A Snow Day And My First Peloton FTP Test

This week we had our first legitimate snow day(s) in a long time. Everything was closed on Monday, most things were closed on Tuesday, and many schools didn’t re-open until Friday. Between that and the state funeral for President Carter, it was a good week to be able to work from home and workout in my basement gym. I even used the extra time indoors to take my first Peloton FTP test.

The snow-covered ice rink at my office on Wednesday

A Snow Day!

Our fridge already was well-stocked, so instead of making a mad dash to the grocery store on Sunday, I bundled up and went out for a run—knowing it could be my last opportunity for a long time. It was cold (in the 20s) and neighbors already had salted their sidewalks, so I left Scooby at home.

Six solo sunny miles

The snow was falling all day Monday. After letting Scooby out in our back yard, I headed to my basement gym. Selena’s new LB class is all glute bridges and deadlifts for a nice, slow burn.

By Tuesday the snow had stopped, but our road wasn’t plowed until late afternoon. Ironically I decided to take a break from the Strength for Skiers program and took one of Jess Sims’ 45 min classes before hopping on my treadmill. 

I somehow slept through my alarm on Wednesday, so I only had time to take Scooby out for a walk before heading into the office. Our usual 1 mile loop took almost twice as long because some neighbors hadn’t cleared their sidewalks.

We still encountered icy sidewalks on Thursday afternoon.

Thursday I took Camilla’s Machine Gun Kelly ride for the third time and got to compete with myself on the leaderboard using the “just me” feature. It was tough, but I beat my best output for a new PR.

Friday I had to go into the office but first I took Mariana’s recent HIIT run on my treadmill. Emma’s core class and Jess Sims’ lower body class were good warm-ups.

My First FTP Test

Now that I have a Peloton bike I can do the “PowerZone” classes, which are generally more “power” or endurance based and designed to improve your cycling fitness. In order to get the most out of the classes you need to take the “FTP test” which involves giving it all you’ve got in a 20 minute ride. Your average output during the FTP test is used to calculate your seven output zones, which are used as target metrics in the PowerZone classes—in effect making them personalized to each rider’s level. There’s a lot of hype about the FTP test and how horrible it is, but I decided to approach it as a hard climb ride. Who cares if I don’t really max out—you’re supposed to retake the FTP test periodically anyway.

I started with a long core class and a body weight strength class to warm-up, and then took an intro to PowerZones class before taking an FTP Test warm-up class and the actual FTP Test.

It ended up being quite a long stack after my cool-down and stretch!

Denis coached the ride as a gradual progression, increasing your cadence and resistance every 2.5 minutes or so, but said to explore what felt natural. I started at a higher cadence that dropped somewhat as I nudged up my resistance but mostly stayed above 80 rpm. By the end I found I could get higher output with slightly lower resistance and higher cadence.

I worked hard in the last 5 minutes to get my average output up from 158 to 160.

Now that I’ve done my first Peloton FTP Test I’m looking forward to trying PowerZone classes. I hear Hannah Frankson just recorded a new FTP Test class, so that might actually make me look forward to my first re-test.

A huge thank you to Deborah and Kim for hosting the Weekly Run Down link up throughout the year, and to each of you for stopping by.

Did you have a snow day this week?
How long are your schools closed after a snowstorm?