Hi All, this is an open question hoping you can help explore and understanding this topic more.
I’ve been training for 5 days a week regularly for almost a year now. I raised my FTP three times and I’m at week #5 of criterium medium volume now. Here’s what’s happening:
I noticed that my heart rate is now going up anymore to Zone 5 as I got used to the effort very well. This is reflected by the EPOC in the Garmin staying low and my Garmin training load going down. This comes with a stable Vo2max at my highest ever for a few weeks. A the end of training I don’t feel exhausted and breathless like I used in the past.
At the same time, I tried to do a ramp test and see if the FTP increased but It’s not the case, I tried a couple of times last month but in both cases, it did not raise.
I thought what I experience could be due to increased power, but now I’m confused about what steps to take next to make sure I get full advantage of my training.