Testing testing…

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I started up with a plan back in November, then stopped before the month was out. Started up again in January and I’ve been pretty consistent.

Did HM back in November and got my lowest FTP and MAP since I started testing and paying attention to this kind of stuff so, about 10+ years.

At the beginning of February, I started feeling the intensity easing off as I slowly began to regain a little fitness. So, I manually adjusted my MAP and FTP to where I thought it might be. Did a new HM today and BOOM, my self-estimated FTP was off by 1 watt, and my MAP by 7 watts :joy:

I guess at a certain point, and after some experience, RPE lines up quite nicely with actual test results. For my purposes at least, I’m finding formal testing is becoming less and less relevant.

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One should test every now and then to keep oneself honest.

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I’ll keep doing it for essentially that reason to confirm what I already know.

I don’t see myself doing FF again though, unless they require it in beta (I’ll do it for SCIENCE!!) My sprint has always been exceptional (relative to the other metrics) and I’m fortunate that with my rider type my FTP via HM has always been within less than a handful of watts from FF.

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Not that I blame you, but it sounds a little like you are trying to talk yourself out of it :wink:

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There is no try :wink:

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In my case, HM overestimates my FTP by 5-6% so the last time I did it I just subtracted and got a number that appears to work for me. I am still working full time in a very demanding career and take 5 days of decreased activity on my rest weeks. For FF I need about 7 days of decreased training and I don’t like losing that weekend the week before because I am definitely “time crunched “. I also need a day or two to recover from FF. It’s almost like tapering for an event. If I can estimate my numbers and get hard, but doable workouts I’d rather not test.

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I did my last FF about three weeks ago.

It is the quintessence of suffering. It is like taking a loyalty oath to Sufferlandria.

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I like to think of myself as a bit of a heretic when it comes to this topic :smiling_face_with_horns:

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Exactly. This kind of gets to the point behind testing:

  1. Tracking improvements. A flawed but repeatable test can do this.
  2. Providing a baseline for workout efforts. This is the essence of Mecons’ point above - if I can finish the workouts but they’re not too easy, it must be close enough.
  3. Ego. I’m as guilty as the next guy but try not to act on this.
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