Currently at 3.25 W/kg lost a lot of weight since the beginning of the year. down from 108kg to 84kg, I know this is a bit to aggressive and I should have done it slower, but it worked for me and didn’t have too much trouble with energy and other stuff. Now I’m trying to slowly get to 80kg and start some Strength Training after my Events in July are through and start preparing for October.
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Great job! This is a great example of taking ownership of your health and working to improve. I know I feel much better with my gains. Your improvement is huge! Keep up the great work.
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Patience and loving the process of training you do is where I like to be. That leads to consistency, the foundation of your fitness. I never publish my FTP numbers nor look to compare myself with others. Someone else’s numbers are irrelevant. It’s a bit like VO2 Max, nice to know, but it doesn’t really inform my training.
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I’ve been stuck in the low 3’s (never about 3.4) since I started training with power 4 years ago. At my peak, I was doing mid volume and that year finished leadville (10:40). Best moment of my athletic life!
The 4w/kg marker has always been something I’ve strived for. But I just can’t seem to move the needle. I do triathlon, so of the 8+ hours a week I’m only getting in 3-5 hours of cycling. Still a lot of time.
This year I just quit letting it get to me. Nobody is writing me a check for being fast. I love competing in triathlon, and also endurance MTB and Gravel. It’s fun. It keeps me healthy. I keeps me feeling young. If I never get above 3.2 I figure I’m still doing better than the average 43 year old man. 
P.S. Thanks for writing this thread, not going to lie and say it didn’t put a smile on my face!
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This is highly dependent on how far you are from our ideal weight. If one was twice their ideal weight, it would be very hard to argue one would not benefit from losing some of that weight (from a w/kg point of view).
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Take it as you will but if you are 5’9 and 200lbs with a 310FTP (3.4w/kg), typically loosing 30lbs to achieve a 170lbs or a (4w/kg) is easier than raising your FTP to 370. What I should have mentioned or said was when you are towards your natural FTP ceiling its easier to loose weight.
I guess my post is directed towards those who are carrying weight as myself now and apologize if it came off funky.
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15 months ago I turned my life around. Stopped being a couch potato, started with TR and learned to adopt better eating-habits. Since then I lost 14 kg and reduced my fat from 20.5 % to 14 %. My w/kg went from 1.7 to 3.4.
And yes, I’m a mere mortal. 50 years old, only on a low volume training plan. Consistency and patience are key, I think. But most of all : enjoy every ride and be proud of every progress you make.
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Having done the “got crazy skinny” to race bikes thing (4.25 w/kg and unhealthy as all heck thanks very much), I could not agree more. It took a lot of work to add back the muscle mass lost seeking w/kg gains, but am now healthier for it.
This thread is great. Two things:
- We need a TR Mere Mortals T-shirt. (TRMM is a good acronym)
- We’re all mere mortals enjoying bikes
-Darth
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Yeah, I guess it’s hard to make a catch all rule. I personally am continuously gaining weight as my training progresses but I think it is “good weight”. I was 155ish the past 10 years with no real physical fitness. I started riding 2 years ago and the past year since really digging in deep on structured training, protein numbers, adding strength training, I have went up from 155lb to 172lb. Waist on my clothes is the same but my legs are like way thicker, my shorts that were previously loose, are very tight on my thighs. It feels like I’m moving backward because my FTP has only went up 6 watts but the weight gain make my W/KG go from 3.2 to 3.05. But I’m not going to freak out because it does feel like I am building a very strong foundation for future gains.
Like 5 months ago, when I was about 163lb, I had a week of really bad eating and fueling, my weight dropped back to like 153 and I was riding like total garbage and felt weak. This tells me that trying to drop weight at the compromise of fueling and nutrition was a bad plan.
But again, maybe this only applies to my circumstance of being near an ideal weight and extra loss leads to inefficiency.
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3 W/KG is the goal, 2.66 is the current reality. Started trainer road 2 years ago at 2.17. Always been on a low volume plan, since starting a plan at various times i have been: injured, sick and building a career. Some big life events happened too. So I’m very proud of the training I achieve. I feel like I’ve earnt every damn Watt I produce!
