Difficulty breaking FTP through the 00’s?

Ive seen a few posts from people who seem to be sittting a few watts short of breaking through into the hundred (ie 295, 197 etc) but seem to struggle to get past that despite great gains up to that point.

Has anyone else had this? Im just wondering where there’s something, pehaps an extra mental element to this which makes it that bit more difficult to push through…

Im at 195 currently and a 10w gain next time to take me into 200s seems more sigificant than my bigger jump last time was and im wondering if that adds a bit of subconscious pressure.

Yes mentally this screws me hard. If I try to do a ride with an average over a certain 00 mark I feel a much worse RPE.

When my FTP was around any point below that, Ai could ride a short ride like 20 miles very close to that FTP, but once it went over the 00 mark, even 23 watts over it, I still felt like I was doing something in another league.

When I look at the power meter and see that number on the flats I have some minor internal panic and feel like I want to knock it off a bit even everything should be fine.

On hills I seem used to it as it’s normal to see the higher numbers so I think it’s a case of getting used to it and getting past that mental block. Some people overthink crap and make life harder for themselves. I fall into that category unfortunately but I have the self awareness to deal with it.

1 Like

Grouping of TR users appear to happen more around w/kg then the exact FTP per se. This was discussed a few months back (see below). I would assume when most are doing the ramp test they don’t know the exact second when their FTP will cross 200 or 300 and thus are mentally governed by it. But rather I believe ameture riders tend to naturally fall around a certain number and getting over that hump/barrier takes a little more than most want to give.

Full discussion in depth in this thread:

4 Likes

The self reported data in TR actually shows the opposite - when people reach the 190s or 290s, they are likely to round up their FTP to 200 or 300. This can be seen in the chart below:

2 Likes

Thats interesting, thanks for the link. A lot of that could be explained physiologically, but im curious as to whether riders gains slow as they approach high 90s, compared to 30s or 40s for example, and if they take longer to broach a new century FTP level compared to previous gains in the leadup to getting to high 90s.

Perhaps a psychological element which knocks a % or so off of testing when riders at sitting at FTPs of high 90s.

@Nate_Pearson, is there any data on this at all?

The body knows exactly zero about the base 10 counting system.

It may be in your head, but that’s the only place it can be.

Mike

5 Likes

I definitively have had to overcome psychological mental barriers, but not for FTP near a ‘00 actually more for training over a ‘00. I noticed that when my FTP was in the 290-310 range it made Sweet Spot work around the 280-295 mark. Thus it imprinted in my brain that work over 300 was very difficult, usually suprathreshold and VO2Max work. When my FTP climbed to around 320 a lot of my workouts started to have long intervals over that magic 300 watt marker. I would seriously psyche myself out of a workout before I’d even started. I’d say it took me about a month to have real belief in myself to do sustained efforts over that mark. It sounds silly, it’s just a number like many before it that I’ve crossed over, but moving into the next century of work really did take mental effort to overcome.

5 Likes

Same experience with me and my current FTP of 287. My suprathreshold and then my over/under workouts would be 301 watts. First time ever working over that magical “300” number. Really, I though. You expect me to hold 301w for 2 mins in an over/under, and do that over multiple intervals :exploding_head::tired_face:??? It can’t be done!!! I can’t do that… can I? It turns out I could and used it as motivation and pride to be able to “work” in the 300s.

1 Like

Yep, it sucks.

I can sit at 296w in relative comfort, but as soon as i see the target tick over 300, it becomes much more mentally challenging as I think it’s not sustainable

IJust a trick I use, don’t know if it helps, but whenever able, dial up interval power above 200 or 300 or whatever your barrier if it’s within 1-2%. Sometimes just seeing and sustaining that number makes it more achievable in the future. Where I used to struggle a little at the 300W threshold during intervals, I pushed a lot of VO2max sessions up from 296 or 298 to 302, and kind of blew through that. 350 is now my VO2 intensity “Wall”.

It’s purely mental.

2 Likes

There is probably data but no information yet. We took a pause on analytics to build a better system to get more out.

2 Likes