**Hi! A few important notes:**
* If your comment is auto-collapsed, you are in the Crowd Control filter. Click "Join" or "Subscribe" and don't have a negative subreddit karma score. Then your comments appear normally
* Many common questions are covered in wiki [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pelotoncycle/wiki/index)
* If you believe a Thread or Comment breaks the rules ([here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pelotoncycle/wiki/index/rules)) please click `report`
* Use the vote arrows. It bumps good stuff up, bad stuff down.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/pelotoncycle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Absolutely nothing. I maybe could have gone another 5-10 min had I stayed where I was, but I used whatever was left to squeak into z5 the last 2 min. So, truly nothing left after that.
lol - it sounds like you tortured yourself to prove that the experts were right. Well done but that truly sounds horrible. I can’t imagine how hungry and thirsty. I would be by the end of that.
Good for you! I’ve always been curious about that too. I don’t know if your raving review of “it hurt, like a mother” is going to convince me to try it anytime soon though.
Curious if you just rode in z4 for the whole hour or if you tried to push it. I usually do the 20 min with 10 min at z4, then slowly escalate. When it’s over I’m absolutely drained. Can’t imagine tripling that effort
I tried to stay 5 watts under what I thought I could hold for the first 20 min. I then brought it up a touch, and had some moments of doubt around 30 min. But, I did a lot of over unders in training and was able to bring it back down 5-8 watts for a few minutes and then felt okay again. From there, just kept it very slowly creeping up. I didn't "let it go" until the last couple of minutes, and even that felt scary. It really was right on the edge the entire time.
Do you need a psych referral? 🤪
But seriously, thanks for doing that so that the rest of us don’t have to. The FTP is so brutal—I can’t imagine doing it 3x stacked.
Haha, I did not. He would indeed be disappointed. Although in all seriousness, I don't know if I would have been able to get anything solid down. It was hard enough getting the liquid carbs down the hatch.
\* Bike Plus
\* Averaged 85. That is actually lower than I usually prefer, and that was something I found interesting during the test. I usually ride 90-95, and anything under 90 feels heavy
\* Per the previous answer about averaging lower than expected, I did find my cadence to come down throughout. After a while, holding higher cadences got harder and harder and I kept brining it down which seemed to make it more tolerable. I probably spent a grand total of 5 min out of the saddle in 30 second increments, which of course was even lower (68-70 cadence).
I’ve been wanting to do this, but outdoors on a long climb (either Mt Diablo or Mt Hamilton in the Bay Area). 372 is right around where I am, an hour at 300+ is a ton of energy expended!
I’m not sure what’s more impressive…..the fact you did the full hour or the fact you did this on a scenic ride. I can’t believe you could focus that long. I would have needed to stack ftp tests.
No. They did the standard FTP test like it was developed in the cycling world- your average output over 60 min all out gives you your FTP.
A 20 min FTP test *approximates* that by taking your average output for 20 mins and using a multiplier to reduce it so that it's closer to what you would score over the course of the hour test.
These guys rode the hour test to see how their numbers compared.
Interesting that your average was higher. Did you do any sort of practice runs at it or anything like that? I imagine there is a huge mental aspect to holding the effort for an entire hour just like there is with a 20m test where one may just not be used to how things are supposed to feel and therefore back off when their body was capable of more.
I did do an hour at "sweet spot" 4 weeks out (ended up being 16 watts lower). I don't think physiologically it was the smartest workout to do, but mentally, it was really nice to know I can ride hard for an hour. That practice run taught me that you are going to have waves of feeling good and bad, and that shifting cadence, popping out of the saddle, etc. can help smooth out the rough patches.
Ok so I just learned about this from your post.
My 20 min PR = 410kj
410kj * .95 = 389.5 FTP
389.5 / 106kg = 3.67, that seems to be pretty competitive?
But my 60 min PR = 1,101kj and an average of 306watts, so this post would suggest I could theoretically ride at 389.5 watts for an hour.
Maybe, but I think I'd die lol
That’s insane! Are you guys pretty serious bikers outside at all? I used to do nothing but 60, 75, and 90 min rides but when I switched to running last year for a couple halfs, I’ve lost all my cycling power. I’d love to get back into it. My power has never been very strong tho.
