Power Zone Riders – Are You Curious About Your Current FTP?

Lately, a lot of cycling instructors have been using the word “curious” more and more. “Get curious” about your capabilities, have fun, be playful… Perhaps this is a new scientific approach to coaching, or maybe it’s just the latest buzzworthy trend.  Either way, I’m here for it! I’m not out here training for a marathon or an Ironman, I’m just trying to keep building healthy habits and get stronger (mentally and physically). So, when I decided to retest my FTP with the long-awaited class from Hannah Frankson, “curiosity” was the name of the game for me. 

Now, I’m a longtime Power Zone rider and I’ve been in a bit of a plateau when it comes to my FTP for some time. That’s totally fine with me. (Note: If you’re new to Power Zone with Peloton, check out their 2023 article and technical tips to learn more about it and what you’ll need to do to set yourself up for success.) 

If you’ve been at this awhile like I have, you may have your favorite test and approach already. I’ve experimented with a few over the past five years and I had high hopes for Hannah’s format. I was not disappointed!

Who’s Your Daddy?

When it comes to Power Zone, I’m a big fan of Matt, Denis, and Christine for the rides. I’ve done their tests before, both with their music and with my own cadence-curated playlists (because Godsmack and Metallica don’t do it for me here). As much as I adore them, and have tried to embrace each of their styles for testing (no cadence just science, pounding cadence and a lot of rage, no metrics just feel…) none of their tests was ever quite right for me.

Take it to the House

Now, Hannah is my favorite of the recently added Power Zone instructors. I love how she is both a superfan of these titan coaches (stars… they’re just like us!) and she manages to pull greatness from us where we didn’t think we still had it in us. Aaaand, she also loves EDM/house music! So when she announced she’d be recording her very first FTP class during a live class before the studio break last December, I was pretty excited! (Also I hadn’t actually tested in quite awhile, so I was due! I had done a Ramp Test last year, but that’s another story!). Would we actually get a test with uptempo EDM beats?

Lo and behold, when these little gems dropped On Demand for us mid-January 2025, I was almost giddy! Now, all I had to do was wait until the time was right to inflict this torture upon my person. (Kidding… we love retesting, right?)

No Time Like the Present… to be Present

The truth is, it feels like there is never a “right time” to give your all-out in these test rides. Not only does the mental game get you, the older I get, the time trips me up too. No longer is a simple 10-Minute FTP Warm Up good enough. I’m here doing my regular Matt 5-Minute Pre-Ride Stretch and a regular 5-Minute Warm Up Ride with him before the FTP stack because I know that’s what my body needs. This is a physical requirement, yes, but the buildup of anxiety during this extra ten minutes was real.

Luckily, when I got to Hannah’s FTP Warm Up, she must have been reading my mind because it was… not as stressful as warmups I’d done in the past! None of the “make sure you are at ‘X’ cadence when you join the test ride” it was more of a “hey, if you need to warm up some more, go do that and then come start the ride” vibe. Was I even in the right place? Even the playlist included some fun, familiar favorites… what is this sorcery she’s cooking up? 

Let’s Get Ready to Rumble

OK, a Stretch and two Warm Up Rides later, it’s Game Time! Luck was on my side again as she opened by telling us the ride would be broken into four 5-minute blocks. This reminded me of the way Alex Toussaint likes to talk about the fourth quarter and it really helped me get in the right mindset. And so did the first song… although I didn’t know it, I had scoped out the playlist ahead of time and it was a banger from the Creed soundtrack (Creed was a movie starring Michael B. Jordan as Apollo Creed’s son who goes to Rocky for boxing training… and it was awesome if you like the Rocky franchise!). It had the familiar strains of the Eye of the Tiger sample and, well, it was a great pick to start! (I personally love some rap and hiphop music for hard work, so I was pretty happy out of the gate.) 

Hannah also was very encouraging about viewing the ride as the slow progression of output and reminded us not to start out too hot. She even encouraged us to swipe down our Power Bars and ride on perceived feeling… I had done that before and it didn’t work for me, but, it was interesting that the Power Bar told me I should have been starting in Zone 3 (I didn’t). The pressure overall felt… less. Even though she was still very motivating with her high-performance talk.

Next up was Right Here Right Now from Fatboy Slim, a song I knew. I love grasping onto lyrics I know during FTP Tests, so this was another good one with great beats to catch. Also, Hannah’s commentary really helped focus us on being present and dialing in. After this song, I didn’t know any of the others so I was in uncharted territory musically. Comprachicos brought all the Drum and Bass (one of Hannah’s favorite genres) and gave me an opportunity to play with balancing my cadence and resistance to be able to go the distance (hopefully… I wasn’t so sure by this point). Earthquake is a great song by Labrinth, an artist played here and there in Peloton, and let me tell you, the lyrics “we can make an earthquake up in here” really kept me going even though I could feel my legs starting to fail. Breath cues and moments of quiet when she looked deep into our eyes (not her branded “STFUs” but basically the same thing) also helped. 

The final song was called Know Your Name by Chase & Status, another new one for me. I totally trusted Hannah’s musical programming (and I was probably getting low on oxygen) so I really tried to lean in. I had also listened to this song the night before the ride, so I was prepared and excited for the melodic builds. The high cadence moments gave me the boost I knew I would need by the end. I also deeply appreciated how she talked about letting your body flow with the music in this meditative state, feeling the beats. That’s my favorite way to enjoy Power Zone!

We Are the Champions

The “five minute” sectioning of the ride was pretty aligned with her song lengths, which was also helpful to get to the end. You can see by my graph that I was not super smooth in the second half (I probably should not have done a TS60 class the day before testing!) but Hannah’s matter-of-fact style of coaching along with this amazing music was a breath of fresh air. She struck a good balance between being calm but not too calm, while giving us the upbeat music that helped us move our bodies. I rode around 80-85 cadence throughout and modified my resistance 38-45 which is where I know I can work without getting too gassed.

As we reached the end of the ride, the familiar sounds of Queen filled my ears and I’ve never been happier to hear “We Are the Champions” because that’s definitely how I felt. Truth be told, I was not expecting big gains in my numbers, and I’m not mad that I went down a smidge. I had psyched myself out of this retest for so many months, I am happy that I did it completely. I used to retest every January 1st “just for fun” but I got out of that habit when I let my nerves get the best of me. I’m glad I approached this one with curiosity again, embracing that progress is not linear (as the coaches like to remind us) and that this is just a data point to collect. I really enjoyed (wait, what?) this ride and I will do it again. I hope Hannah continues to record FTP Tests for us. Maybe next time she’ll give us some Fred again.., or maybe I’ll do her Fred again.. Ride for my next FTP test!

Who is your favorite instructor to test with? Will you be trying Hannah’s test? What are your tips for conquering the FTP nerves? Let us know!

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