Test Drive Unlimited 2 0.1.5.1 Trainer
Antonio Brittenham
Physiologically, FTP is analogous to Lactate Threshold. This is when your lactate production has risen and leveled off, closely matching your lactate removal ability. Sustaining high efforts for durations of this length pushes you into that grey area between the power you can sustain all day and the fleeting power you can only tolerate for a couple of minutes.
An FTP test is a physical assessment intended to evaluate your Functional Threshold Power. During the test, you attempt to sustain the highest workload you can for a specific amount of time. An estimate of your FTP is calculated from your power output. From this result, your workouts are tailored to your current fitness.
Since FTP is supposed to represent the power you can sustain for an hour, the most obvious way to test FTP is to ride as hard as you can for 60 minutes and measure your average power. This is extraordinarily difficult to pace correctly and incredibly fatiguing in practice, so most testing protocols use approximations derived from shorter efforts.
Perhaps the best-known FTP testing method is a 20-minute time trial. In this format, you ride as hard as you steadily can for 20 minutes; 95% of your average power during this interval is used as your FTP. Another common method is the 8-minute test, in which you ride two 8-minute intervals with 10 minutes of rest in between. In this format, your FTP is derived as 90% of the overall average power of the two efforts. TrainerRoad offers both of these tests as options, but they are more subject to pacing, fatigue, and equipment challenges than the Ramp Test.
We recommend riders reassess their pace every 5 minutes during the test, and that any adjustments be just a few percent at a time. Many athletes ride these long efforts too conservatively and surge their power during the last 2 minutes; this skews the results and should be avoided. You should arrive at the last 5 minutes just able to hang on and maintain steady power.
The estimate you obtain from an FTP test is used to calibrate your training zones and set the intensity of your workouts. Without actually testing your Lactate Threshold and VO2max in a lab, your FTP is an approximation. But, the applicability and usefulness of this number has been proven by generations of coaches and endurance athletes.
One thing to keep in mind is that nutrition is another variable to control. If you want comparable results from one test to another, try to keep the timing and substance of your nutrition the same. You can check out our blog post, How to Use Carbs for Maximum Performance. It covers the type and timing of carbs needed for your workouts.
Drastic increases or reductions in your cadence might enable Erg mode and confuse your smart trainer, thus causing it to seize up. This happens because your electronic trainer is trying to help you hit your power target. When you pedal fast, your trainer will ease up on the resistance to allow you to hit your power target. The reverse happens when you slow down. The moment your cadence drops significantly like right after you finish an intense interval, your trainer will increase its resistance to help you hit your power target.
Note: This post has been updated to include information about the Ramp Test, which was introduced after its original publication. The update includes contributions from Meghan Kelley and Jonathan Lee.
If you are under 18 years old, you are required to complete classroom DE at a licensed DT school before you can get your instruction permit. Your instruction permit will be valid after being signed by your professional driving instructor, once you have completed at least one hour of behind-the-wheel training. This training gives you the foundational skills, experience, and confidence you need to pass your driving test and become a safe driver for life.
Driver education (DE) teaches you about traffic laws, road safety, driver responsibilities, and avoiding accidents. It must consist of either 30 hours or 2 1/2 semester periods of professional classroom instruction (not including breaks or meal times) or a home study or internet training program. If you choose to do a home study or internet training program, it must meet the same requirements as classroom instruction. To learn more, check out the DE Curriculum.
If you are a minor, you may present a Certificate of Enrollment in an Integrated (Classroom) Driver Education and Driver Training Program certificate in lieu of the Certificate of Completion of Driver Education.
If you are a minor, you must also hold your instruction permit for a minimum of 6 months prior to testing and have their instruction permit signed by their parent or guardian indicating completion of 50 hours of supervised driving practice (10 hours during night time) with a parent, guardian, licensed driver 25 years old or older, or a licensed or certified driving instructor.
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The web pages currently in English on the DMV website are the official and accurate source for the program information and services the DMV provides. Any discrepancies or differences created in the translation are not binding and have no legal effect for compliance or enforcement purposes. If any questions arise related to the information contained in the translated website, please refer to the English version.
There used to be a site called Friction Facts that covered a lot of this in-depth, but then Ceramic Speed bought them and the data all seems less visibly found. However, past news articles about the site outline most of the key stats you need to know. And Ceramic Speed does have some good articles left as well. Additionally, other 3rd party sites like Cycling Power Lab has more stats on this too.
If you have a coin-cell driven unit, one of the first and obvious signs of a dying battery is poor accuracy. Usually this renders itself via dropouts, but sometimes at low-voltage levels you just get general badness. As soon as you suspect power accuracy issues, just go get a clean pair of batteries and see if life returns to normal.
For example, the above graph shows an issue where for the first few sets the trainer was inaccurate at the beginning of each spike. This is because of gearing in ERG mode. In fact, TrainerRoad warns about this, and how to increase accuracy and stability in sets. They go into great detail on it here.
It totally depends on the nuances of your specific ride. For some people (99%) they may never notice the difference between those two price points, whereas for others it may become more apparent. Either way, I summarize all those in my trainer recommendations guide here.
I am asking because I have a strange behaving Direto in the pain cave and i do not know how to debug even more other than providing files to the Elite support and doing calibration spin-downs (and according to the offset, everything is right)
Basically my Direto is constantly beeping on uphills with a grade > 5-6%. The pedallijg feels slippery. Sounds like it can not fix the resistance and is getting a lot of variances form their integrated power meter. For me it is just not usable anymore. Strange thing here is that it worked very well for the last winter season, shortly after it was released and I got it.
The Elite support is not helpful. The basically say the trainer is behaving correctly and the error is on my side not riding the right way. I have yet to prove it with some good videos of the problem and my rages.
In terms of accuracy, you are correct: two sensors add up their imprecisions. Dual sensors add the benefit of independent leg measurements, however; and pedal-based sensors bring in ease of installation and transfer between bikes on top.
Hi Ray,
First a big thanks for this guide, it is clear and very helpful. I actually suffered from the time drift issue by one unit pausing, Zwift actually pausing when I stepped off to adjust something.
I just bought my KICKR core and had the same issue, my specialized tarmac was not shifting properly to the 11th cog. Te problem was the metal piece you insert in the trainer tu support the QR bikes, definitely the cassette is too close to the frame.
For some specialized bikes, you actually need to get a different derailleur hanger. They offset by 2mm for chain alignment so only work with the specialized hubs. A friend was having this issue of poor shifting on her Hammer. swapped out the hanger and all is good. Specialized and their proprietary sh@#.
Roger, I see the same thing with my Kickr Core and my PowerTap C1. The C1 consistently reports 10W higher than the Core. I also have a Stages (left only) which reports more or less the same offset as the C1. I contacted Wahoo support about the differences but they kept coming back to the difference being drivetrain loss and +/- tolerances. I might agree with them on that but not when the 10W difference is the same at 100W as it is 400W.
Hi
I am in the proces to find out what is the problem. I have just received a new Power meter from 4IIII, where I already have 2. So I know how I normally bike.
But now I have a unbalance which I normally d not have of L/R: 40/60% The firmware version is 3.0/2.1 and I suspect drops out on the left site, so my plan was to look inside the FIT file, but it is in binary format, and I cannot find a conversion tool that can make it to CSV format. Do any one know to a tool that can so that?