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CYCLING

What do I actually ride at this FTP?

Plug in your best estimate for FTP, either from a test like a ramp test or an estimate of what you could hold for an hour at max effort. This page suggests workout intensities if you have an indoor trainer or power meter based on that FTP. These are just suggestions and not necessarily goals or benchmarks. You're not a fraud if you can't hold X power for your workout based on your estimated FTP.

If you do not have a number yet, drop a ride into the estimator and it will hand one over. Anything under 60 or over 600 falls back to 200, since a page of nonsense watts helps nobody. Estimate it off a file →
YOUR ZONES AT 200W
PERCENT OF FTP
Z1 - Active recoveryBarely riding. You could do this the day after anything.
under 110W0-55%
Z2 - EnduranceFull conversation, all day, and slightly boring on purpose.
112-150W56-75%
Z3 - TempoTalking in short sentences, and it is the zone easy rides drift into.
152-180W76-90%
Sweet spotWorking, but you could hold it a lot longer than you want to.
176-188W88-94%
Z4 - ThresholdA few words at a time, and the last two minutes of each rep are unpleasant.
190-210W95-105%
Z5 - VO2maxNot talking. Counting down.
212-240W106-120%
Z6 - AnaerobicSprints and attacks, and measured in seconds rather than minutes.
242W and up121%+
WORKOUTS, WRITTEN OUT AT 200W

Each session is drawn at the rung I'd start on. Tall blocks are the work, the dips between them are the easy spinning, and the width is time. Hover a block for its watts; tap a rung to build it up.

Z5 - VO2max212-240W2 SESSIONS
Z5 - VO2MAX~65 MIN
VO2max threes220-240W
START AT
Add one interval when the last one felt repeatable, not when the calendar says so.
The recovery is as long as the work on purpose. Cutting it short turns this into a bad threshold session rather than a hard VO2max one.
Z5 - VO2MAX~60 MIN
30/30s240W
START AT
Add the second block before lengthening either; move up when the last minute of a block still hit the number.
The short-on short-off version, which accumulates about the same time up top and hurts less per rep, though the last two minutes of block two are grim either way.
Z2 - Endurance112-150W1 SESSION
Z2 - ENDURANCE~120 MIN
Just a long ride112-150W
START AT
Add twenty to thirty minutes when the previous length stopped costing you the next day.
The one everyone rides too hard. If you are near the top of that range the whole time it is a tempo ride wearing an endurance ride costume, and it will cost you on the hard days.
Z3 - Tempo152-180W1 SESSION
Z3 - TEMPO~70 MIN
Tempo blocks152-170W
START AT
Lengthen both blocks together; if this one is still too much, the long ride is where to be.
Sits between endurance and sweet spot, and it is a reasonable place to start if 88% for fifteen minutes is still more than you can hold.
Sweet spot176-188W2 SESSIONS
SWEET SPOT~90 MIN
Sweet spot threes176-188W
START AT
Add five minutes to a block before you add a block, and only when the last block felt like the first.
The workhorse. If you can only fit one hard session in a week this is usually the one that pays, and it is repeatable in a way threshold work is not.
SWEET SPOT~80 MIN
Sweet spot twenties180W
START AT
Lengthen both blocks together, and move up when rep two was hard rather than a negotiation.
Same idea in longer blocks, and the second one is where you find out whether your FTP is set right, because rep two should be hard rather than impossible.
Z4 - Threshold190-210W2 SESSIONS
Z4 - THRESHOLD~80 MIN
Threshold eights190-210W
START AT
Lengthen the reps first, then add one; move up when the last rep held the same watts as the first.
Start at the bottom of the range on rep one, because the temptation is to open at 105% and then fall apart on rep three, which I have done more than once.
Z4 - THRESHOLD~85 MIN
The classic two by twenty196-204W
START AT
Move up when the second block finished at the same watts as the first without a fight.
Forty minutes at threshold is roughly the point of the whole FTP number, so if this one goes fine your estimate is about right and if it does not, it is probably set high.
CORSAI.APPThese zones all hang off one estimated number, so bias up or down as needed.