Sunday, 10 January 2016

FTP Testing

After a hard day (well, a day...and a rainy one at that) in the kitchen baking, in the evening I headed to Buckley Performance Coaching for an FTP Ramp Test. This is a structured test you can do to identify your training zones... Ken uses a brand new bit of kit called a BSX Insight Monitor, which allows him to identify changes to your blood composition without actually stabbing you...thats a bonus that really appeals to me!

The test itself involves using a Wattbike, and holding a gradually increasing level of power for 3 minutes at a time...after a brief warm-up at 100 watts, I went through 12 steps, from 160 watts to 380 watts, and finished collapsing on the bike! That said, it's a far less brutal test than the alternative, which is a 20-minute sustained effort, as if you "guess" wrong on that, you tend to pop about two-thirds of the way through. Ken was on hand throughout the test, keeping an eye on everything, and in the later stages shouting encouragement...

The end results were pretty good, and a decent validation of my current fitness levels. My Threshold power is 323 watts, and recommended training zones pretty much in line with my current ones. This information will be fed into my training plan, and hopefully it can be used to get some more improvements in the months ahead (at some point I probably need to think about dropping a couple of kilos of weight as well, but I'll worry about that once winter is over...) I did a time-lapse of the entire process, which makes me look a little bit like Roadrunner!