Hitting a plateau is certainly frustrating but I think there is some great advice on this thread. The trick is finding the bits that work for you and sticking with them.
I’m 52 and started Trainerroad in December 2017 with a 217 FTP and on this weeks ramp test finally broke the 300 barrier.
Until this year I have always followed low volume plans right through the winter followed by unstructured riding in the summer. This got me to an FTP of about 280 but, like you, I started to get frustrated as I plateaued there for about 2 year despite hitting all my TR workouts 100% except Spencer +2!
In my experience consistency is the most important thing together with a structured progressive overload and regular recovery weeks. The structured progressive overload is built into the Trainerroad plans but it important to start the plans from the beginning rather than jumping in at the stage you would like to be at…
Adaptive Training will help this massively but the point I wanted to reiterate was the importance of the Recovery Weeks. During the structured training plans I have found these vital, especially on the Low Volume plans because there is a fine line between recovering and detraining. Especially at my age. I found those ‘recovery weeks’ with rides like Baxter so important not only to maintain the routine of riding each week but also they were the only workouts where I would need to ride at a constant power for an hour or more and I think these really helped improve my aerobic ability. I genuinely think it is by doing more zone2 workouts that has improved my ramp test performance as these were the only ones that you have to pedal for more than 20 minutes at a time without a recovery valley!
Like others here I have supplemented the 3 scheduled rides, first by extending each scheduled cool down by 30 minutes but uping the intensity to about 60% depending how tired I was. This year I started adding extra days before switching to the Mid Volume plan. But as other have said the warm up and cool downs are important and contain a surprising amount of training benefit. Even with only 3 sessions this can easily add up to 45 minutes of training a week.
Good luck getting through your plateau, I’m confident that if you follow the advise in this thread and the Trainerroad plans you will make a breakthrough - eventually.
There may not be evidence, but it’s power to weight and by training with weights it should theoretically add the ability to produce more powerful. (Thinking plyometric/ explosive actions)
The torque at FTP levels (200-450W) is absolute peanuts. It’s nothing. If you’re talking about sprinting, sure, different story. But this is a thread about FTP.
In fact, if anything, adding muscle mass will decrease your relative FTP (W/kg).
There’s no absolute sure fire method for learning what’s best for you. The best coach on Earth will take time to work out the best system for each new athlete. They will also get it wrong as well. It’s a continual experiment. The earlier you begin to take control of your own training, the faster you’ll find your best structure.
A Zone 2 (Coggan zones) ride is exactly that. Spend as much time in that zone as possible. They are best done outdoors. Simply progressively making these rides longer and more disciplined is all you need to aim at. Start with 2 hours, see if you can get them up to 4-5hrs. Really, the more the merrier.
If you are forced to do them indoors. Well, they take great mental discipline. Most people find them incredibly boring. Use every trick in the book. Movies, Podcasts, literally anything to help with distraction. I do them on Zwift. However, I use a kind of hack to make 3hr indoor Z2 rides tolerable.
You can make them into a subtle interval ride to make them more tolerable. Let’s say your Z2 power is 140-180w. Do 5mins at 140w then 5 at 180w, 5 at 160w etc. Really anything to make them more interesting. I never do them on Erg myself.
Why would you think I’m offended…? I lift weights. A lot. It’s good for sprinting, as mentioned, and also for general health. It’s not good for raising FTP, which is what this thread is about. Unless you have evidence to back up an alternative position, that’s the end of the story.
Both. I started racing a couple years ago and really enjoy it. I was hoping to be well prepared for the 2021 season (fingers crossed something happens).
I also am a nerdy numbers guy and I get motivated at the thought of increasing my FTP. 100% arbitrary but I’ve always wanted to get to 4.0 wt/kg, kind of a silly goal but it is what it is.
Not specific enough, there are loads of forms of racing, what exactly are you training for? 80 mile road race, 10 mile TT, 12 hour TT, demands are very different
Road racing, in my area and category they are ish 40 to 60 miles. Crits. And last year I was planning to do a stage race which hasn’t been scheduled yet for this year.
