Race in the Basement
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Race in the Basement
I had been dreading this moment. And yet, I had also been so excited for this moment. I had put off this moment, partly because of sickness, but mostly because I didn’t want to know.
And yet, I so wanted to know.
I am talking, of course, about the TrainerRoad 20 Minute Test, and — much more specifically — that as part of beginning the TrainerRoad Sustained Power Build training plan, I needed to do this 20 Minute Test…which, oddly enough, takes an hour.
Here’s what I posted on Twitter an hour or so before I went down into my basement to do the test
Today I do the @trainerroad 20min FTP test. It’s an individual thing, and I’m the only one who cares how I do. And yet…I’m SO NERVOUS.
— Fat Cyclist (@fatcyclist)
Why was I so nervous? Why was I so conflicted? Because this workout gives you a very accurate measurement of how strong you are. If you commit to going as hard as you can, it delivers an extraoridinary amount of pain, followed by an extremely honest, numerical assessment of how many watts, on average, you should be able to generate in an hour. Your “Functional Threshold Power (FTP) number.”
My most recent FTP test was a couple months ago, and resulted in a score of 269. Which is not bad. But I had been sick when it was time to do this test a month ago, and so I hadn’t.
And now, well I was curious: was I getting stronger? Weaker? Staying the same?
“Oh please,” I prayed to St. Merckx, the patron saint of quadriceps, “Don’t let me wind up with a result that’s weaker.”
I loaded the workout, fully aware of how odd it was to have a case of the butterflies in anticipation of doing a solo workout, in the basement, on my Wahoo Kickr trainer.
The screenshot of the profile tells you everything you need to know about what this workout does to you. A half-hour warmup slowly ramps up your effort, gives you a few short, hard efforts, a practice five minutes above your previous FTP effort.
And then, for twenty minutes, you go. Just as hard as you can.
Which is a very interesting thing to try to do.
Because going at your absolute limit for twenty minutes isn’t the same as going at your one-minute absolute limit. One minute means I’m going at a dead sprint and it’s the end of the world and I’m throwing up and oh mercy I’m starting to black out and how did a minute turn into three thousand years and oh I thought I was going to die and I guess I’m not but yes I guess I really did throw up on myself.
And it’s not like going at your nine-hour absolute limit, where basically you’re just riding just two notches into your discomfort level, and never letting yourself slip into the “one notch of discomfort” zone.
A twenty minute effort leaves room for uncertainty: Could I possibly go just a little harder right this second? And of course the answer is “Yes, but if I do I may completely collapse and be unable to continue for another seventeen minutes.“
And on any given day, you can go to the TrainerRoad 20 Minute Test page and see how that test has defeated people. Some go too hard at the beginning, and melt down as they get to the real part of the test:
Some bonk, recover as best as they can, and struggle on valiantly:
And some people…well, some people do it more or less perfectly, keeping their effort smooth and consistent through the whole thing:
As for me, well…I was somewhere in between. Here’s my whole thing:
And here’s the closeup of the real star of the test: the twenty minute block:
That jagged yellow line represents my mental state incredibly well. I began overconfident, thinking I could keep my power at or above 350 for the whole time.
This was as stupid as it was wrong.
Before long, I revised my estimate to thinking I could keep my wattage above 320. And then 300.
To my credit, I never revised my intent below 300. But sometimes, if I let my attention stray even briefly, my power would dip down, and I’d have to wind myself back up again.
Each time it hurt. And you can see from the jagged yellow line that it was a constant battle.
But — and I’m proud of this — I did not give up.
“Go. come on. Go. You’re dropping again. GO! OK, you’re back up to where you should…no, you’ve dropped again. GO!”
Like that. For twenty minutes.
Furthermore, I even managed to, for the last few minutes, give it everything I’ve got to climb up to the 320 zone.
The moment that twenty-minute test ended and the ten minutes of cool down began, I felt a gratitude and exhaustion I have experienced only at race finish lines, and even then only rarely.
But even as I cooled down, I wondered how I had done.
Here’ how:
Was I proud? Well, of course I was proud. Still am. So proud I’m writing this incredibly vain post about it.
Proud enough that I texted the above screengrab to my wife, to friends, tweeted it to the universe, and even sent it to Jonathan at TrainerRoad.
He said it was a solid effort, but that if I don’t go so hard at the beginning, instead keeping my effort smooth throughout, I might be able to average a better overall number.
He texted me this helpful graphic to demonstrate:
So I still have room for improvement. Still, I did manage new personal bests with this workout, shown with the cute little ribbon icons:
Although, the assertion that I went through 753 calories is suspect:
To be fair to TrainerRoad, this is not their fault. They can’t possibly know that my metabolism defies physics and that I actually gained weight as I did the test.
