Cycling
Everything you need to know about FTP
Why you need to know about FTP to become a better cyclist.
WTF is FTP? If you're scratching your head never fear, we asked Paul Mill, the owner of coaching company Elite Cycling, to answer all the tough questions...
Ride on as the clocks go back in the world's longest one-day road cycling race Red Bull Timelaps – a gruelling 25hr road race taking place October 24-25, 2020.
What is FTP?
Functional Threshold Power is, quite simply, a measure of fitness. FTP represents the power (measured in watts) that you could theoretically maintain for about an hour, and it's the single metric used to scale each of your workouts to keep your fitness growing.
With regards to what's taking place within your body and the muscles themselves, riding at your FTP pushes you right up to that limit where pushing any harder will drastically limit the duration of your ride.
But as long as you stay just below that acidic tipping point where your muscles light up and uncomfortably tolerable minutes become barely tolerable seconds, your muscles are in balance with the workload – for about an hour, anyway.
Read on to learn more about how FTP is assessed and power-based training zones.
What is an FTP assessment?
An FTP assessment is a snapshot of your fitness at any point in time. By measuring your fitness and assigning it a number, you can track changes in your fitness over weeks, months and even years.
Who is an FTP assessment suitable for?
The FTP tests are for riders who are looking for performance gains and also those who want to work within a training zone or parameter for the event. This test is very hard and riders who are worried about health implications should seek medical advice before proceeding. The test can be as hard as you want to go and this will be resembled in the outcome.
How is FTP assessed?
During an assessment, riders first follow a consistent, structured warm up before riding at a challenging effort level for 20 minutes. By subtracting 5% of average power over these sub-hour durations allows you to mathematically estimate what level you might be able to sustain for up to a full hour.
What does an FTP test consist of?
The test consists of a 10 to 15 minute warm up that should include some very high intensity bursts to open your airways and also produce more oxygenated blood to the working muscles.
You then ride a hard 20 minute time trial with the emphasis on finishing stronger than where you started. Keep increasing power or holding your cadence and heart rate and in the last three minutes to empty the tank. That means you have to put your all into it. You should finish completely empty but don’t stop pedalling. Make sure you turn the legs gently and flush the lactate acid out of your muscles before recovering fully with a carbohydrate enriched replacement with some added protein.
Why do we assess FTP?
By assessing FTP, not only can we track changes in fitness but we can also establish training zones, i.e. power levels. And as your fitness changes, you can update these power levels accordingly.
Each type of interval, e.g. Tempo, Sweet Spot, VO2max, etc. represents a percentage of your FTP. For example, Tempo intervals fall in the 76-90% FTP range while VO2 max intervals fall in the 106-120% FTP range.
Different types of intervals target different energy systems and consequently different training adaptations, so it's important to have a personal measure of your fitness to tailor your workouts to your specific needs and capabilities.
Can you do an FTP assessment at home or do you have to go to a coach?
The test can be done out on the road, in a gym environment and it can be done alone. The benefit of seeing a coach is that they will be able to push you harder, as well as take data splits and analysis whilst you concentrate on the test alone.
If doing the test on the road then please be careful. If you have no way of measuring power you can still proceed with the test but instead of monitoring power you can use your heart rate.
The warm up is generally the same but keep your efforts manageable so you can push the 20 minutes hard. Then at the end take your average heart rate for the 20 minutes only. This is called your threshold heart rate and then can be used to correlate your training zones
It looks pretty intense – any words of advice for those difficult moments?
The key with any hard effort is visualisation and focus. Don’t think of pain as a feeling of stopping, instead try to focus on how fast you are going and maintaining your technique and rhythm. Think of an accomplished rider climbing, sprinting or time trialling and think of how smooth and strong they look. This is you. Relax breath deep and let it flow. Personal mental imagery is very important in any sport so think of the feelings you are getting and enjoy them.
This visualisation and mental strength is what makes an athlete different to the general population. This challenge makes you as an athlete so focus, so believe and keep improving. You can do this. Most of all enjoy it, as when you finish the result of completion will give you the biggest reward you can imagine.
Click here to download Paul's breakdown of training zones.
If you want to learn more about your FTP and how to calculate it then head over to Elite Cycling for more information.