Wow. Taking a full week off is hard. I really want to get back on the bike.
Here is what I have planned. It is essentially a General Build LV plan with Baxter and Andrews added each week. Note the gap in mid March is due to a work trip. I’ll retest at the start and at the end.
For me personally, that would be far too much intensity. It’s about a 100 point jump in your average weekly TSS and the IF is .90+ for 3 rides a week. That would be a recipe for failure for me.
You are falling into the trap of. It isn’t working I need more and more intensity sessions. I think the opposite is true. You need more recovery so you can absorb the training.
For me, I think the limiter is nutrition. I count calories and there are 2-3 days/week that I feel full and do not want to eat anymore but am short 200-600 calories. I started counting to lose weight, now I count to be sure I’m eating enough.
writing these kinds of posts are really good! they are almost a sort of self-exploration and can help you in and of themselves… so welcome to the community and keep exploring and learning!
on that note, I’m going to use my reply as a chance for me to think about and explore my own system of training! it’s really worth it all athletes to periodically think about their own system of training or whatever it is that they are being coached to do, and decide for themselves if it’s something they like doing or believe in. In the process of writing, new ideas will come to you like they did during my writing of this post. lol!
for 8 months out of the year (when not in race season), i do 4 week blocks: I do 3 weeks at full goal volume (volume = time on bike) with 2 good hard sessions, then 1 recovery week with all recovery/endurance riding, more rest, less volume … and one FTP test if i think i need it or practice race if i don’t think I need to test on the last day of my recovery week. I think about my time on bike most of all and I never think about TSS.
I aim to complete two high quality (EG workouts that are harder than endurance) sessions per week during that 8 months of the year.
–For me I choose a couple different interval sessions per week and repeat them for 3 weeks. which helps in the diary because i have easy comparisons to make… then the next 3 week block i might shift the interval sessions depending on the time in the season. so generally I’m planning for one month in advance though i do update based on what life throws at me.
the rest of my typical weekly riding is made up of endurance and recovery riding.
–I do 2 volume filling endurance rides on weekdays and 1 long endurance ride on weekends. They are all based on RPE, I never look at my power or HR. I aim for an intensity where I feel like i’m working, but I could keep up a conversation and I could definitely go all day.
–I always do a recovery ride on any day when i’m too tired to run endurance. recovery rides need to be as easy as possible and never longer than an hour for me.
– one day per week is full rest, and one day per week is light recovery riding
I follow an annual training plan: there is a lot variables to consider about what season it is and it helps to get a coach. TR gives these to you but I don’t think it’s at all smart or effective to try to simply let go of control and let TR set it all up for you.
–after racing season is over, I need a 2 week period completely off the bike… resting, eating healthy, resting some more… thinking about something other than cycling for a few days at least, then readdressing goals for next year and building the annual training plan…
–after the the complete rest period, it’s time to do a transition block where I ride a mix of endurance rides and really easy recovery rides only for 2 months straight and slowly increase my duration, and do two high quality lifting sessions every non-resting week during this time. so in my diary i’m mostly tracking my lifting gains over time.
–after the transition block it’s time for base period. (4 months) I like to focus on increasing volume up to the goal for the entire season. (I shoot for 15h/week by the end) I do tempo/sst intervals during the hard sessions days but start sprinkling in some sprints… keep lifting twice a week (same days as interval days) but only one hard lift session per week and one core maintenance workout. get two days rest between the hard days… you’ve got to be eating more and more food to keep up with the increasing volume.
