Ah thanks for helping.
I also use intervals.icu.
In 2021 i make it till 4.6 w/kg in the period december 2020 - 1 may 2021.
In 22 weeks: 12069/22 week = 548 TSS/week and 78 daily avg.
In that period i did not do vo2max, so i will try this year again with a shorter (but steeper) base, followed with FTP and Vo2max, to make it till 5 w/kg.
Skip the french fries, eat plain rice 
Rowing is one sport that seems to translate well to cycling. You get the aerobic fitness, and generate leg strength through somewhat similar movement patterns. Not exact, but similar loading to cycling with minimal impact, especially relative to something like running.
So you came to the game with muscles already developed for similar movement pattern, and high-end aerobic fitness that translated well to the bike. Where you go from there is up to you and how much volume you want or are willing to do on the bike!
My opinion always is that if you want high FTP, rowing is the way to go. On the other hand if you are build like a cyclist, rowing is definitely sport for you
Yes that is true! I often wonder how I would done as a rower, but it isn’t so common sport in my country. I come to cycling from hammer throw. I can’t imagine how that has helped me to get to this fitness on the bike. It is all about neuromuscular power and middle body/leg strength at quite high body weight. I was 109 kg (180 cm tall) at heaviest but was strong too. Did 170 kilos in power clean once. One thing that I remember was that I could train very hard compared to others, but lacked the needed agility in the circle. I wasn’t so quick either. Maybe it has something to do with genetics.
Yeah, I came to cycling from running, so I have bone density for days, but am weak AF. 
I am a junior lol
rowing is too hard.
it’s like cycling backwards while having to do a track stand with no hands.
but if you fall over, you get hypothermia.
I know this is necro’ing a pretty old thread, but I felt like tossing my own experience out there for general perspective. I’m currently at 63.7kg & 335w FTP, which puts me around 5.25w/kg. 175cm & 32 years old. This is the highest my w/kg has been in my history with the sport.
Since 2017 I’ve been hovering around 5w/kg. I first got into cycling in the summer of 2011.
Between 2015 - 2023, my smallest year was 450 hours. 2023 was my biggest at 630. Currently sitting at 135 hours for 2024. My total ride time on Strava is 5343h 39m (2012 - 2024), and I’d say that’s not far from reality. Maybe missing 150-200 hours?
I had a coach between 2013 - 2019, but I’ve mostly coached myself since 2020. I’ve had help from a few friends who work for a big coaching company in the US, one of them being my former coach. I ask them questions sometimes, but mostly just read a lot online.
I went from mostly sedentary in 2010 to road riding for fun to joining my college’s club team. I fell in love with road racing and I’ve raced ever since. Mostly road, but a few big seasons of mountain & gravel too. I still think about myself as a relatively “new” cyclist because most of my friends have been riding much longer than I have, and have been much strongr. But I guess I have been riding and training for 12+ years now.
I’ve only had TrainingPeaks since November 2015 (bought my first power meter that year) and my first test logged there was 302w. So, over 8.5 years I have gone from 302 → 335. I’m not very good at math, but that’s a 9%(?) increase, so around 1% per year? I’ve always done 20 minute power tests as that’s what my coach asked me to do.
I think I’d say I got here by sticking it out for a little over a decade. But, most of my biggest “gains” have come in the last few years. I’ve always been semi-serious, but I never properly looked at my nutrition while training. I was a buy & hoard fancy SiS / Clif products for race day kind of rider. I stuck to the old “eat 1 thing every hour” idea. Usually a clif bar or pop tart during training rides. Looking back I was almost always shelled when I finished a long endurance ride or even short rides with intervals.
Now I’m big on the carbs 24/7. Never not eating. Coincidentally my weight has come down, probably because my volume has increased. I simply feel better on the bike all the time. Religiously taking in between 60-90g/hour while riding. I do track overall nutrition as well now via MyFitnessPal, I’m worried about being in too large of a deficit.
I also used to take “endurance rides” as meaning just noodling around. I didn’t focus on staying Z2 until a couple of years ago. That has really helped a lot. And now that I’m fueling that properly, well, it’s achievable. I’d crush myself if I was still choking on pop tart crumbs.
Coincidentally… I’m not that good at road racing! I had some success in college. I’ve also done well in the gravel / mountain bike scene. But bigger results in my true love, road, have eluded me. I found this thread just looking for training resources. Slow day at work!
You must have won races in the 3/4s, no?
