I am counting my good fortune then. Understand about the muscle stength in legs not correlating to aerobic fitness. Indeed when I did the ramp test it was my cardio that forced me to stop before my leg muscles.
Hm. I knew the weekend rides were most important so I did all the Saturday rides but usually Sundays I would go out and do rides of considerably greater TSS than trainer Road had planned on the Sunday. I can get that this could skew my results as I wasnr training with power on the Sunday rides
Intersiting idea to scale back to LV and incorporate some outdoor rides. I am strongly considering doing just that.
Iāve used myfitness pal to log and track calorie intake.
In the UK the food labelling has a calorie tolerance of twenty percent so itās a hit and miss for accuracy so set your goals with that in mind and be prepared to flex your intake as you become more informed.
Check your metabolic rate against the available online resources to ensure myfitnesspal is correctly set for your daily calorie intake. As for % splits for carbs, fat and protein, I use 50% carbs, 30% fat and 20% protein although as long as you have a good quality balanced diet thereās no need to drill down unless youād like to.
Link TrainerRoad, Strava and Myfitnesspal so your food intake and activity all sync, set your weight loss goals use Myfitness pal and away you go.
Be aware that restricting calorie intake can impair your recovery and therefor your bodyās adaptation to the training youāve undertaken so listen to your body. Heavy training load & restricted calories will dig you a deep hole, both mentally and physically.
Personally Iām aiming for .5/1lb a week weight loss but my over arching aim is to avoid illness/injury so Iām able to complete the plan on time as I see consistency as another leg for success. My priorities are to max out any possible gains by using a balanced approach with equal weighting towards training, calorie quality/ quantity and recovery with weight loss coming next.
In build I plan to maintain my weight as this is where ( Iām hoping) the larger increases in TSS will be followed by FTP increases. However if the training goes well and Iām feeling strong Iāll reduce my calorie intake slightly and see what impact that has. Training load and therefor calorie intake should increase so Iāll edge on the side of caution and Iām expecting build to be a brutal experience.
Itās a marathon not a sprint, take your time, learn what works and what needs tweaking for you, above everything enjoy the journey.
All good suggestions. Thanks. I use my fitness pal as well to track calories and nutrients. My aim is also to lose 1Lb a week. I have taken on doing about 2 times my KG weight in protein daily, which is about 35% of my calories. This has also proven to effectively help me lose fat and gain lean muscleāI am more ripped now than I have ever been and I am only using weights 1-2 days as week so I credit this to increase in protein and drop in body fat.
I wish I could gain over 3-4% in 6 weeks, that would be amazing. Gains do not always come as fast as we would like, but the fact that gains are coming shows that you are headed in the right direction. Look at the other aspects of your day such as rest, nutrition and stress as they all have an impact.
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Hello all
To offer an update, turns out the trainer I am using in Taiwan has been undereading my power by at least 20 percent. While this is a bummer for my purchase of this trainer it makes a ton of sense for my riding.
I have a different trainer back in usa and have used it for my last two ftp tests and the results as follows :
Sept 2019 SSB MV1: 245 (this is a guesstimate)
after SS MV 1: 255 (gauged from ftp test done at local gym and not my home trainer)
after SS LV 2: 268 (done with trainer in Usa)
Halfway through General Power Build LV: 309 (done with same trainer in Usa)
I have also gone from 89kg in August 2019 to 81kg today. My W/kg is at 3.8 now.
My goal is 4.0 watts per kg as I am still training for the Taiwan Kom.
Very pleased with the results. A 40 watt increase through half of General Power Build program plus weekly heavy duty outdoor rides seems a bit nuts but I would be happy with even 20 watt increase.
I will complete the general power build program then move onto climbing specialty.
I did take advice of a fellow TR rider and moved the to LV programs and used one day on weekends for a 4 to 5 hour ride and one day during the week for 2 hourish ride. This works for me as I like nothing more than getting outside on a bike and getting sun and fresh air.
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I think it was @Nate_Pearson who said in the podcast recently that a goal like get to 4w/kg wasnāt as helpful as a goal like consistently doing all your training sessions every week.
This was a game changer for me, I had a 300w FTP goal, but physiologically I may never get to 4w/kg!! butā¦ I can do my TR sessions every week to become the best cyclist I can and if that leads to hitting that number then awesome, but if it doesnāt I wonāt be disappointed as Iāve put in all the effort I physically can 
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Fantastic adviceš
I just wanted to talk to someone 
Had been doing well and at first winter got my ftp from 195 to 245
Then next year I got it to peak three weeks ago to 273 and now I had holiday for three weeks with hiking and open water swimming.
After holiday I did a ramp test to see how much I had lost. -12% to 242. I was thinking that I would do a week of indoor rides and do a new test today after few rides under the belt.
Today was the new ramp test day and I got to 242->245 and Iām at same watts I was last November.
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If that helps I lost similar amounts by having a week off. It has taken me months to get to top form, then I took a week off and looks like I lost all of the top gains and I am where I was 18 months ago FTP wise.
But as others are saying - FTP is just a part of the equation - itās very likely that your endurance is better now so it will be easier to build up again.
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I only went up 6w after the final block of general build. That was a lot of suffering for 6watts. I know I am getting toward the pointy end of the ability, but I want to gain 6% to hit my goal. Should be an interesting rest of the year as I have no motivation due to no racing.
I started at 192 and got now to 246 after 12 weeks in SSMV. I never did any of structured training and have been riding for almost 2 years (20 months)so I call it a satisfactory gain, however I do feel poorly when I read many riders here talking about 300 FTP in only 6 months.
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