–after base comes build build (2 months) and now its time to up the ante and add just a couple extra hard ride days during each 1 month cycle (so some weeks are 2 hard rides in a week and others are 3 hard rides during a week), I make make the hard ride days goal specific like in TR. and I still do one core maintenance lift session. keep doing similar number of hours as base period. (this year my goal will be to get better at hill climbing road races so I plan to sprinkle in hilly ride days outside where i’ll be riding as hard as i can just like the races)
–Now race season can go on for the remaining 3.5 months and what I said earlier about 3 weeks hard and 1 week rest go out the window completely. everything is dictated by how i’m feeling and when the races are scheduled. Generally my volume needs to be reduced a little bit. For me it drops to 10h/week on race weeks and maybe a little extra volume on non-race weeks. I still do one core maintenance lift session on any week where there is no racing happening. I don’t lift on weeks when a race happens. If there’s lots of racing going on, then all non-race days are either recovery rides, full rest, or pre-race primers. On weeks where there is no racing, I can get away with a little bit of training for whatever race I happen to be anticipating most. So i’ll go back to the general structure of 2 quality sessions +endurance/recovery. If i’m nervous about a time trial, then I’m doing some workouts with intervals for the same time duration as the time trial. Or if I’m anticipating the next big scary crit, I’m going out and practicing crit racing riding around in circles with friends. Sometimes I have a couple weeks of down time and then there’s a long hilly road race, then I will do some long stochastic rides up and down whatever hills I can find that look somewhat similar to those at the race.
–Usually by the time I get to the last race of the season, there is still time before I need to go back to the beginning and take two full rest weeks. So I usually will get outside and have fun. Big long group rides, do a century, try something new on the bike, explore, or do whatever is on my bucket list.
It’s also very beneficial to keep a diary (I like to use excel) of each ride and race, What I try to include is listed below:
I keep track of FTP
–but it is simply to help me recognize my zones.
–I really don’t care about or expect gains within any one single year. It takes a long time to update the FTP. Gains in FTP are not linear with time, even when you are doing everything right. FTP gains are better to think about in terms of year-over-year progression as opposed to changes from one part of the season to the next.
–Fluctuations of what your capacity is for power and work fluctuate during the season (depending on how much intensity training you’ve been doing) but this really doesn’t necessarily indicate an increased FTP.
–So deciding if FTP has gone up requires confirmation from a lot more metrics than just one simple FTP test: I look at the FTP test number, and I also look at how i’m doing in intervals. I ask myself if i’ve gotten to the point in my intervals where i can go way longer in a zone than i should be able to. Like if i’m to the point where I can go more than 60’ of total time the sst/FTP zone during a workout and still feel fresh, then I know that the FTP test number is really valid.
–There are other things that are more valuable and are the point of my diary. FTP gains are nice when they come, but it’s really a result of long term meeting my process goals.
During the season, I Choose to spend my time thinking about smaller subtle metrics & process goal metrics like:
–how I felt doing a specific workout vrs what my average power was for the intervals… (always tells me how well recovered i am)
–how high my HR went during an identical interval set. (could be a sign of how well rested I am)
–how well i was eating on a day… or anything I notice about food choices that seemed to make me stronger or weeker. (keeps me focused on my main goal of staying healthy)
– how i’m sleeping (keeps me focussed on my main goal of sleeping enough)
–if i’m getting more power out during a specific interval set than i have in the past…
–if i feel so good that i can shorten my rest between intervals. (tells me that i have more stamina and i’m getting closer to needing to retest FTP)
–if i am able to do more volume in a week before getting tired, or if my tempo/sst/ftp intervals are getting longer before fatigue
– i don’t track TSS. I track time on bike (time on bike = “volume”) and aim to keep up with a goal that works for me. and plan around hard life stress reducing volume on these weeks/months.
I periodically review trends (the number 1 metric i look at is related to how i was feeling compared to performance) in the notebook and see that look for signs of improvement or think about making changes to my choices for intervals, diet, recovery week structure and everything else.
I have the impression that my FTP on my H.T
is underestimate 3.7w / kg because outside I am higher
HT trainings are well followed and I have the impression of getting better and better and more powerful despite the accumulated lactite acid from HT trainings outside 120km with vertical drop of more than 1000m with 25-year-old ELITE younger than me
I hold the road for the moment happy with the planing of T.ROAD
follow your schedule well it will pay off
excuse me for my english i’m french
I agree, if i only do the ramp test, my ftp doesnt raise (i would have to set a 5 min power PR to take it up higher). Using the 20 min test, i see improvements.