3 W/KG is less about numbers for me but actually necessary to make riding in my hilly local area no longer be threshold and VO2 efforts in all directions! 100% in the meer mortal club
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Yeah, I live in a very hilly area (rural northern New England) and I need to be above 2.75ish w/kg for basically any ride out of my house to not be painful. Currently sitting at a hair over 3.0 but I’m trying to get 3.25 by the end of the summer through some combination of weight loss and increased power.
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Yup, cycling for over 4 years and training consistently for 3 years. FTP has hit the ceiling at 275 watts or 2.83 w/kg for me. I’m middle-aged with several kids and a very stressful job, my wife graciously lets me fit in about 6 hours of cycling a week. At this point, this is the most aerobically fit I can get and I am learning to be OK with that.
Do not listen to folks who say you can hit 4 w/kg if you work hard enough, you can’t. Perhaps if you dedicated the majority of your time to cycling you could get there, but hitting 4 w/kg without burning out requires the right genetics.
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This would be cool but what would you want them to talk about? I think most things they discuss are relevant to the “fast people” (4w/kg or more) and us mere mortals but one thing I do notice is when they talk about race strategy (which I think is also relevant to just normal outside riding) they say things like regulate your effort on the climbs so you’re not going all out and blow up etc but for me that is not possible as it takes an effort way over my ftp just to physically get up some hills even if I am going as slow as I can in my lowest gear without falling over. Things like how to deal with that and also keeping motivation when you have reached your mere mortal ceiling etc would interest me @Nate_Pearson maybe an idea for a future podcast
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You are most welcome! It’s had so many more replys than I imagined it would - I’m glad im not the only one in this position
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I would buy this
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They obviously have the challenge of creating a podcast for many levels as there are the mere mortals and also some TR users who really are focused on racing and reaching a top level.
But I think they do a pretty good job. I’d bet for the mere mortals the general advice for training of consistency, nutrition, and recovery goes a long way.
They get in the weeds on some things like race strategy or some nutrition or recovery things. Some of its interesting but not all applies to me.
But I’m probably like you in that I just scan for some discussions that might apply to me. But often I listen to other segments out of curiosity.
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Maybe it would be interesting if some of the mere mortals that have been using TR for some years now to show us their FTP gains history over the years. I’m very much interested in knowing, after those initial big jumps in ftp gains, when they stabilize into some more mere mortals gains, how much can we actually expect. For instance, in my case, I’ve only been using TR for 4.5 months and my FTP gains have been as follows: 17w, 11w, 14w, 8w, 5w…
Do you believe it will stabilize into something like 2-5w? or maybe 5-10w?
Can you show us your FTP gains history?
MTIA
( related post: Your FTP improvements - #2317 by miguelmaugusto )
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I’m mostly around 2.5 on good training and well below that for the rest of the time.
I feel your pain OP.
I used to believe my best was 3.01 but that was based on my highest 20min power I ever produced, lol and my lowest weight (since I’ve been cycling). Plus, that’s at my absolute peak of training! So even my bestest mostest w/kg is a wrongly calculated lie. But, I’m obese. So I get what I deserve.
I do enjoy riding my bike sometimes.
But this sport (road cycling with a focus on training optimization, gear optimization, eating optimization and physiological optimization) is most assuredly not for me. It’s certainly not “imposter syndrome”. Rest assured…I simply do not belong here.
Good luck with your training!
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I salute you Sir. Enjoy the ride, it’s all that matters.
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Fellow mortal here (with probably no inherited athletic genes), 35yrs old and average active lifestyle. I’m more of a pandemic cyclist that used to ride MTB 8 yrs ago every summer then only started riding bikes again a year into the pandemic for exercise and fun, then got sick plus a long winter so off the bike again and my cycling gains went out the window. I’m 3 months into TR training currently at 2.4 w/kg. I’ve been enjoying every part of training and nerding out on all the science stuff. I pretty much ride at threshold just to keep up with the no drop group rides while everyone is casually chatting away. Even got ambitious and joined my first 100+km gravel event last week and was happy to finish it. Thank goodness for the awesome advice on the podcasts.
I’m hoping one day I’ll be able to squeak comfortably into a mid pack pace or something but in the meantime I’m loving everything about training and bikes.
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