11th June ‘25: And the results are in….

Fun start to the day.

FTP currently at 216 watts, which based on my current weight of 75kg would in theory mean I’m able to sustain just under 2.9 watts/kg for an hour.

Now, I’m not sure how accurate these tests are vs doing a full 1 hour time trial style test.. but you’ve got to believe that Zwift have enough data to give a fairly decent estimate based on a pretty short effort.

For the record, I quit fairly early in the 300 watt minute; apparently it’s the final minute of activity which really counts when determining FTP.

I’m planning on retesting – using the same ramp test – every 8 weeks or so.

As a reminder, I’d love to get my FTP towards 300 watts, but I suspect that is probably out of reach; but let’s say I do, and I also reduce my weight to 70kg (I’ll talk more about weight and diet another time); here are a few possible outcomes:

• Stretch target: 70kg, 300w FTP = 4.3w/kg (48% improvement)
• Target: 72kg, 280w FTP = 3.9w/kg (34% improvement)
• Low end/minimum: 72kg, 260w FTP = 3.6w/kg (24% improvement)
• And if I just lost weight but didn’t improve my fitness: 70kg, 216w FTP = 3.1w/kg (7% improvement)

Just looking at those figures, particularly comparing the first two.. for what is a relatively small weight reduction and modest power improvement, the FTP per kg looks pretty material… maybe that’s some additional stretch motivation to go the extra mile.