Goal
Check improvement done during last 3 months by a 20 minutes FTP field test with the protocoll (described below) I use every time doing this!
Facts
- Distance 56.18 km
- Moving Time 2:11:10
- Elevation Gain 574 m
- TSS 147
- Power % VO2-max (avg/max) 60% / 160%
- Calories 1,470 kcal
- Temperature (min/avg/max) 24/28/33°C
- Elapsed Time 2:11:10
- Improvement of FTP 8 % compared to last test
Course
Warmup an ramp-up in flat terrain, 20 minutes test in a steady climb (2-4% grade). Back down after the test and final climb (steep but done easy) up to home.
Nutrition before Training:
- Basically fasted
- except coffee and 15 grams EAA (Essential Amino Acids) 30 minutes before start of training.
- 1 Vespa UC at start
Nutrition during Training:
- Water as needed with electrolytes (salt)
- 1 gram salt per bottle (750 ml)
- 30 grams of carbs eating some candies after 45′ (end of warmup)
Feeling:
- Before: Very excited! How would it be?
- During the test: Strong and happy that it works!
- After the test: happy that it’s over! Did actually my best!
Notes
Last FTP Test I did mid of October 2022. Wanted to check if my training was helpful. Did a lot of Muscle Tension Intervals during the last 2 months.
Blood Sugar was quite high even at beginning of session although I didn’t eat anything before. I think this was reaction of „good stress“ I had before doing the test. I was very excited how it would work this time. Last time I didn’t manage to go through the 20 minutes but had to quit after about 12 min.
After the end of the warmup (45 min) I took some candies containing 30 grams of sugar/carbs to support the tough phase of the session.
During the ramp-up and the test blood glucose increased as expected. I think it’s not only from the candies but also from release of glycogen from liver. The Supersapiens CGM doesn’t show more than 200 mg/dl blood glucose. Maybe it got up to 220 or so. Indicator for this is that it took some time – also not until after the workout.
Interesting for me as T1/LADA Diabetic is the relatively fast drop after the workout although I didn’t do any kind of activity to get it back down (I also used no insulin ;-). Training ended at 13:33. Blood sugar (finger prick) was 186 mg/dl 10 min after workout and 92 mg/dl 1,5 hours later. Obviously insulin sensivity was that good after this tough workout that my little own insulin was good enough to get back to normal range!
My FTP Test Protocol
Basically a good and long warmup to get fat burning (Beta Oxidation) to its peak, then a ramp-up to prime the body for something harder to come. For the 20 minutes test phase I always try to not start to hard but I do not always manage. It’s by far more fun being able to top some watts during the last 5 minutes …
After the test I do a 20 minute Z2 effort trying to bring blood glucose down again.
New FTP value is average Normalized Power of the 20 minutes test minus 5%.
Workout Details
- Warm up 1: 20 min @ 45-55 % of old FTP (applies to all the following details)
- Warm up 2: 25 min @ 50-60 %
- Z2/CARBS: 10 min @ 65-75 %
- Ramp up in 3 steps
– Tempo Zone 3: 3 min @ 85 %
– Sweet Spot: 1 min @ 92 %
– Threshold: 1 min @ 100 % - Recovery: 2 min @ 50 %
- Repeat 2 times
– 30 second Full gas: 30 sec @ 175 %
– Easy: 30 sec @ 50 % - Recovery: 2 min @ 50 %
- FULL GAS FTP TEST 20 Minutes @ 105++ %
- Easy: 5 min @ 50 %
- Zone 2: 20 min @ 65-75 %
- Cool Down: 9 min @ 45-55 %
Correction of CGM time lag
CGM measures sugar in Interstitial Fluid not directly in blood. Therefore there are some discrepancies to be taken into account. When being active the biggest difference is a time lag when sugar values „arrive“ in interstital fluid. This time lag is corrected in the above chart. CGM data points are moved back 12 minutes to correlate better with Blood Sugar values.
