No FTP increase through Base in year 2

Training
21

Thanks all. Feel like I’m learning more and more all the time - especially listening to the tr podcast when I’m training.

Definitely feeling motivated again and excited for a summer of big rides this year, even if there’s no racing.

22

i think you’ve got this covered but just a few things to point out:

  1. just because you aren’t changing your setup on the virtual power doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not changing. Temperature changes, tires lose air, etc. It is probably worth periodically recalibrating or re-checking or whatever it is you need to do.

  2. I don’t agree when people say base doesn’t build fitness. You’re racking up aerobic adaptations and what is adaptation other than “fitness”? I suspect they would agree and rather than “fitness,” they mean performance. Base doesn’t necessarily improve your performance on a ramp test.

That last one could be true. Remember that a ramp test doesn’t measure FTP, it measures your performance on the ramp test, and from that it estimates your FTP. Your FTP could be improving or other fitness parameters like repeatability and endurance could (and should) be improving but it might not be reflected in performance on a ramp test.

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23

I’m hoping one of the benefits of this training is that I get to emulate a friend of mine - late 70s and still organizing races / showing the young upstarts how it’s done!

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