90th percentile 5 seconds, 80th for 60 seconds, only 45th in FTP

In intervals software it gives which percentile your in for age group and I’m 90th percentile 5 seconds, 80th for 60 seconds, only 45th in FTP. As I’ve long known, I rarely lose a sprint and never win a time trial. How much can I modify this power profile and how should I? Whatever I do my sprint and 60 second power seems to stay the same, which is fine, it’s enough but how do I bring the FTP up?

You can only modify it to a certain extent. In this case a lot of aerobic rides, at or below LT1.

It appears that you are like me, and fast twitch dominant (or you only train high end power). Like the above poster has said, lots of LT1 and lower rides, to develop that aerobic base. If you’re like me sweet spot won’t do the trick either.

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Yes, I don’t train my top end at all, it’s just there and I don’t have to think about it. Yes SS training just fatigues me and doesn’t seem to give me any benefit at all. I have been improving things a bit by lots of Z2 which I guess is about at LT1…

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Yep, you’re doing the right thing IMO, just need to put in the hours.

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Yeah, I hate you.

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It’s the worst (and the best) hard to do super hero turns on the front but can always get across to the break and then can win from a break. Everyone hates you!

It’s not necessary but it’s just nice to have for all the usual reasons.

I’m like you and recently asked the same question, a lot of answers in that thread but basically it amounts to lots and lots of Z2 and staying out of the higher zones

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What age group are you in, and how many people in the category?

Similar profile, and this is what I was able to do during my 16-17 season (Sept to August). Comparing against this partial season, Watts only (live in flatland), and versus all Males since I ride with cyclists from 18 to 70 (chart looks similar vs 40-49 and 50-59):

Spent the last two years working on base and figuring how to train as a sixty year old dude. Props to Coach Isaiah.

A lot of endurance riding, averaging about 8 hours/week. Big difference between this season and 5 years ago - back then I worked really hard on pushing threshold out to 1+ hours, and pushing upper sweet spot / lower threshold out to 2+ hours.

Other difference you can’t see on that chart, is the endurance focus 21-22 season. Nowadays, vs 16-17, I can reliably, week after week, put out more 2-3 hour endurance power, recover, and put in another 2 hour interval day. Its a better base for pivoting back to pushing out 1-2 hour power.

Hope that helps.

How does it look in watt/kg?….gotta be apples to apples!

Dunno, the original poster didn’t specify and I never look at it. And yeah, you can laugh at my 3W/kg ftp and dismiss me. And yes I say goodbye to a lot of peeps at the bottom of climbs. But on those rare times the climbers come out to play on the windy flats, I can drop a good number of the higher W/kg guys. How many pro sprinters do you see contending at the end of climbing route?

As someone with a sprinter profile, my point remains. It is possible to train and achieve large increases in long power.

Not about this….but I do wonder if power profile comparisons MUST be done in watts/kg.

I’ll contribute.

Sprinter phenotype. Very weak aerobically leading in to 2020. The early data is missing some efforts in the mid range, but the 10 and 20mins are representative of where I was.

Smashing intervals SS/threshold intervals never really made me fitter, it just made me tired.

Increased volume considerably, a vast majority Z1/Z2. Two years later, everything is up. Interestingly, I’ve not actually done real full gas efforts at any of those time increments. I think I might make that a fun future project. I’m certain I could better them all.

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Interesting, what does your table look like at 30m, 40m, 60m ?

I don’t really have the data.

Didn’t have a power meter on the MTB. The only long efforts I did were XC MTB races back then.

I can hazard a guess. I’d say 60m was only 200w ish in 2019, and maybe 250-260w now. I vary from as low as 59kg to 63kg for reference.

The longest climb anywhere near me is only 8mins sustained, so it’s not ideal for longer efforts. Zero chance I’m doing that inside. I do a bit of Zwift racing, but I try to do the lowest power possible. As I’m trying to win :grinning:

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There is a reason you hear talk about Watts and not W/kg on flat races.

Here you go, W/kg versus 50-59 group because there aren’t many in my new age group:

As above, my gains are driven by volume.

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I’ll throw my 2 cents. I used to have a talent for high anaerobic power, up to 60 secs.

Brown top line is 2016 - I did have a coach back then and was mostly working on crit profile, decent W/kg across the board but as I was 75 kg the raw 60s power was definitely my best side. Despite that, the coach managed to get me pretty solid on all fronts, loads of base training with mixed in sprints etc.

Bottom line is 2020 when I hit my lowest point in power (and highest in weight :grinning:). No training, just general depression and sporadic rides. As you can see aerobic power was the first one to go.

Middle line is this season, I’m trying to rebuild what I lost and I focus solely on getting the base training done, clawing back to decent endurance power as I know everything below 120s should be an easy get once my weaker spots are covered. I’m still 8kg overweight so I’m terms of pure all day power I’m already at same watts as I used to be. I’m planning to target longer endurance events so I’m going to continue chasing improvements in VT1 until they become marginal - this will be the time to start looking at the power curve below 60 minutes.

Interesting that dropoff after 1m. I wonder if your curve is biased because specific training/efforts. For instance, I don’t have anything in the top 90% except 30 sec power, that’s because I had some efforts last season, trying to get a KOM.