I figured I’d start the season off with an assessment of my fitness. I performed the maximal aerobic power (MAP) test as it’s a quick benchmark of fitness without having to suffer for a whole hour with a functional threshold power (FTP) test. Doing an FTP test indoors is just excruciating for me. Although MAP looks a slightly different aspect of one’s fitness, it still can be used as a baseline. The Richard Stern Training web site has a good explanation of the MAP test and protocol.

Basically, you steadily ramp up your wattage until you can’t go anymore. Sound like fun? Well, it actually isn’t that bad since you’re done in 10 minutes or so. You only really suffer during the last few minutes. So I reluctantly put my bike on a trainer and start warming up. I prefer riding rollers over a trainer, but since I’ll be riding to failure, balancing on rollers may not be the best idea!

I only did one MAP test last season and it was in January when I had fairly good fitness. Back then I hit 401 watts for the last minute. This time I managed 368 watts. I don’t feel that’s too bad considering all the time off I’ve had recently. Actually, it’s a nice place to start…at this point it can only go up! When looking the FTP/MAP ratio I had last year, the same ratio yields me an FTP of 270. Not too surprising as this is what I estimate my current FTP to be, just based on perceived exertion over the last week of riding.