Friends, do you recommend using a power meter only for the first few minutes of a 20-minute test then doing the rest without looking? What are your experiences? Thanks!
20 Min Test - Judging Quality[quote=“steve.d.herman, post:3, topic:4709”]
You should pace yourself so that you simply cannot give any more at the end. Your cadence should be flagging, you should be shifting gears often searching for the right one, and at the end of the test you should be empty. These are the sensations of a
maximum effort. An example of what empty means: the last several times I’ve tested, I literally had to get off my bike and lay down on the side of the road. A good pacing tip: with 25% time left in the effort, you should be questioning whether you can keep up that pace.
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Some good feedback on how bad you should be feeling on that thread. I usually take an educated-ish guess at where I’ll be and pace it evenly for 5 min, then evaluate the timer and how shi%*y I feel already and adjust for the next 5 and repeat. I depend on the pm to pace my chunks.
For pacing by feel, that probably applies well to the ftp-via-race-efforts method
That’s what they suggest but if I don’t watch the pm, I fall off pace.
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Another thought would be to use a step-test indoor if only to give you a rough idea of the target wattage for your actual test. That way you don’t blow yourself to smithereens in the first 5 minutes. Pacing the 20m test is as much of a skill as working a pace line.
ThanksI on a ramp my FTP is 253. But over 20 minutes outside it’s only 228!