So: 289 FTP for Fatty. The highest I’ve ever measured it. Not bad for a guy who turns fifty next month.
I’m beginning to believe there may be something to this whole “structured workout” thing. Weird.
Comment by Scott | 05.5.2016 | 2:35 pm
In a word – WOW
Comment by CJ | 05.5.2016 | 3:11 pm
Glad I’m not the only one that
A) gets really nervous before TR FTP tedt
B) looks at other people’s attempts, judges, feels bad about it
C) would happily frame my last test, because the graph is beautiful https://www.strava.com/activities/550477105
Comment by 331miles | 05.5.2016 | 3:18 pm
GREAT post. Your description of a 1 minute effort is hilariously right. Personal note: I completed TR’s 20 minute FTP test, then started Rolling Road Race training. A few weeks later, on a lark I did 45 minutes of Italian Press (big chainring little cog, 40-60 cadence, muscle builder). I beat my FTP. In other words, I’m a king sandbagger when testing myself.
Comment by Ray Wright | 05.6.2016 | 6:26 am
Now the real pain starts. Those 20 extra watts are now part of your future workout life. You will hate yourself for doing so well.
I remember a post a while back where you said you never monitored heart rate much less power. I guess you have come to the dark side
Comment by Tom in Albany | 05.6.2016 | 7:17 am
We all like to day, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Just don’t forget that ‘kill you’ is still one of the possibilities…
Comment by wharton_crew | 05.6.2016 | 8:02 am
Congrats on such a great “race-ment”, or would “base-race” be more fitting?
Comment by Mark in Bremerton | 05.6.2016 | 8:30 am
I have done – not recently – those sorts of tests on the rowing ergometer. Your description of it all is right on. Great mental effort!
I just entered the next age group, so I’m trying to get psyched early for the indoor rowing races next winter. I’m cycling this summer, of course, but getting my mind wrapped around the effort required to be competitive will take about that long. I see lots of pain in my future.
Comment by Jim | 05.6.2016 | 10:46 am
Posting this is not vain. It is a good way to get interest from pro teams. ;)
Any thoughts of quitting racing can be put to bed for awhile. You are still getting better, Fatty.
Comment by UpTheGrade, SR, CA | 05.6.2016 | 10:52 am
Great to see you achieving new heights of power output Fatty, especially at your advanced years ;-)
(I hope to keep improving till I’m 100, which is why I’m improving so slowly – got to leave some headroom)
What we need to know now is your power to weight ratio (so we can predict your race competitiveness).
You were planning to publish your weight regularly so we could keep you honest, right?
Comment by kratka | 05.6.2016 | 1:24 pm
Nice work sir! You’ll learn to test better as you master the art of structured training, and the numbers will keep going up, and the pain will remain, and you’ll get faster. As Greg Lemond said: “It never gets easier; you just go faster”.
I try to use the Salt Aire TT races on Thursdays to train to pace myself in quadrants as explained by the Joe Friel at http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2009/05/time-trial-pacing.html. Maybe that would help.
Comment by Thad | 05.6.2016 | 2:00 pm
I suggest we petition the laws of physics to drop the kg, from the watts/kg ratio?
Comment by Nicholas Kanwetz | 05.6.2016 | 3:31 pm
As always, thanks for spreading the love here, Fatty. ;-) 50’s never looked so good my friend. Of course, looking forward to even more gains down the road as well.
Cheers,
Community Manager at TrainerRoad – Cycling’s Most Effective Training Tool
http://www.trainerroad.com/how-it-works
Comment by Anonymous | 05.7.2016 | 10:10 am
@Mark in Bremerton; me too! Before I rode I rowed. There’s a very fine line between PB and blowing up.
Comment by Jeff Dieffenbach | 05.7.2016 | 12:59 pm
@Thad, I’ve got an even better idea than “dropping the kg.” See, we need to *move* the kg. What if it were W x kg? Then we’d be onto something, wouldn’t we?
Comment by Jeff Dieffenbach | 05.7.2016 | 1:00 pm
I just listened to the BSNYC podcast, will post some thoughts in the comments section under that post.
http://www.fatcyclist.com/2016/05/03/new-fattycast-bike-snob-nyc-talks-about-his-new-book-the-ultimate-bicycle-owners-manual/
Comment by Bill H-D | 05.8.2016 | 4:27 pm
As part of the NASA study I participated in, I did FTP sessions like this every other day for 6 months. I can attest, there are many lessons to learn about pacing. My ending FTP was 262W. It’s hard to appreciate until you’ve done it, but 20W more is a huge jump!
Comment by Thad | 05.11.2016 | 1:52 pm
Jeff Dieffenbach,
I would have a score of 33,000! Thats waaaay better! I need ice cream.
Comment by ROBERT | 05.15.2016 | 1:08 pm
This will be a great method for fatty men. I shall try it for myself