FTP Test + Critique My Position

May 28:
(1) 1 hour swim - 3000 yards with several 300s as 75 hard, 75 easy, 50 hard, 50 easy, 25 hard, 25 easy.
(2) 1 hour run + 3 x 12 jump-ups - Run was easy, circa 135 bpm

May 29: FTP Test
The ride started with an hour long warm up ride out to a bit east of Lyons and then one loop around the course that I'd conduct the FTP test on. The course was a loop: N on 75th St, E on Woodland Rd, S on 95th St, and back W to 75th St along Ute Hwy.

After the warm up, my plan was to begin the test by holding 270 W and then hopefully build from there. The conditions were pretty good, although it was a bit on the warm side. An additional note about the course is that there is a slight downhill leading to the corner of Woodland and 95th and a more significant downhill leading to the corner of 95th and Ute Hwy, and slowing to take these turns result in my avg. wattage dropping about 5 W and 10 W, respectively. I don't have much experience with normalized power, so I'm not sure how well that value handles these power drops.

Anyhow, here's the data:

(Power is yellow, HR is red, and the numbers on the image are incorrect.)

Lap 1: 16:20 (time); 161 bpm avg. (168 max); 258 W avg./263 W norm; 84 rpm
Lap 2: 16:16; 166 bpm avg.; 251 W avg./257 W norm; 83 rpm
Lap 3: 16:35; 166 bpm avg.; 244 W avg./250 W norm; 82 rpm
Lap 4: 10:30 (partial);167 bpm avg.; 242 W avg./245 W norm; 80 rpm

Average power for whole hour = 249 W
Normalized power for whole hour = 255 W
Average HR for whole hour = 165 bpm

I also graphed my cadence over the warm up and FTP test, and there is no discernible difference between these two distinct portions of the ride -- the entire ride is at about 83 rpm until the very end. I need to work on increasing my cadence as my effort increases, and I should ride at perhaps 90-95 during a hour FTP test.

Perceived exertion: umm, as high as it can be for an hour. 9.5, 10 at times.

After the test I rode another hour back to Boulder at a very easy pace.

Conclusion: Waiting to hear Chuckie's take on the data before establishing my FTP, though it's probably 255 W or thereabout. That's much lower than I'd expect, but one thing to take into account is that elevation can lower one's FTP by around 10% according to CV. Since my A race is at a much lower elevation, I need to do at least some training based on an elevation adjusted FTP.

Critique my position:
Here's some footage from my FTP ride (and my high effort explains my spastic head movement):

I'm going to try to keep my heel a bit higher at the bottom of my pedal stroke. Even though my leg appears to be nearly straight, which would indicate my seat being too high, the fact that my heel is very low is an indication that my seat is in fact not too high. If I'm unsuccessful raising my heel a bit, I'll probably (1) say, "oh well" and consider myself to have some slightly odd biomechanics or (2) raise my seat a tad bit and see what my heel does.

Regarding the angled-up forearms, that's something I just decided to try out. I noticed on the trainer that raising my hands a bit relieved some tension in my lower back. During IM races, my lower back has gotten a bit sore around 4:30 into the ride. That feeling is hard to replicate during training because I think the soreness is the result of rarely leaving the aero position and of working pretty hard the whole ride, and I rarely combine both those aspects into a single training ride. Overall, I like the hand position and imagine it is aerodynamically beneficial since I can lower my head right against my hands to create a nice point to slice through wind.

Finally, I've got to keep my head a bit more relaxed so that it stays still. This isn't an issue when riding at lower efforts, but I should still be aware of it.

May 30:
(1) 2 hour run w/ 1 hour at 7:00/mile if I was feeling up to it.
I ended up running the middle hour of the run at 6:50/mile at an average HR of 162 bpm. That's a pretty comfortable pace for me -- I'm working a bit, but am always very comfortable. The weather was comfortable as well, with the high being 70-75 degrees.

2 hours is still a tough run for me, and I felt okay but not great at the end. I covered 16.8 miles in all...not bad.

(2) 2 hour spin.
Just an easy ride about town to promote recovery and increase my time in the saddle.

May 31:
(1) Super easy swim
Stacey and I headed up to Boulder and met up with CV and Angela to swim and then watch a bit of the Bolder Boulder. Chuckie gave me some swimming tips, which I appreciate because now I can be confident of what a good stroke feels like. Here's what I'm working on:
(i) head down so that my feet are high and as a result my body is nicely aligned and streamlined;
(ii) keeping the shoulder of my stroking arm high as I initiate the catch, as this promotes and early vertical forearm/high elbow;
(iii) avoiding a wide pull by keeping my hand vertically aligned with or just slightly wider than its shoulder, as pulling with a wide hand creates a moment that I have in the past corrected with a scissor kick; and
(iv) kicking quickly with small motions and close together feet by thinking of keeping my "feet in a bucket" as I kick -- a wide kick, as explained in tip (iii), is an indication of bad balancing.

It's tough to keep my shoulders high as I initiate my stroke. I'll work on this during easy efforts like warm ups and easy 100s between tougher sets at masters, and then I will just swim hard during harder efforts so that I maintain swim fitness.

(2) 2.5 hour spin
Another very easy effort. The tough workouts of Sat and Sun require some recovery, and that's what I was shooting for with this ride.