I’ve been doing the custom plan and I think I’ve plateaued during base 2. Currently doing the mid volume plan FTP is 327 as of this morning and since November I’ve been floating anywhere from 322 to 330 FTP and weight has been floating between 165-170lbs (holidays). The sweet spot progression levels are 8.7 currently. Any ideas of how to keep increasing or directions to take training? not sure how adding in more VO2 efforts will elevate it.
That is exactly how you will start to elevate it…you need to now start to hit power levels above your FTP in order to start raising it.
Do a VO2 block and you should see your FTP rise.
3 Likes
Anyone’s peak FTP is limited by their VO2 max, at some point you have to raise the ceiling to be able to continue increasing your ftp.
You shouldn’t really expect to be seeing massive gains during base 2, the whole of base is like one giant plateau outside of the so called noob gains which you get just from starting to ride consistently.
1 Like
I was at a similar place a couple years ago. FTP not moving despite a fair amount of SS and Threshold volume. I got a new coach and did a pretty intense 2-3 week VO2 block. After recovering I saw a great FTP bump.
Once you’re well trained, FTP or under intervals will help extend TTE but will have limited benefit in raising FTP. That’s where VO2 intervals come in
Cool so it seems like everything is moving along as intended. Looking forward at the training plan there is more VO2 in the near future so hopefully that’ll lead to some increases. Thanks for all the advice
1 Like
Sounds like you’re on the right track! If your PLs have been going up, remember that that still means you’re getting faster – your time to exhaustion and repeatability of hard efforts in the zones you’ve been working on during the Base Phase are probably quite solid by now. 
As other athletes mentioned above, VO2 Max intervals often help “raise” your FTP by “pulling it up” from above your Threshold power. As you keep moving through your plan, I think you’ll find that you’ll continue to get stronger in terms of your PLs/TTE/repeatability and through FTP increases.
Keep up the good work and feel free to let us know if you have any other questions!