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FTP Test by Garmin is totally wrong and not the Standard Protocol?

f|33tStA
over 4 years ago

i am not sure, but i think, the Garmin FTP Test is totally wrong and not like the Standard FTP Test Protocols, or?

in the 20min phase, the Garmin Test change the Target of the Power every 4 minutes higher, the first 4 minutes are arround my actual FTP and then Garmin increases the value, after 8 minutes to a value where it's impossible for me, to hold till to 12 minutes, same after the next step, the target is now so high, more ore less 100 Watt over my actual FTP, it's impossible to hold it so long.

Why all other to the FTP testing different, like Zwift, in Zwift you get the message after 10minutes, you have now a average of e.g.210 Watt, try to increase it, so you cqan hold it for the next 10 minutes?

i know, i do cycling for fun and i am near 50 years old, but is this Testing really right?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to f|33tStA

    Did the change in VO2 value show up on the Edge?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to aweatherall

    on the device himself not, seems it' impossible

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to f|33tStA

    omg, i think the power zone calculation in Garmin is totally wrong, look, here my Garmin FTP Zones calculated by Garmin:

    and here with external calculator:

    https://www.myprocoach.net/calculators/bike-zones/

    what do you think?

    that means Garmin FTP Test using a Zone 6 as target and not Zone 5?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to f|33tStA

    I'm not quite sure what you mean. And this is pretty much entirely out of my area of expertise, but obviously if you are taking instructions from one platform and executing them on another - then you want them to be talking the same language, using the same scale. I don't know what the standard is here - but maybe someone else does. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to HermanB

    ok, i will try more again:

    Zone 5 – VO2 Max – 106-120% of FTP (in my case with 192 FTP i have to ride 4 minutes with 203 Watt till 230)

    Zone 6 – Anaerobic – >121% of FTP (in my case with 192 FTP i have to ride 3 minutes aftert 4 minutes in Z5 over 232 Watt or higher

    that means i have to ride 3 minutes totally in anaerobic, after 4 minutes vo2max, is this correct?

    because Garmin says i have to ride in Zone5 240 Watt till 260 Watt instead of 203 till 230 and in Zone 6 i have to ride 260 till 280 Watt instead of 232 or higher

    for me, it's a wrong Zone shifting or something similar, or?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to f|33tStA

    You're mixing up your 7 ftp zones with with the 7 stages of the ftp ramp test, they are different.

    The ftp ramp test will keep increasing trainer resistance in roughly 20 watt intervals then when you can't pedal any more (fail the test, unfortunate terminology) then it calculates your highest 1 minute average power and takes 75% of that to give your ftp.

    After you have that figure you can calculate your 7 ftp zones based on the formula derived by Dr Andrew Coggan that you list above.

    https://www.endurancepath.com/resources/coggan-power-training-zone-calculator/

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to jgforrest

    that means, when i want to use the Garmin FTP Test i have to set my FTP to a lower value, so my Zone 5 range is more or less the max of Z6?

    mean my actual FTP is 192W and i have to set it to 162W to finalise it, you agree?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to f|33tStA

    Nope.  To do an FTP test you don't need to know your current FTP or change your FTP number to try and adjust the FTP test.  Just do the test and see what result it gives you.  You use the result to set up the power zones.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to f|33tStA

     i tried to change my FTP settings down to 100 Watt or 162W or 400 and of course 600 Watt, the target Power in the FTP Test  don't change, that means a Pro driver (Tour de france or siminlar) couldn't do this Test, because the Target is to low for him, it must be a bug?

     sorry for bother you again, please can you talk with a colleague of you @FirstBeat if this is really normal, or you can clarify this with Garmin please?

    is this definition as First Beat means and correct, or is there something Garmin applied wrongly in their software/devices?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to f|33tStA

    I'm not sure that anything you are writing about has anything to do with Firstbeat powered analytics.

    To clarify, I will quickly recap how Firstbeat's FTP detection works - and if it works the same way as the LT detection, with which I am much more familiar, then there is a guided test you can perform, but it will also detect your FTP during any recorded activity that contains enough of the right kind of performance data needed for the detection.

    Basically, the analysis is looking at a combination of heart rate, heart rate variability and respiration rate derived from HRV. 

    When there is enough good data from key intensity levels above and below your threshold, then it's possible to identify a phenomenon in the data that relates nicely to your threshold. Then it's simply a matter of identifying the pace (running) or watts (cycling) that matches up with that level of intensity.