I took my first Wahoo 4DP test less than a year ago, and I just completed another one today. All my metrics improved: NM went from 812 to 838 watts, AC from 339 to 390 watts, MAP from 220 to 269 watts, and FTP increased to 205 watts.
Everything looks good, but I did take a Half Monty fitness test 7 months ago, which gave me a MAP of 266 and an FTP of 210. So, compared to that, my MAP improved slightly, but my FTP actually went down by 5 watts. I’m guessing that might be within the margin of error.
Since spring, I haven’t done much structured training, but I’ve been riding outdoors regularly. Based on Strava metrics and how I feel, I think I’ve made decent progress.
Any thoughts on how I should interpret these results? I feel a bit disappointed that in 7 months I pretty much kept MAP and FTP the same.
Should I take the Half Monty FTP test as well to have a more fair comparison?
Based on what you’ve said I’d say margin of error makes sense to me. I’d also expect not to make any significant gains in any metric unless my “riding outside regularly” involved a heavy dose of Zone 2 or some otherwise focused training.
That said, go ahead and do a HM. It’s not gonna smash you or require much in the way of recovery and might provide you with the reassurance that you are precisely where you expect to be based on your riding behaviour to date.
Fwiw, my riding this year has been much lower than usual and my recent HM has my FTP down by 24 watts or about 10% (which feels about right to me to atm).
You can take an additional Half Monty but chances are that it would not change things very much. Not doing structured training in the summer and riding outdoors regularly is also being called ‘reverse periodization’. There is nothing wrong with it, on the contrary. But your 4DP numbers might even have gone down.
Don’t get fooled by Strava Metrics; Strava does not measure your fitness, it presents training load as fitness.
The good news is that after all the base work you have done in the summer and fresh 4DP numbers you will very likely see good improvements with a structured training program.
Hello! One of my strengths is short intense effort. Usually my Half Monthy tests are 5 to 10% higher than my 4DP. I think nothing scientific here, my feelings only, I feel more tired before the 4dp 20 minutes.
Interesting, my profile says in fact Attacker! Good to know that ramps might inflate my FTP.
Overall, glad it’s expected to not improve metrics after month of non-structured training. One the plus side, I have also improved NM and AC within less than one year which I think it’s good no matter what.
Yeah, the first time I did HM, I was amazed that my FTP had improved by 15% in a relatively short time. Then I tried to do hold that FTP in FF a week or two later and comletely failed to do it.
Interestingly, whenever I have done it since then I have been much closer to correct value (at least based on how I feel). That said, I also did the Ramp Test on another platform and it’s number was around 15w higher than in Suf.
So, focus more on comparing your two 4DP tests (which show some great improvement by the way). HM can be useful, but can also be a bit out.
Yeah just as fundamental matter they do not measure ftp, they estimate based on performance over the test. So two different tests, two different estimation methods; you should expect them to be correlated but no reason to expect them to be identical.
ETA, @ChrisMTB i have heard this same from folks who used max 20 minutes x .95 as their estimator. In the beginning of the season their multiplier needed to be more like .93 or .94, but would go up to .95 or .96 as they got fitter. So it’s a known thing.