I set up in the living room with the laptop in front of me. My lovely wife/assistant came down to cheer me on and give me the interval changes. I got up on my Kurt Kinetic Trainer and got to warming up. My wife and I chatted as we talked about the test and what my goals were. Going into the test, I wanted to either confirm or .. uh... unconfirm the FTP estimate that was a result of my most recent Zenitsuboyama climb. All the charts and techniques of estimating functional threshold (aside from me doing the 1 hour TT), pointed to a functional threshold of 345.
I was a bit in disbelief to be perfectly honest about that. I started the off-season at 313, and was using 320 for training zones. To think that I'd added 30 watts while losing 4 kg of weight was just mind numbing. I expected to gain some watts, but mostly expected something a little less because of the weight loss and potential muscle loss that goes with it.
The MAP test is a rather simple test, and all in all took just under 12 minutes to complete (not counting warm up and cool down). I am using the Ric Stern method of testing which calls for 25 watts of increase every minute, and he recommends further to break that down into 5 watts every 12 seconds. I was a bit concerned about such small increases in power while working on the Kurt Kinetic. It's extremely difficult to really "narrow in" a wattage on a fluid trainer, unlike using an ergometer which sets your wattage requirements regardless of speed/cadence/position.
So, all that said - my goal was to confirm a functional threshold of 340-345. Using Ric Stern's MAP testing, functional threshold can be estimated by taking 75% of the MAP result (plus or minus a few depending on other tests). So in order to get 340, I would need a MAP of 453. The MAP result is determined by using the highest 1 minute of power obtained prior to reaching the exhaustion point. So using 5 watt intervals every 12 seconds, I determined I'd need to make it to the 470-475 watts interval to make the goal.
I had tapered for this test so I was as "race" ready as could be expected for this time of year to make sure the results were the best that I could achieve. In fact, my planned CTL took quite a hit for this time of year as seen by the chart below.
First number is actual, second number is planned CTL.
01/26/07 121.35 120.85
01/27/07 121.32 123.21
01/28/07 122.22 126.46
01/29/07 119.31 123.45
01/30/07 119.56 123.85
01/31/07 119.12 124.28
02/01/07 117.62 123.84
02/02/07 115.95 126.13
02/03/07 117.75 127.49
02/04/07 119.19 130.26
On this note, I'm a little disappointed to have taken such a hit on the CTL right now, but the rest was especially needed and I'm excited to be heading into the harder training with freshness I didn't have before the taper. I also came positive on my TSB for the first time since beginning of December.
After the warm up, the test went something like this:
You'll see one of the interesting differences is the "ka-chunk" of changing gears right there toward the end. At lower wattages, it's easy to get a nice smooth gear change. Not so easy at the top end.
At the end of the day, it was all worth it. I exhausted out just after my wife said, "470." My 1 minute mean maximal power output was 452 watts. That put me at 339 for functional threshold estimate, but based on recommendations I'm working with 345 now. At 77kg, my functional threshold has gone from 3.81 w/kg in October to 4.48 w/kg now.
So... the downside? Well, for racing there isn't one. I'm stronger and faster, and that is good.
For training? Wow did my numbers change. In some cases my zones shifted by 20 watts, and at the upper end they shifted by up to 30+ watts. Mentally I know it just means I was beginning to train too easy as my threshold increased and I wasn't increasing training intensity. But mentally I also know that my old tempo rides at 270 now have to go along at 290 watts... that's going to smart a little bit more.
Looking forward to where training goes from here and what I will be accomplishing in another three months. Three months from today we'll have the results from the Tour de Kunisaki, and that's what's going to count.
VW