I picked up from your post about not just “noodling” and the truth is I never feel fit for much more than noodling outside of my 2 or 3 hard sessions in a week. Don’t perceive I’m in a calorie or carb deficit, but do you really think it makes the difference?
I raced collegiate to upgrade to around a 3. Cat 3 is maybe when I felt most “competitive” as most local crits I entered I felt like I had a chance at being on the podium. I did win races during that time. I live overseas now, but when I was in the US I was racing as a 2 on the road and able to podium at local training crits. Bigger road races are where things got more difficult.
Podiums and wins in gravel / mountain bike came more easily. Maybe in some sense they are less tactical? I’m probably the kind of person that is better at training than racing.
By noodling I mean that my endurance rides were almost always unstructured. I never concentrated on staying in Zone 2, which is something I do in my training now. Most of my old endurance rides I probably averaged high Zone 1 / low Zone 2. Rarely looked at power during the ride, just focused on time in the saddle.
Historically I have always done intervals on Tuesday/Thursday. “Endurance” on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. I often do recovery rides Monday & Friday now.
Looking back I can tell I was in a deficit because I often bonked. Or went hunger flat. I’d finish rides ready to eat everything in my kitchen. I just thought that was part of the experience in cycling. I figured as you got more fit, that feeling would go away. Now that I consume more carbs during my rides I rarely ever get that feeling. If I do I assume that I messed up nutritionally.
If you’re not feeling like that, you’re probably doing okay too? I’m definitely not a nutritionist or anything, but I’ve been trying to learn more about it. I really do think my riding is night and day different, particularly those Zone 2 days, now that I’m focused on consuming carbs. If I’m riding, I’m taking in something. Even if I don’t feel hungry on the bike.
This is what I am getting at though, I rarely feel like I have the desire to keep to zone 2 for say a 4 hour outdoor ride. I just ride flitting between RPE and looking at the power, knowing I really should be pushing a little more, but feel too tired to contemplate adhering to zone 2 regardless.
Eating on the bike feels marginally better but doesn’t make it a game changer from wiped out to feeling fresh with loads of power on tap.
Eating reasonably well off the bike doesn’t seem to change this.
I’m sort of stuck between knowing my 2-3 hard turbo sessions per week keep me where I am, and not having the trust in myself that if I dropped one of those perhaps and instead turned up for a long ride a bit fresher, that I would actually push the pace a little more and keep it in zone 2 rather than dropping off to active recovery.
What % are you shooting for when you’re thinking about Zone 2 rides? If I’m indoors and just mindlessly watching something, I usually shoot for 60-64% FTP. Outdoors if I’m feeling fresh and the weather is nice, it’s usually a higher %. But it’s a sliding scale. Maybe in my 4th week of a training block my Tuesday interval session feels harder than normal. I’ll ride 60% Z2 on Wednesday to help prepare for Thursday’s intervals.
Friday would be a recovery ride… and if I’m still feeling a little beat, I’d do low Z2 again on Saturday. But then Sunday I’d ramp it back up. Still Z2, just a higher %.
I guess to me it sounds like there’s some excitement / freshness missing from your rides. I’m usually really excited for my Z2 days because they’re way easier than my interval days. If you feel like something isn’t working, why not try to change it up a little? “Fitness” can be such a personal journey, it can take a while to learn what really works for you.
On a lot of days, I feel tired and barely hit just over 50% FTP. A good day would be no more then 65% and that would def feel a tough day by the end. That’s average power not NP, NP usually in the 60% region.
I probably need to look at my nutrition some more.
If you struggle to ride at 65% ftp… I would suggest definitely looking into nutrition, or recovery. It sounds like you are overtrained/under-rested.
Yeah, I’d consider tracking your calories for a week or two. Maybe first start by taking some time off the bike, get some really good recovery, and then get back into training + tracking. Just as an experiment to make sure you’re not in a chronic (big) deficit. If you find you’re not in a deficit… I’d say it’s too much training.
Just be careful to not get too caught up in it. I know people that start tracking calories, and then it turns into a bad habit.
50% is a recovery ride, that should be easy. Like, just the weight of your legs falling on the pedals easy. Not having to think about it.
Hi all, I am currently sitting at 69kg-s, 177cm, 4.2w/kg, definetly can loose some weight, but I am qurious what was your body weight when you hit that 5watts mark and how long does it took you to get there, your height number would be appreciated too. I am trying to understand how instrumental is it to be in that 10 percent body fat range to get to the magic number and beyond, or if many of you have hit that plank with a couple kg-s on top of that