How To Set Your Ftp In Zwift

Functional Threshold Ability (FTP) is one of the cardinal performance metrics for cyclists who want to train and race with power.

It is by and large defined as the maximum average power, measured in watts, that a cyclist can sustain for an hr.

This has applications in its own right – for example, if you race 25-mile fourth dimension-trials in the Uk or you're racing with a power meter – just it's more commonly used to ready training zones and for measuring improvements (or deteriorations) in fitness.

This makes it useful for cyclists of all types, whether you lot ride road, gravel or mountain bikes.

FTP is too ane of the key figures used to decide all manner of things on Zwift, such as preparation zones and race categories.

How to sign-upwardly to Zwift

Visit the Zwift website to sign-upward for a gratuitous 7-solar day trial. After your trial flow ends, Zwift costs £12.99 / $14.99 per month.

Don't worry if this is all Greek to y'all, though, because yous can cheque out our full guide to FTP and why information technology matters for the full run-down. Here we're going to focus on how to employ Zwift to complete an FTP test, to give you your all-important FTP figure.

While y'all can complete an FTP test on the open route, it tin be hard to find a suitable stretch of tarmac, complimentary of interruptions such as junctions, traffic lights, roadworks and congestion. Given how downright unpleasant an FTP can exist, there'due south cypher worse than having to stop your effort afterward xv minutes.

Using the turbo trainer removes those variables and allows you to focus on producing your best functioning.

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Zwift is the ideal platform to test your FTP for power-based grooming.

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Why should I take an FTP test?

Before you embark on any kind of training plan, such every bit those available on Zwift , it's worth setting a baseline FTP figure for a couple of reasons.

Matt Rowe, of Rowe and King Cycle Coaching and host of the Zwift Power Up Cycling Podcast , says that having an accurate effigy for your FTP is vital because it'due south used to set your power zones.

"If your power zones aren't accurate, you'll exist training in the wrong zones, and non targeting what yous're intending to," says Rowe.

Having a baseline figure from the very beginning of your grooming plan will also allow you to know how much progress you're making throughout the plan.

"Get a couple of weeks under your belt, and then go stuck in," he says. "You're not going to get a smashing score [to begin with], but information technology helps found where yous're at."

Using your FTP to gear up accurate training zones is only as important for mountain bikers wanting to improve their fitness as it is for route cyclists.

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It's particularly relevant at the start of a new season or when you're almost to embark on a wintertime training plan, Rowe adds, specially if you lot're just coming back to training after a break.

"You might exist a long way off where you want to be, merely at this fourth dimension of twelvemonth that's where you should exist," says Rowe. "Setting an FTP now will help y'all to bear witness your improvements later on."

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Why should I use Zwift for an FTP examination?

One of the master reasons to use Zwift is that information technology makes it all very simple – the test protocols are well signposted and easy to follow. This likewise means information technology'due south very repeatable, so yous can be sure that your results are comparable every time.

If you have a smart trainer , then Zwift tin also use ERG mode to control the resistance of the trainer to ensure you striking the specific power levels required in a ramp exam, or in the warm-up for a twenty-minute time-trial test. Nosotros've cover those options in more detail below.

Once you lot've set your FTP, Zwift tin then adjust all of the workouts and training plans to your specific level of fitness.

You'll also then know which race category yous fit into, based on your current fitness level, because these are decided according to FTP in watts per kilogram (westward/kg).

There are four FTP tests on Zwift: ii archetype tests, which involve a 20-infinitesimal max try, and two ramp tests.

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FTP exam options

Exterior of simply riding as difficult as you lot can for an hour (which is very hard to pace correctly and can also be pretty boring), there are two main ways to examination FTP, both of which are available on Zwift.

Kickoff, in that location's the traditional 20-minute time-trial test. After a warm-up, including a five-minute attempt, you lot perform a 20-minute interval at maximum effort. Record your average power and then subtract five per cent to determine your FTP (Zwift will practise this automatically for you).

The second style to calculate FTP is to perform a ramp test. As the proper name suggests, the ramp exam involves performing intervals at ever-increasing power levels until failure. Zwift and then calculates your FTP based on 75 per cent of the maximum power interval that you complete.

Let's take a closer wait at both of these options, to aid you lot choose the right one for you.

How to test your FTP on Zwift

If you're new to Zwift only y'all already know what your FTP is, yous can manually enter it on your profile page or on the workout folio – information technology displays your FTP in the lesser right of the window, and to change information technology you merely demand to click it.

Alternatively, Zwift will calculate your FTP from general riding in the game or from racing. Zwift will automatically summate your FTP on every ride, using the maximum 20-minute average power you record on each ride, simply will only notify you if it detects an increment over your current score.

However, the best way to set your FTP is to perform one of Zwift'south specific FTP workouts available in the Training page.

Classic FTP tests

The first workout, which is simply called 'FTP Test', is Zwift's standard protocol.

It starts with a long, like shooting fish in a barrel warm-upwardly, followed by a few ramps and a 5-minute effort. Afterward that, you get a rest period, earlier performing the twenty-minute maximum effort test interval.

