After my ultra was cancelled and summer was hot I kinda stopped training from heat and tbh my motivation was killed with the cancellation.
So it’s been 3 months without any structure and just some random rides, some hard and some pottering around. I’ve got a new turbo and new goals so put in a plan. I expected my FTP to drop but not sure what to do.
Sunday 30min to trigger auto ready for the new plan - failed and dropped 220 → 209
Monday - failed and dropped 209 → 203
Tuesday - outside z2 never really sure how well these get followed due to the terrain here
Wednesday - failed and dropped 203 → 199
I’m trying to do them before work since I now do 9-5 (first time in 4 years) so am starting at 07:00. How do you structure complete failures?
keep falling until AI FTP gets it right?
manually set it low , then let AI FTP bring it up
delete plan and do a couple of weeks easy train now
sell the bikes, eat everything cake shaped and give up
Lots of failing might give the best accurate outcome but I’m not sure I can take it.
Take pressure off, go initial 2-3 weeks by HR (for example, TBHV 1), just to establish consistency and restore endurance. By that time, TR should have enough information for AI FTP detection to work on.
Actually agree with the ramp test suggestion. It’ll give you a number to get started. Then, a couple of weeks in, do a longer test, or just let AI decide.
Pacing a 30-min test without recent threshold work is hard.
Alternatively, just pick a value that seems about right, and use that. Better to set it a little too low, than too high.
Expect your FTP to drop a lot if you stop training for a while. Just do a ramp test (or preferably a 20min test) get a new baseline and start working your way back up. Don’t worry, it does come back.
Last summer saw also considerable drop. While felt bad at the time, looking back, it was actually good thing – forced me rethink how to rebuild base. I’d like to think, I am much better off thanks to it in long term.
It all comes back quicker than you think. Key is getting that seating FTP right so you set yourself off on the right course. How you choose to do that whether it’s ramp test/20 min test etc is up to you
First, you are detailed. The good news is that most of that is blood plasma volume and you’ll get a lot of fitness back pretty fast.
Personally, I’d ditch the workouts for a few weeks and just do whatever is the most fun.
I took 8 months off last year. I got back 83% of my fitness in a month. 89% in two months and 93% in five months … on half my old training load. I don’t want to ride twice as much right now to get that last 7% so I’m going to be content with 93% for now going into the off season.
Enjoy the noob gains now. There’s little reason IMO to kill yourself with hard workouts. Plus it’s September and we are going into fall/winter. Just ride!
Just remember the Greg Lemond saying “it never gets easier you just get faster”. It feels the same at sweetspot if you’re doing 200W or 300W. Just enjoy the journey again and your numbers will rapidly creep back up, and you’ll arguably be stronger for it at the end.
Depending on how much you can get for everything, it might be a good idea
Jokes a part, you’ll be back pretty soon, and what @RCC just said is absolutely true, bottom line it doesn’t matter if the interval is @200W or @400W, as long as you can do it and feel good and improved.
Total failure is leaving FTP as-is and not making adjustments after 3 months off What you do is up to you - ride by HR if you have good zones to reestablish cardio baseline, ramp test, etc., etc. My choice is the first one, having proven to myself that in this situation I can do very productive workouts by HR (and see rapid improvements in reestablishing cardio baseline). If you want to do it the TR way, do a ramp test.
you, even if you’re slow 
