FTP can be a confusing topic. We're about to un-confuse it for you.

Figuring out your threshold and doing the appropriate intervals at the appropriate power is *very important* if you want to progress on the bike.

As I’ve been onboarding new athletes, getting some data sets, one of the *key* things I dive into is data. If you have accurate bike data, you’re able to build key zones to work from and (if you do the work) it’s a pretty linear progression forward in bike proficiency. 

One of the ways to gather a snapshot of your current fitness is to do an FTP test. 

First: what is FTP? FTP is Functional Threshold Power & basically represents the highest average power you can sustain on the bike for an hour, measured in watts. 

So… how do you nail down your FTP? Well, ideally, you’d go ride hard for 60 minutes and take your average power, but a 60-min TT is hard to pull off. Most cyclists now grab a power meter and do a 20-min field or trainer test, taking 95% of their final data as their current FTP. 

However, what if you don’t “test” well? (My case for about, oh, 80% of the FTP tests I’ve taken.) The danger — if you’re looking to build strength — is that an underrepresentative result could skew your data so that all of your working zones are too easy. 

What do you do if you’ve had a “bad” test? 

  1. The test isn’t “useless”; all data is a vector to build a big-picture 
  2. There are specific intervals that can help you determine what your FTP should be. 
    • Riding HARD (nearly all-out) for 3-5 minutes should indicate what 116-118% of your FTP would be.
    • Go outside and ride at what feels like “race pace” (comfortably hard) for an hour. That effort should indicate about 75-85% of FTP and would at least give you a ballpark estimate for where your FTP should be.
    • Do an 8-10 minute progression workouts where you test 10 watt differences around tempo effort (top-end green-zone or 90-95% of FPT). Target 95% of what you THINK your FTP should be. Start 10 watts below that. So, ride for 8 minutes at 10 watts BELOW 95%. Then ride easy for 5 minutes. Ride AT 95% of projected FTP for 8 minutes. Ride easy for 5 minutes. Ride at 10 watts ABOVE 95% of FTP for 8 minutes. Ride easy for 5 minutes. The closer you get to threshold effort, the harder those 10-minute efforts will get. There should be a tipping point between which round of 10-minute efforts feels more like threshold pace and less like “hard, but in control” pace. (Because these are long, hard efforts, if your initial projection was too hard or too easy, repeat this workout the next week with a new baseline FTP projection.)

3. You can use lactate measurement to get a more accurate FTP, but again, we’re talking about *alternative* methods of data collection to those “all-out” efforts required of a 20-minute test. (MLSS Testing or Maximal Lactate Steady State Testing usually requires at least 30 minutes of effort.)

4. When in doubt, hire a triathlon coach to help you nail down the correct FTP. 

Paying attention to effort level and interval duration will give you a handful of data vectors to plot within specified “zones” that will help nail down a final FTP number. 

Once you set a new FTP [especially if it is higher than your previous FTP], you may want to set your intervals at the low end of your zones, building to the high end of your zones as your capabilities progress.

Heres’ a tip that I learned from my coach, coach and pro triathlete Elliot Bach: When doing an FTP test, don’t look at your screen (flip your screen around around and have a partner give you time cues throughout your 20-minute test). It helps you to not self-sabotage your effort based on expectations or projected disappointment. My best tests have come from riding by effort, not by numbers. (Because, don’t forget, your FTP number isn’t the average watts for 20 minutes, but 95% of the average watts for 20 minutes.)