Birthday FTP test + quick thoughts

So Friday was my birthday, and despite usually not making a "deal" out of such things, I figured it would make a good day to do an FTP test. It's been a good while since I've done one, I've had my "break" after September to get lazy, and I figured I'd need a solid "grounded" number to work on over the winter.

Expectations, as you might imagine, were not very high. The last test I did was in the midst of a bike focus, where I was riding 4+ days a week. No way that's happening on my 2-3x current training. Nonetheless I have had some ok days the last little bit, so I was hoping to not embarrass myself too bad. It was also a good chance to play with my GoPro camera... I've actually had this thing for almost a year, but have never taken the time to learn the software so I have been hesitant to use it. Well... time to learn!

As for my actual test, I used a slightly modified version of Coggan/Allen's protocol. Since I had been training through I had a longer than normal warmup before my 5' "all out" to shake out the legs, then 15' instead of the usual 10' to spin/recover. After that it was time to go after it... conservatively. I started at something I knew I could hold (260w) and just held that for the first 5 minutes, slowly increasing for the next 10 minutes (I think I ended up around 274 or so by the 15' point) and then giving everything I had left for the last 5'. Of those last 5' I present this short clip of my suffering (and my cluttered trainer cave)

Excuse my poor excuse for editing skills... I've only had a quick crash course in the software, and even less experience with how Blogger deals with it.

I ended up with 285w for 20' or a 270w FTP. Still 4w/kg, but a pretty good drop (about 20 watts) from where I was. I do think I started a little too conservatively, but I was more interested in negative splitting than risking blowing up at 15' in.  I'll test again in a month or so and start a little more aggressively.

The video (assuming it actually works, which I guess is a big assumption) stuff was neat, and it possibly opens up a few more avenues of working on this blog. I definitely WON'T be moving to an all video type format (I personally don't enjoy them) but I can definitely see it being something I implement on certain occasions, especially for reviews where pictures + description won't totally convey what I want.

Anyways, the rest of my birthday consisted of me getting a little dressed up, eating lots of sushi, drinking a little too much sake and eventually ended with me ordering the parts to build a lightsaber... That's what happens when the missus goes out of town and I'm left to my own devices on my birthday.

With the hat to help hide how out of control my hair currently is.

Sorry that this post has primarily been useless to you guys, but it helps me (an incarnation of "chaos theory") structure myself if I actually put my thoughts down on some form of media. Next week I *hope* to have something interesting to show off, so long as I don't get distracted and actually get it finished. I'll also post some pictures of my lightsaber when I finish it!

I added this to last weeks post after Wednesday so in case you didn't see it (and just to put it out there again) Applications are open for the 2015 Cobb Mobb Team. Apply at this link!

Thank you guys for reading, I really appreciate it!

- Christopher Morelock