Getting to grips with RaceDay

I have been getting all my training data from the beginning of the year loaded into RaceDay. Now I will start regular testing so that the software can figure out my own personal training parameters i.e. how my body responds to training from a fitness and fatigue perspective.

RaceDay Performance Predictor (developed by Dr. Phil Skiba) is based on the same principles as WKO+ Performance Manager, except it helps you determine your own personal "decay" constants with respect to fitness and fatigue. It also will predict your performance based on your testing protocol.

What is really interesting is that it allows a short duration testing protocol - 2min TT. The idea being that the anaerobic contribution is relatively constant, and changes can be attributed to aerobic improvements.

I have decided to use a RAMP test on my computrainer (MAP test as specified by Ric Stern). The reason for this is that it removes the need to pace a TT (even a short one) properly. Basically I must ride to exhaustion.

Today I did my first test, and was quite disappointed at my result :-( My average power (AP) for the last minute of the test was 405w. I was aiming for 430w, based on a 1 hour TT I did on my computrainer a few weeks ago - in which I achieved 321w AP. My ftp should be between 72% and 77% of the last minute AP of the MAP test. In this case it is 79%. Strange, because I was quite fresh when I did the test.

Anyway, I need to test quite regularly so that the software can construct a valid model for me.