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Horses for courses innit.
I’ve never actually done a 20 min or even 8 min test on an erg trainer and don’t know it would work. Surely the trainer would set the power output and you’d either complete the interval or fail. Or can you override it?
What I like about a ramp test is that you know you’ve got every ounce of effort out (as long as you’re on the verge of being sick).
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Horses for courses innit.
745.7W
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horses for courses
Exactly this. Do whatever test you can best execute a max effort for. None of them are perfect.
I race just under, at, or a bit over my threshold, so knowing what my max power is for durations between 20 minutes to an hour is important. I like these: https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/the-physiology-of-ftp-and-new-testing-protocols/ as they are useful for setting TTE and then you can optimise the length/distribution of lactacte clearance stuff. Anything much shorter than 20 minutes I don't really care what my max numbers are.
If you use intervals.icu you can go out and do some short, medium and long max efforts and it'll give you a good idea of your FTP, I think someone said one max effort is all you need but I'd want a spread of sprint, v02 and long aerobic efforts personally to derive a decent number.
hippy
onyerbike
I guess because of the pacing aspect, rather than physical aspect.
The 20min testing protocol is harder I feel (which is probably why I moved to Ramp tests and never went back).