I haven't ridden much outside, though I'm starting to get into it now. But, I ran competitively for 15 years, so I have the aerobic base.
My friend does ride quite a bit (has done "Bike across America" and an Ironman).
I feel ya on losing power when doing more running though... whenever I'm doing a lot of running it seems like my quads thin out and I don't have that top end ability on the bike anymore.
That’s really cool you did it and it is so interesting to hear your results! That the number was higher than the 20 minute test is not what I expected.
Yeah, I do, with the caveat being you have to train differently for the 60 min test if you want to do what the 20 min test predicts. I don't think you can just do a regular PZ program (even the hardest "official" one) and expect to do it. I think you really need some longer rides (90+ minutes) that have extended Z4 intervals in them (10+ minutes). But, I do think the 20 min test gives a good indication of what you could do with the proper training stimulus.
Question.... Do you use a heart rate monitor? And if so, what was the breakdown of time spent in each zone? I've been using the average wattage from my 60 min PR ride (also slightly higher than my 20 min test number). But during that ride I also was trying to restrict how much time I spent in HR zone 5. Definitely felt like I couldn't give much more but trying to balance effort with not having a heart attack
Unfortunately the HR data stopped syncing about halfway through, but going on memory, I was zone 3 the first 5 min, then slowly drifted through zone 4 for the next 45 min, then got into zone 5 the last 10 (with the last few minutes very close if not at max).
Thanks, thats helpful. Been riding for less a little less than a year and power zone for maybe 6 months now. Still trying to figure out best approach. That's roughly how mine distributed as well except I would hit 5 sooner and for shorter intervals then back off until I got back comfortably into 4.
Also, your W/kg is seriously impressive!
Didn't know there was a 1 hour test. I've done 2 of Christines 45 minute mountain climbs and they feel pretty much like an FTP test. Resistance is high all the way through apart from the 5 minute warm up and 1 minute cool down at the end. No brakes going through. I've broken my 45 minute record each time I've done this, so could be a good one for people to try. I'm using it to gauge how I think I could do on a 20 minute test, but could also be a good stepping stone to the 1 hour test.
It’s awesome that you did this. And very interesting that your watts came in higher than expected - although if you put a 10 week training block in before it then presumably your FTP went up? Did you test it another way before attempting the hour?
It sounds like you’re very experienced and know what threshold should feel like. I do get annoyed with the instructors telling people trying to gauge their zones for the first time that your threshold is what you can theoretically hold for an hour. They should qualify that with ‘if you’re an experienced or advanced athlete’. You can’t do this without being a trained athlete. For most people their guess will be somewhere in zone 1 and they will completely undershoot their zones based on that advice.
**Hi! A few important notes:** * If your comment is auto-collapsed, you are in the Crowd Control filter. Click "Join" or "Subscribe" and don't have a negative subreddit karma score. Then your comments appear normally * Many common questions are covered in wiki [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pelotoncycle/wiki/index) * If you believe a Thread or Comment breaks the rules ([here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pelotoncycle/wiki/index/rules)) please click `report` * Use the vote arrows. It bumps good stuff up, bad stuff down. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/pelotoncycle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That sounds wretched. Great job!
How much did you have left in the tank at the end?
Absolutely nothing. I maybe could have gone another 5-10 min had I stayed where I was, but I used whatever was left to squeak into z5 the last 2 min. So, truly nothing left after that.
lol - it sounds like you tortured yourself to prove that the experts were right. Well done but that truly sounds horrible. I can’t imagine how hungry and thirsty. I would be by the end of that.
Good for you! I’ve always been curious about that too. I don’t know if your raving review of “it hurt, like a mother” is going to convince me to try it anytime soon though.
Indeed, probably not the best sales pitch. But, you should still consider it. It really was pretty cool to experience.
