How to build and assign an FTP test workout

What a good FTP test workout needs

A test is only useful if it's structured the same way every time — a real warm-up so the effort is honest, a clearly defined test segment, and enough cool-down that the athlete isn't grinding to a halt. The two protocols coaches actually use:

The 20-minute test

Warm up, a short hard opener to clear the legs, a set of brief high-intensity efforts, then the 20-minute all-out effort itself, followed by a cool-down. FTP is estimated at roughly 95% of the average power held for those 20 minutes.

The ramp test

Shorter and less mentally brutal: after a warm-up, power rises by a fixed step every minute until the athlete can't hold the target anymore. FTP is estimated as a percentage of the best one-minute power reached. Popular because it's faster and easier to repeat often.

Describe the test out loud

Instead of building either protocol by hand, describe it the way you'd brief an athlete before the ride:

"Twenty minute warm up, then five minutes hard to open the legs, five minutes easy, then the twenty minute all-out test effort, then a ten minute cool down."

Wattscribe structures that into the warm-up, opener, test segment, and cool-down as distinct, correctly timed blocks — reviewed and adjustable before it goes anywhere.

Send it, then track the result

Push the finished test straight to the athlete's connected intervals.icu account so it's on their calendar for their next session, or export it as a .ZWO or .FIT file if they're testing on Zwift or a head unit instead.