Zwift volition and so subtract 5 per cent from your boilerplate power during that exam interval to extrapolate it out to an hr.

For case, if you lot boilerplate 300 watts for the xx-minute examination interval, your FTP would be 285 watts.

The shorter FTP examination but shortens up the warm-upward – the 20-minute max effort test interval is withal but as long.

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The second FTP exam on Zwift is called the 'FTP Examination (shorter)'.

The twenty-minute maximum effort test interval is the same, so it's not any easier, the just difference is that the initial warm-up is shortened to save time.

Zwift FTP Test (Shorter) — The FTP Exam (Shorter) is still a traditional FTP test, simply condensed to take upward slightly less of your time.

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Classic FTP tests have the advantage of using a reasonably long interval, and then test your aerobic chapters very well and can give accurate results.

However, Rowe says they can exist a daunting task for many people, considering information technology's ever going to be a very difficult exam and is difficult to pace properly, especially for beginners.

With that in heed, Zwift has recently introduced a different kind of test – the ramp test.

Zwift Ramp Examination

As the name suggests, the Zwift Ramp Test involves performing intervals at ever-increasing ability levels until you lot tin can't ride any further.

Rowe says the ramp test is more manageable than the 20-minute test, so people repeat it more often and therefore have more accurate zones as their training progresses.

Some other benefit of the ramp test is that the effect depends less on pacing – y'all simply continue going as long every bit you tin can. This is useful because getting the pacing incorrect on a 20-minute effort can significantly skew your results.

A ramp test is particularly useful if you're using a smart trainer because the trainer will automatically control the resistance for each ability interval – and then you can focus solely on pedalling.

The ramp examination is intended to exist a more manageable way to test your FTP, but information technology will nonetheless take y'all to your limit.

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On Zwift, after a brief warm-upward, the ramp test begins at 100 watts, then increases by twenty watts each minute until you tin no longer pedal.

At showtime, it should feel piece of cake, only information technology volition soon go very hard (exactly how long that takes volition depend on how strong you lot are – the exam continues as long you tin keep holding the power).

Once yous can go no further and end pedalling, Zwift will automatically shift the resistance into a gentle warm down, then take 75 per cent of the maximum power you lot reached during the ramp portion every bit your new FTP.

No thing which workout you practise, Zwift recommends staying seated for the duration of the test endeavour, because this helps to go along your attempt and technique consistent throughout the intervals.

Zwift Ramp Test Lite

Zwift recently added a variation on the ramp test designed for lightweight or more inexperienced cyclists, whose FTP value is likely to be lower.

The goal of the test is essentially the same – you lot simply keep going at always-increasing ability intervals until exhaustion – merely the starting ability level is lower and the ramp-upwards in power increases at smaller jumps.

How often should you retest your FTP?

In terms of how frequently you lot should be retesting your FTP, Rowe recommends doing then once every six to x weeks, or at the end of each training block – preferably after an easier few days so that yous're well rested.

You might recollect it would exist useful to test more than often, to keep your zones as accurate as possible, but Rowe says that whatever more than frequently than that and you risk getting bogged downward with testing rather than grooming.

At the terminate of the test, Zwift volition notify you of your score. Hopefully you will have improved since your last exam, but don't fret if non – sign up for 1 of Zwift'due south grooming plans and kickstart your riding.

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FTP testing tips

Make sure your setup is sorted before you start

In one case you hit the exam part of the session, you don't want to pause or have whatever sort of breaks considering doing so will spoil the data.

With that in mind, it'southward vital to ensure your Zwift setup is running as efficiently as possible: make sure you've fuelled correctly , have a full water bottle to manus, a fan to go on you lot absurd, and got some suitably motivating music lined upwards that will last the full duration of the exam.

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"Mayhap" is the correct answer to pacing

When pacing an endeavour such as a 20-minute ability test, information technology's very like shooting fish in a barrel to get out besides hard and cease up finishing with a whimper or vice versa.

What you actually want to do is ride right on the limit of what you're capable of for the entire elapsing of the test – which might leave you wondering how y'all are supposed to know where that limit is?

British cycling legend Chris Boardman once suggested a method whereby you simply ask yourself, "Is this electric current effort sustainable for the remaining duration?". If your answer is 'aye', then you're going too like shooting fish in a barrel, if it'due south 'no', and then you're going too hard. What you're looking for is 'maybe'.

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Don't fret if you lot're unhappy with your score

Although hitting huge numbers in the lab/shed/spare room can be exhilarating – and hats off to all those who do information technology – the final figure isn't the exist-all and terminate-all of cycling.

An FTP test isn't a race – there aren't any prizes for getting a 'great' score, and getting a 'depression' score doesn't mean you've lost anything either – it's just a personal operation benchmark and anybody is different.

Sign upwardly for ane of the many training plans available on Zwift and endeavor to focus on the procedure of cocky-improvement, rather than the specifics of the raw information.

Unless yous're a professional, having fun is what matters, after all. The numbers are merely that, numbers.