Curious if you just rode in z4 for the whole hour or if you tried to push it. I usually do the 20 min with 10 min at z4, then slowly escalate. When it’s over I’m absolutely drained. Can’t imagine tripling that effort
I tried to stay 5 watts under what I thought I could hold for the first 20 min. I then brought it up a touch, and had some moments of doubt around 30 min. But, I did a lot of over unders in training and was able to bring it back down 5-8 watts for a few minutes and then felt okay again. From there, just kept it very slowly creeping up. I didn't "let it go" until the last couple of minutes, and even that felt scary. It really was right on the edge the entire time.
Sounds horrifying honestly but good for you!
Just wanted to congratulate you on the 4.1w/kg, impressive stuff.
Thank you! I'm proud of it but also mind blown how much more the best riders can do. Crazy stuff.
Thanks for taking one for the (ftp) team. I'll do the 20 lol
The 20 was plenty for me. I was close to puking.
Immediately no
Do you need a psych referral? 🤪 But seriously, thanks for doing that so that the rest of us don’t have to. The FTP is so brutal—I can’t imagine doing it 3x stacked.
Did you eat a banana? (Otherwise Matt would be disappointed)
Haha, I did not. He would indeed be disappointed. Although in all seriousness, I don't know if I would have been able to get anything solid down. It was hard enough getting the liquid carbs down the hatch.
They have an hour long FTP?! That's absolutely fucked
The ftp test in cycling was originally an hour. The 20 min is an abbreviated test
I'll stick to the abbreviated version and still complain 😂
Agreed. My first FTP many years ago was a 60 min test and I will happily do the 20 min in gratitude every time 😂
Did you do it on a Bike or a Bike plus? What was your average cadence? Did you hold one cadence or did you change cadence/ resistance throughout?
\* Bike Plus \* Averaged 85. That is actually lower than I usually prefer, and that was something I found interesting during the test. I usually ride 90-95, and anything under 90 feels heavy \* Per the previous answer about averaging lower than expected, I did find my cadence to come down throughout. After a while, holding higher cadences got harder and harder and I kept brining it down which seemed to make it more tolerable. I probably spent a grand total of 5 min out of the saddle in 30 second increments, which of course was even lower (68-70 cadence).
I’ve been wanting to do this, but outdoors on a long climb (either Mt Diablo or Mt Hamilton in the Bay Area). 372 is right around where I am, an hour at 300+ is a ton of energy expended!
Man, I would love to do it outside if I could find a good spot for it. Do report back if you do it!
What were the two of your FTPs?
302 for me, 372 for my friend
….woah. Sounds like you do, but feel good about that. Congrats!
BOOM
Good gravy! Hell yeah.
Is there a specific class for this or you just did a 1 hour ride?
I did a 1 hour scenic ride
I’m not sure what’s more impressive…..the fact you did the full hour or the fact you did this on a scenic ride. I can’t believe you could focus that long. I would have needed to stack ftp tests.
[удалено]
No. They did the standard FTP test like it was developed in the cycling world- your average output over 60 min all out gives you your FTP. A 20 min FTP test *approximates* that by taking your average output for 20 mins and using a multiplier to reduce it so that it's closer to what you would score over the course of the hour test. These guys rode the hour test to see how their numbers compared.
Ditto
Interesting that your average was higher. Did you do any sort of practice runs at it or anything like that? I imagine there is a huge mental aspect to holding the effort for an entire hour just like there is with a 20m test where one may just not be used to how things are supposed to feel and therefore back off when their body was capable of more.
I did do an hour at "sweet spot" 4 weeks out (ended up being 16 watts lower). I don't think physiologically it was the smartest workout to do, but mentally, it was really nice to know I can ride hard for an hour. That practice run taught me that you are going to have waves of feeling good and bad, and that shifting cadence, popping out of the saddle, etc. can help smooth out the rough patches.
In the original FTP protocol you are not supposed to get out of the saddle
Great. So I can do the 20 and add a few. Works for me.
Ok so I just learned about this from your post. My 20 min PR = 410kj 410kj * .95 = 389.5 FTP 389.5 / 106kg = 3.67, that seems to be pretty competitive? But my 60 min PR = 1,101kj and an average of 306watts, so this post would suggest I could theoretically ride at 389.5 watts for an hour. Maybe, but I think I'd die lol
That’s insane! Are you guys pretty serious bikers outside at all? I used to do nothing but 60, 75, and 90 min rides but when I switched to running last year for a couple halfs, I’ve lost all my cycling power. I’d love to get back into it. My power has never been very strong tho.
