I did an mid-plan half monty test today, currently on the TT plan. Compared to the half monty I did in October, I raised my MAP with 7 watts, but my FTP stayed the same. Which is odd to me when I compared both monty’s constrained efforts:
October: 20 minutes at HR 172 averaging 228W
Today: 20 minutes at HR 171 averaging 236W
My cTHR dropped with 1 (181 to 180). The main difference today is that I drank coffee before the test(which I barely do normally) making my HR a lot higher than normal during the easy bits (easy spin at 135W was at 148HR, normally it’s around 130). During the constraint effort, I kept the upper limit of the range.
So, how come my FTP isn’t any higher? I’m not too disappointed or craving a bump, but I’m just trying to understand what happened and how to a higher HR can have an influence.
One thing to keep in mind is that FTP is only 1 number. Even 4dp is only 4 numbers. There’s a LOT more to functional fitness than numbers. For example, since you’re doing the TT plan, I’d bet that you are more comfortable at holding sweet spot/threshold for longer periods than you were at the beginning. There’s raising FTP, but there’s also being more able to use higher % of your existing FTP for longer. Both are critical (especially for time trials), even if only 1 involves seeing a higher number.
It’s also possible you are a bit more fatigued than in your last test, and being mid-plan you might have a lot of fatigue that hasn’t yet been realized as usable adaptions.
The difference is 8 watts. Variations in power meter readings, fatigue, fueling, or even time of day, are things that could contribute to the difference.
If you had several readings and a trend, that might be more meaningful.