ABCD…..FTP: Understanding some training data

I am a numbers junkie…. which is kind of ironic since I am not very good with numbers.  Just add one letter of the alphabet to multiplication and I’m done, not to mention Greek letters and symbols.  And what the heck is an imaginary number??   But, I like data.  Sometimes it makes me sad, but usually it gives me something to work toward.  I don’t plan on being the next Tadej Pogačar but I want to know if I am improving or if I am on the same level as other average old women.  

Enter the smart trainer….A few years back, my husband was blessed to win a significant gift card at a bike shop he just happened to stop at when in Cranberry, PA. He put it toward the purchase of a Wahoo Kickr Core (https://us.zwift.com). He has spent hours on the trainer, exploring Watopia, an imaginary Zwift world, with a huge amount of other, non-imaginary, people from all over the world. 

Recently, we upgraded to the Zwift Cog and Click system which allows us to easily switch between bikes.  I use the smart trainer with a web-based program, Biketerra (https://biketerra.com/dashboard). It isn’t as sophisticated but it gives me numbers.  I have also found a way to do workouts that are specific to improving endurance, tempo, power…the numbers.  

What numbers??  There are so many!  And, to be completely honest, even as a nurse practitioner, I am not sure I understand them all. I first discovered all the data I could look at on the Garmin Connect app I use with my Forerunner 255 watch.  Aside from the normal distance and heart rate, there are heart rate zones and power zones. For running, there is cadence and walk/run comparisons.  Looking closer at the biking stats, I found VO2 max and FTP, power watts and RPMs.  I needed to understand.  So I went to YouTube.  Global Cycling Network (GCN)  https://youtube.com/@gcn is where I parked for more videos than I care to admit.  I also read information from my Garmin Connect app which states:

Well, that seems like a math problem I can do!!  I quickly found out that it is much more complicated.  Before I fully understood what I was getting myself into, I was doing an FTP ramp test.  There are also 20 minute FTP tests, but I don’t have that available to me.  Biketerra has a ramp test built into the workouts.

I thought I would die!!   Basically, it is an increase in intensity every minute until failure.  The test pushed me harder than I thought I could go and I realized that I had not been riding to my full potential.

My maximum power sustained for a full minute was 158 watts.  To calculate FTP, multiple the max watts by 0.75 (158 x 0.75 = 118.5).  On an average ride, I was seeing watts around 80 and thought I was working pretty hard.  This tells me I have more to give.   

This also allowed my Garmin to delineate zone ranges for power.  On Biketerra, I am able to use the FTP number to develop workouts, such as an over-under workout (pictured below) that will improve my overall power on the bike.  

Am I crazy…maybe.  Am I a little OCD…I don’t doubt it.  But numbers give me something to work on—cold hard facts.  I can’t rely on how I feel about a ride.  I may feel great about how I did, only to find I could have and should have done much better. Numbers also give me solid proof that my hard work is…well, working.  I can see strength in the numbers.