Warmup: 1 hour of zone 2 shoveling. Then do 3 one-minute high cadence, low-load shoveling intervals with 2 minutes of easy shoveling in between. Then, do 10 minutes of tempo shoveling followed by five minutes of easy shoveling.

Test: 5 minutes of shoveling all-out. Start out hard and hold it. Try and clear an entire driveway covered in two feet of snow in this five minutes. This will get rid of that “fresh” feeling to be sure the FTP test is accurate as well as stimulate the lactate clearance systems (in the shoulders and back.) Follow this five minutes with five minutes of easy shoveling. Then, do a 20-minute shoveling-trial. Try and clear an entire neighborhood in those 20 minutes. Really dig deep (literally).

Cooldown: 10 minutes of zone 2 shoveling.

Your shoveling FTP will be 95% of the volume you cleared during the 20-minute shoveling trial. Oh, and at this point you should probably have someone drive you to a hospital.