Is it normal for your FTP to fall even tho you continue to train?

Training
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Yes, stay tuned. I plan to start back Thursday with a 3-week build phase and then take a break on the 4th-week and then another 3-week build before I roll over to SSB in January’ish.

Just to be clear tho: I ‘did’ do recovery weeks in my past training… I did the 60%-75% TR workouts that were prescribed in TR’s plans. But I guess that maybe some weeks need to be 50% and less or no riding at all to really give your body what it needs.

From now on I am going to try to make recovery weeks more about recovery and see what happens… I will say that by the time Saturday and Sunday rolled around on my recovery weeks I was pumped and ready to go. So really most of my recovery weeks were more like Mon.-Fri.

I really didn’t think I was overtraining. At one point I was facing a little burnout feeling but nothing like being irritable and losing weight or any of the other signs that I heard coach @chad mention on the podcasts.

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I think everyone has hit on the main points here, and @chad has explained the reasoning pretty well.

One thing I think it’s important to note, is that you get a big boost mentally when you get back on the bike after some rest as well, it isn’t just physical. Even with a slight decline in fitness you will probably have more pep.

I had had to really manage my program this year far more than usual, for a couple reasons. This is anecdotal but I can pass on what I did and learned from it. This is the first time I ever did a complete re-build into a second specialty block (CX), so that in and of itself was a chance to learn my body and it’s reactions much better. On top of that, I race sailing yachts on a Grand Prix level, which is a high output, high stress activity. I’ve tried to convey to other cyclists just how physically demanding yacht racing can be by comparing the top end of cycling, such as the Tour, with something like the Volvo Ocean Race, which has one leg of 20+ days. That’s basically like doing a Grand Tour, except you are going 24 hours a day for the entire thing and not stopping at night. The calorie burns are in the 8,000 per day range and the biggest challenge is trying to intake enough food. Anyway, I had a race in July that ended up extremely taxing. Upwind in big air for three days straight with not enough qualified drivers left a few of us up almost the whole way.

My training schedule for the year had actually been built around this race and not cycling, so this was the second taper week, and I planned on taking the following week as a rest week. Come to find out the following week I could barely complete the first workout of short power build. After trying a second workout I knew that I was right on the edge of flaming out. Basically, I debated either just taking an entire week off, doing all short Z2 for a week, or reducing volume by skipping a workout here and there and managing the intensity of the VO2Max and anaerobic stuff. In the end I choose the third option, and it really worked well. I steadily came back up to power, and now put another 2% of FTP on the second half of build. The first week I skipped the Tues VO2, the second week I skipped Pettit, and then I went to the full week (medium volume) and just managed intensity.

The best part of it was I really got even more in touch with how my body responds. So it’s a learning opportunity for anyone that should definitely be taken advantage of.

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Ok jumping in on the this thread. Here is my Issue: ​FTP Change what Should I do? Started SSB LV1 200FTP, Started SSB Mid Vol I 228 FTP. Started SSB Mid Vol II with active rest week with entire weekend of rest 200 FTP, waited two days complete rest 208 FTP. Took another active rest week and 4 consecutive days off 209 FTP.

At 228 I was able to complete all Mid Vol 1 workouts. I acknowledge that in that plan nothing uber demanding. Also I did do one VO2 Max workout and maintained all pwr tgts within plus or minus 5ws

Should I just accept new lower FTP and move on or should go back to the higher 228 FTP?
or is it possible I unknowingly over stressed myself during tng as I was operating at a overly high FTP?

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This was really intresting read so many “problems” with training and all things cycling i have had to , i say had i hope i found a way to get better , my story is i started riding my bike almost 2 years ago no real plan to it just picked up workouts that looked fun and that might help me. And started with zwift and did try some of there workouts.

I did managed to get my ftp up to 238 at most and then it started to go back down from there but i think the problem then was i did workout to much was fixed on my TSS numbers and get it up. Was chasing numbers and trying to get my fitness up and in the process i think i burned out and got over trained.

So did take some rest weeks more then every 4 weeks but everytime i started up i was back to my 400-600 TSS weeks i got some what used to the load , but at the same time i could not hold my numbers so started to drop my ftp thinking that it had dropped as i could not do my workouts with extra rest.

So started to think that maybe i need a plan to follow so did find TR and as always was still looking at my tss numbers so did pick mid volume , but i did notice that 5 days training got to me was still having a hard time with the workouts. And i got frustraited that i was feeling tired and fatigued all the time in the workouts at least the top end workouts like Vo2 , but that have always been my weak point.

I did get down to 200 ftp and been there for the better part of 7 months with small jumps up here and there , but i was still having a hard time with the workouts. So a few weeks i started to look on my patterns in life food and all of that. And i was training to much and did sleep way to little and i am not a young punk anymore lol so started to sleep more always trying to get at least 7 h of sleep and started doing iron suppliments and “only” doing 3 workout days per week.

And now my fitness is way low but trying not to look to much on that for now, so today i started my general build did my ramp test on tuesday did feel like always did not expect much from it but i had just put my power pedals on for this week , been using my kicker for power and for the most part use erg.

But when i did start to use my power pedals and erg it did not clamp me down as hard i did have more float up and down in numbers i really like that so with that i did up my ftp with 10 watts not much but for me it´s a big deal. And did feel really good at end i got so overwhelmed with feelings when i did see i did that ftp jump my first real jump up , i broke down in tears.

I did feel so good i have put down so much time and effort with not much to show for it so i hope this is my turnaround and i will start to see gains in ftp again i am just 1 workout in so far , but i think the key for me is i sleep better and my iron supplements and that my power pedals is showing more true numbers and that i am not so locked in to erg.

Next workout i spanishneedle so think i will do that with out erg as it´s so short bursts so don´t think erg will work so good with that :slight_smile:

Just want to say thank you TR for a great plattform i really hope this great feeling i have now will keep going in the workouts , now i am looking forward to train again :slight_smile: wow now i see this was a long reply for me.

Keep up the good work all