%FTP over multihour rides

doyler78

Anybody any idea of what a reasonable % of FTP that can be held for each hour over 1 hour up to 6 hours ie 2hours, 3hours, 4hours, 5hours and 6 hours (multihour % based of NP)?

Interested in trying to understand what should be possible to see how my efforts compare because sometimes when you know that more is possible then you can achieve more. A mental thing (call it the Bannister effect ).

amaferanga

I've ridden a couple of sportives as hard as I could this year and both came out with normalised power at about 85% FTP. One was just under 5 hours, the other about 6 hours.

doyler78

amaferanga wrote:

I've ridden a couple of sportives as hard as I could this year and both came out with normalised power at about 85% FTP. One was just under 5 hours, the other about 6 hours.

That's interesting. Done 4 1/2 hours today with an IF of 0.85 so that's right on what you have seen although your rides have been longer. I did have a little more left in the tank than I normally do though as I could still get in threshold efforts right at the back end of the ride which was what I was aiming for but never managed before. I normally die a death over the last 10 miles and can't get my power near threshold for anything more than a 30 secs or so before I end up going back towards 70% of FTP. I concentrated on fueling properly and keeping watts down below threshold as much as possible though this was hilly from 1 1/2 hours in until about 30 mins before home so above threshold efforts are unavoidable at times.

I'm wrecked this evening.

anto164

Sorry, but what do all these abbreviations mean?

doyler78

anto164 wrote:

Sorry, but what do all these abbreviations mean?

They are meaningless unless you use power and if you do use power then you need to read "Training and Racing with Power Meter - 2nd Ed" however.

FTP = Functional Threshold Power which is your best (maximal) steady state effort that you can maintain for one hour and the basis of all metrics in power measurement.

NP = Normalized Power which is basically a way of measuring how hard an effort really was in a way that average power can't do. Efforts above FTP get physiologically harder the more above FTP that you go therefore a ride with lots of very hard efforts (sprinting up short sharp hills) followed by lots recovery (efforts way below FTP) will yield an average power which well below FTP however as I said at the start efforts way above FTP are physiologically very hard therefore average power doesn't really describe how hard that ride was and that's what NP seeks to describe.

IF = Intensity Factor is basically the % of FTP that NP is. IF is used to calculate another metric which hasn't been mentioned above but you need to understand that in order to understand IF and that is TSS.

TSS = Training Stress Score is basically a value that is given to how stressful the ride was (which is a combination of it's intensity (IF) and duration) is it uses a value of 100 as it base. 100 = TSS equals 1 hour at FTP with a VI of 1.0 in other words a perfectly paced 1 hour all out effort.

The point of all this is that if you use power you can gain a fantastic insight into your own abillity to cope with training stress and therefore you can be much more precise about the training mix you do and that makes more training time more time efficient.

Hope that makes sense and hope it is right (in a loose sense) as it was written rather quickly before I head off to work.

However at the end of day all this, power meter or no power meter, we all still need to get on our bikes and ride. It motivates me to do true efforts for others it would be the complete opposite.

Team Banana Spokesman

i started a thread ages ago called 'power/ time'. cant find it though.

(i think) Alex Simmons said IFs of 0.8-0.95 over 2 or 3 hours is standard but he did a race over 2 hours with a IF of 0.97.

may be wrong but I cant find the thread to look.

my thoughts:
after 3 hours of riding what normally feels like ftp level is 30 wats down on it. to maintain ftp wattage after that much riding feels so much harder for me. if you go on feel alone it would feel like you are getting a good workout over 4 hours but with the power dropping off I think you have to mentally/physically push harder as you go on on such a ride to maintain the power. without a powermeter I wouldnt have realized this. about5 mins at ftp after 3 hours normal tempo riding is only just possible for me but I absolutely bonk after it.

doyler78

Thanks TBS found your thread

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... hlight=ftp

Interesting how much of your power you can hang on to for hours.

Will be going back over my longer rides to see just how they all fit together as most are over similar terrain.