Every so often, my coach schedules an FTP test.  This is a vigorous bike session, designed to estimate my Functional Threshold Power (FTP).  

The last time I tried this test, I failed badly and wrote about it here.  Previous to that however, I had completed a career best test, last November. 

These tests are painful and involve an all out effort for twenty minutes.  You sweat a lot and by the end, the exertion means you are close to throwing up.  That is why you see in the photo above, a towel covering my bike’s headset and a well placed bucket. Tonight I needed the towel to protect my bike from the sweat, but fortunately I did not need the bucket.

I have not felt particularly strong during my bike sessions over the past week, so I wasn’t sure how tonight’s test would go.  After the warm up, I started the twenty minute interval, settling in at my natural cadence and hitting pretty good power.  My hope was to hold good power for 12-14 minutes and then try to increase it slightly towards the end.

After 14 minutes, I was feeling as good as I could have expected, given the effort I was putting out.  It was time to try increasing the power slightly.  Initially I was able to up the power, but then pain and fatigue set in and the power started to drop slightly.  Seeing the power drop, gave me the motivation to push again.  I was once again able to get an increase and once again, I couldn’t sustain it.  It went like this for the remainder of the ride… I pushed with everything my body had today.  

When it was all said and done, I had achieved my best ever 20 minutes power …. just.  My power in the second half of the interval was indeed higher than the first ten minutes, so I paced the effort well.

Given I am significantly lighter than my previous best test, my result was quite good.  I had increased my Watts/kg at FTP by 5% in six months.  That is good progress…