Changes in fitness take time. The physiological process that drives changes in your functional threshold power (FTP) can take months of training, recovering, and getting faster, as your body gradually adapts to repeated training stress. This is why training plans only include FTP tests every 4 to 8 weeks and why AI FTP Detection isn’t available more often than every 28 days —your FTP just doesn’t significantly change all that often.
Updating your FTP too frequently isn’t only unnecessary, but doing so can actually have negative impacts on your training. That’s because structured training is based on the principle of progressive overload, in which carefully chosen workouts incrementally increase in difficulty to appropriately challenge the right physiological systems and build your fitness. Frequent FTP changes can disrupt the pace and magnitude of this progression and can prevent you from completing key sequences of workouts you need to reach your goals.
In other words, using AI FTP Detection at intervals of 28 days or longer doesn’t just reflect the gradual pace of changing fitness. It also helps you get the most out of your training and makes you faster.
What if my Abilities Change Within 28 Days?
FTP is not the only measure of your fitness. Between AI FTP Detections, your Progression Levels monitor your progress and track subtle changes in your abilities from day to day, even when your FTP doesn’t meaningfully change.
Progression Levels track your capacity to express your current FTP in different training zones at any given time. For example, increasing your ability to hold steady power within your VO2 Max training zone from one minute to three minutes at the same FTP demonstrates significant progress and is reflected by changes in your Progression Levels.
Progression Levels allow Adaptive Training to customize your training each day, ensuring that your workouts always match your changing needs. Whether you crush a breakthrough workout or take some unexpected time off, your Progression Levels will respond, and your training will adapt to keep you on track for your goals.
Simply put, your abilities will change between AI FTP Detections in ways FTP alone can’t accurately reflect. Progression Levels have you covered, working hand-in-hand with AI FTP Detection to track every change in your fitness, whether big or small, up or down.
I Didn’t Accept my Recent AI FTP Detection. Can I Get a New Detection Sooner Than 28 Days?
If you keep your current FTP instead of accepting AI FTP Detection’s results, the newly-detected FTP will still be available for you to accept at any time during the next 28 days. Simply click the AI FTP Button from your Account Settings or from any FTP Test, and you’ll again be presented with the option to accept it, along with a countdown to when your next detection will be available.
If you haven’t accepted your newly detected FTP and something happens to significantly decrease your fitness within 28 days (for example, if you take extended time off the bike), AI FTP Detection will automatically adjust your still-available prediction downwards to make sure you get the right workouts and power targets. This will prevent you from accepting a too-high FTP, and it won’t affect the 28-day countdown until your next detection is available.