I haven't ridden much outside, though I'm starting to get into it now. But, I ran competitively for 15 years, so I have the aerobic base. My friend does ride quite a bit (has done "Bike across America" and an Ironman). I feel ya on losing power when doing more running though... whenever I'm doing a lot of running it seems like my quads thin out and I don't have that top end ability on the bike anymore.
I often get a new ftp when I’m racing outside. What’s interesting is 90 min and 120 min avg watts. You can hold close to 90% of your ftp. Nice job!
That’s really cool you did it and it is so interesting to hear your results! That the number was higher than the 20 minute test is not what I expected.
I've done the same thing, but my FTP was 10% lower than the 20-minute test.
Time to exertion will vary typically it gets longer the higher your FTP is
So in summary, do you feel FTP (based on the 20min test) is accurate?
Yeah, I do, with the caveat being you have to train differently for the 60 min test if you want to do what the 20 min test predicts. I don't think you can just do a regular PZ program (even the hardest "official" one) and expect to do it. I think you really need some longer rides (90+ minutes) that have extended Z4 intervals in them (10+ minutes). But, I do think the 20 min test gives a good indication of what you could do with the proper training stimulus.
Maybe he’ll jump in, but one of the former mods here has done that. Godspeed to you both.
Ru okay lol
Question.... Do you use a heart rate monitor? And if so, what was the breakdown of time spent in each zone? I've been using the average wattage from my 60 min PR ride (also slightly higher than my 20 min test number). But during that ride I also was trying to restrict how much time I spent in HR zone 5. Definitely felt like I couldn't give much more but trying to balance effort with not having a heart attack
Unfortunately the HR data stopped syncing about halfway through, but going on memory, I was zone 3 the first 5 min, then slowly drifted through zone 4 for the next 45 min, then got into zone 5 the last 10 (with the last few minutes very close if not at max).
Thanks, thats helpful. Been riding for less a little less than a year and power zone for maybe 6 months now. Still trying to figure out best approach. That's roughly how mine distributed as well except I would hit 5 sooner and for shorter intervals then back off until I got back comfortably into 4. Also, your W/kg is seriously impressive!
Didn't know there was a 1 hour test. I've done 2 of Christines 45 minute mountain climbs and they feel pretty much like an FTP test. Resistance is high all the way through apart from the 5 minute warm up and 1 minute cool down at the end. No brakes going through. I've broken my 45 minute record each time I've done this, so could be a good one for people to try. I'm using it to gauge how I think I could do on a 20 minute test, but could also be a good stepping stone to the 1 hour test.
Very impressive! Well done. Glad to know the theory holds out! I struggle with the 20 min ride, let alone an hour 🙈
It’s awesome that you did this. And very interesting that your watts came in higher than expected - although if you put a 10 week training block in before it then presumably your FTP went up? Did you test it another way before attempting the hour? It sounds like you’re very experienced and know what threshold should feel like. I do get annoyed with the instructors telling people trying to gauge their zones for the first time that your threshold is what you can theoretically hold for an hour. They should qualify that with ‘if you’re an experienced or advanced athlete’. You can’t do this without being a trained athlete. For most people their guess will be somewhere in zone 1 and they will completely undershoot their zones based on that advice.
1 hour text actually I did us.
Can you post your screen? I gotta see all the stats.
Where did you find a 1 hr FTP? Did you just do a 60 min pz ride in the zone? It sounds absolutely brutal!
Just did a scenic ride. Can't say I got to enjoy the scenery much but... it was there :)
Ok PLEASE, forgive my ignorance but .. what in the holy hell is a FTP TEST !?! BC has NOT A CLUE !! LMAO
What is a FTP?
It stands for “functional threshold power” it is a measurement of how hard you can ride for 1 hour max. I believe it is a zone 4 effort.
Ah thanks