JamesCun said:
I'll reply again since this is a newish aspect to the thread. The data on Sam is meaningless without an accurate FTP. End of story.
Can you also explain what FTP1 is?
FTP1 is the maximum power the athlete can sustain for 1 hour. Here is the problem, of course, the data on everyone is meaningless without an accurate FTP1 because FTP1 is the basis many use for determining race effort (using intensity factor). How does anyone know that their FTP1 is accurate? The problem here is that if Sam had used the recommended IF for racing IM based upon his "known" FTP1 he would have raced at .75 of 320 or 240 watts. yet, he was able to race at 280 watts. Even if treated like a pro and is told to race at an IF of .8 he would race at 256 watts, 24 watts below what he was actually capable of doing. No way he wins his age-group if he follows the recommendations for either pro or amateur athletes. So, it appears he raced based upon how he felt and how he felt gave him a much better result than anyone would have predicted looking at his numbers.
The point of my question was TP simply said his FTP was too low so he could fit into their general recommendations. That may be true but seems like a cop out, like Martin concluding that it is ok to continue riding 170 cranks when the data suggested otherwise. But, looking at the Rodriguez data, it suggests that it is possible to ride at higher intensities if the muscles are better balanced. Unless we know both the FTP and the IF the rider can sustain we cannot accurately predict what they can do. One thing about science, we learn more trying to explain what doesn't fit than seeing a lot of data that simply reinforces what we know. Want to advance your knowledge? Try to explain the stuff that doesn't make sense to you. Clearly, Sam doesn't fit into their model very well, it would seem.
Can you explain why? I think it has to do with how he trains allowing his muscles to be better balanced than typical.