24 - 12:41)
Remember, the data gleaned from this test is going to be used to plan all cycling workouts moving forward. Thus, if you cannot link your devices and cannot pair your power meter with your fitness recording device, do not do the FTP test. Make sure your power meter is zeroed out.

(12:41 - 12:59)
Garmin calls this calibration for you Garmin users out there. And make sure that your power meter is actively connected to your fitness device, such as your cycling computer or your watch, before you begin the FTP test. Make sure your heart rate monitor is being worn correctly and that it is actively connected to your fitness device before you begin the FTP test.

(13:00 - 13:22)
Record your nude weight before you begin the workout. Doing this enables you to track your power to weight ratio, which even more than FTP, is an accurate indicator of your fitness and your power over time. Over the years, I have seen fitness assessments, and especially FTP tests, cause an extraordinary, extraordinary amount of stress and anxiety for athletes.

(13:23 - 13:57)
Athletes have reported impaired sleep, upset stomachs, an inability to eat, higher heart rates, and higher levels of anxiety, not only in the days leading into the day of the FTP test, but during and after the test itself. FTP tests have caused such high levels of stress and anxiety for people that multiple athletes who I've coached over the years have either called off of work or taken time off of work on the day of an FTP test because the thought of the test was that consuming for them. There are many reasons why this is so consuming and why this causes so much stress and anxiety for some athletes.

(13:57 - 14:10)
But one of the main ones is the use of the term test in the protocol for determining FTP. As a result, I've actually moved away from labeling this as a test in athlete training plans and final surge. I now call it a checkpoint.

(14:10 - 14:25)
And I do this in an attempt to make athletes feel better and not to have it be so intimidating. But the hard reality is that it is still a testing protocol and altering what I label it or what I call it doesn't change that truth. If anything, it just masks it.

(14:25 - 15:00)
The actual issue isn't so much the use of the word test, but what athletes perceive that the word test means about them when it comes to this workout and protocol. Some athletes see the word test and think that they are personally being tested, which in this situation is actually synonymous with judged based on the result that is produced. Whether consciously or unconsciously, athletes think that the result of the FTP test is a statement about and a reflection of their humanity, their self-worth, who they are as a person and how they stack up against other people.

(15:00 - 15:17)
I am here to say simply yet extremely firmly that this is 100 percent inaccurate. What is true is that we are seeking to establish an accurate accounting of the athletes abilities. These abilities are not inherently good or bad or pass or fail.

(15:17 - 15:24)
They just are. Yes. One athlete's abilities may be more or less than those of a different athlete.

(15:24 - 15:36)
Yes. One athlete's abilities may be more or less than where that athlete has previously been. But that doesn't make them either the athletes abilities or the athlete themselves good or bad.

(15:36 - 16:01)
And it certainly doesn't mean that the athlete is any better or worse of a human. Understanding an athlete's current ability is important because accurately understanding an athlete's current ability is what allows us to establish the best training and pathway to get that athlete to the desired goals and results over time. We need to first understand where we are so we know where we are relative to where we want to go.

(16:01 - 16:09)
Then we need to train where we are so that we can get to where we want to go. Truthfully, here's a secret. All training is testing.

(16:10 - 16:43)
This is because all training, each individual workout, is an assessment of where we currently are relative to where we started, where we currently are relative to our goals, and of how effective our current skills, strategies, and tactics are. It is only when we can accurately assess where we really are, skill-wise and ability-wise, that we can establish the most effective training as we move through a macro cycle or an annual training plan. All of this being said, there are many things that an FTP test is actually testing, and all of them have a valuable place and use in an athlete's training.

(16:43 - 17:02)
An FTP test is testing the highest effort that an athlete can sustain and the power number that currently corresponds with that effort, again, measured in watts. How effective the previous training block has been for the athlete and what changes might be prudent to make in the next training block. The athlete's ability to pace themselves.

(17:03 - 17:27)
For example, can the athlete accurately self-assess where they can and should start off effort-wise and maintain that effort over the course of the testing interval? The athlete's ability to execute a physically and mentally difficult and demanding workout. The athlete's ability to manage stress. The athlete's ability to follow a protocol, aka the athlete's ability to read directions.

(17:27 - 17:56)
And finally, an FTP tests the athlete's ability to utilize and appropriately ignore and discard multiple tools in their athlete's toolbox. While what an athlete does in an FTP test is not the exact specificity of what they would do in a race, there is a tremendous amount about an athlete that can be learned from an FTP test and implemented in their training to make them smarter, stronger, and faster. For this reason, fitness assessments, including FTP tests, are included in athlete training plans.

(17:56 - 18:14)
Properly conducting an FTP test is much more complex than it may appear at face value. That being said, properly conducting an FTP test is a skill, and therefore, like so many things, it is something that athletes can get better at over time. For athletes wanting to trade by power, FTP testing is an essential component of their training.

(18:15 - 18:39)
Simply put, an athlete cannot train by power if they are unwilling to establish their FTP via testing. Learning how to properly execute an FTP test and how to approach it mentally in a healthy way is a valuable skill for any athlete who wants to train by power and see performance gains over time. Doing so can really help athletes see what a powerful tool it is, pun intended, if you currently train with power or desire to train with power in your cycling.

(18:39 - 18:56)
Take the time to learn this skill so you can add another tool to your athlete's toolbox and help unlock your potential. That was another episode of the Full Circle Podcast. Subscribe to the Full Circle Podcast wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

(18:56 - 19:11)
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(19:11 - 19:31)
Please send us an email at podcast at fullcircleendurance.com or visit us at fullcircleendurance.com backslash podcast. To find training plans, see what other coaching services we offer, or to join our community, please visit fullcircleendurance.com. I'm Coach Laura Henry. Thanks for listening.