Thanks as ever for comments
I listened today also to KM podcast on listener questions on FTP training (Watts Doc number 16) and he said for an athlete with a TTE of 60 mins at FTP he would look to get them to do 5x15 or 6x15 at FTP by the end of the block. I’ll look to schedule a few workouts and see how they feel.
Can always line up to do 4x10 and end up doing 6x10 if feeling particularly good!
This is the right mindset. As others have said its better to start conservative as you schedule the progression, and ramp up quicker if you are finding it easy.
I had originally planned a slow progression with 3x20 getting hit by end of week 3. I was able to nail 3x20 at the end of week 2 when i decided i would just turn a 2x20 into a 3x20 after finishing the second interval and still felt strong.
Listen to your body and move forward
There is certainly some self experimenting going on. Knowing that, I’d rather undershoot a little than blow up in every training session. If I undershoot by a huge amount, I just add that to the knowledge bank for next time.
SST definitely doesn’t help you push above FTP thats for sure. At least in my recent experience.
I did a duathlon over the weekend and my 10 mile TT normalized power was 2 watts above my normalized power of my 3x40 90% workout
I agree with this. The first couple of FTP workouts are a slap in the face. Just as VO2 max workouts are when you’re coming off months of nothing but Z2/Tempo/SS/FTP.
How long was the 10-mile effort?
One thing that’s been amazing to me about the block progression style SST - Threshold - VO2max - repeat… I haven’t done any specific anaerobic training at all this season, but I am blowing the doors off of my power records 5 min and under. Set a 2min power record by 40W today, and in the process set the same power records up to like 3:30 even though I shut it down at 2min and was doing tempo into it.
Now, my repeatability is probably for crap right now, but the rising tide truly lifts all boats. All time high mFTP from WKO.
I have backed off my overall TSS and volume the past two weeks, focusing more on minimum effective dose because my performance and my training numbers told me I was trying to do too much. Seems like it’s made a big difference and now I’m really seeing the gains from the past six months’ training.
Good work @kurt.braeckel !
Yesterday we did a nice workout with the team. 7 riders in couples of 2/3. 3x20min FTP with 5min rest in between. Really hard because of the overs in front and the unders in the wheel. It feels a lot harder than steady FTP workout with a higher overall power. Doing this with strong guys makes yourself pushing a little more.
And again this morning, I turned my 2x24 at 97% (of 285W) into 52 straight at 283 average. Started at 276 but finished the last 23 min at 287W average and set all time PRs from 32 to 52:30. And I felt like I could’ve kept going.
WKO bumped FTP up another W and TTE at that all time high is out around 55min. My previous high mFTP from last season was 276 (TR ramp test at 282), now mFTP is 283, training at 285W.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence all this is happening about six weeks after my VO2max block ended.
Similar observations after vo2 max block. My power usually goes a little up but the biggest change is how I feel on the bike. For me it’s like I get more air and rpe is lower during threshold.
Hi everyone!
I have a question about the place of Vo2max in the season. After @kurt.braeckel his post about his progression with vo2max, i think i need some help in this case.
This season i did a nice base/build. Started in November 2020 and progress from Z2/Z3 to longer blocks SST and in week 12 till 14 i did around 2 FTP workouts per week. Week 15 was a restweek with a FTP test and bump from 292 to 311. I had the same feeling as Kurt, i could keep going. After 20min FTP test, i went through to 25min, and the recovery the day after went very wel…i dont feel much sour like the years before after a test.
Iam training for racing and think we can race from July again (but that is still uncertain). My FTP% Vo2max is now 81.6%. So my idea was to do another FTP block to raise that percentage.
Week 16,17 and half 18: FTP work, with more over/unders (making ready for vo2max)
Week 19: Going to Limburg (Netherlands) and lot of volume (and can do some vo2max on short climbs).
Week 20, 21: Vo2max
Week 22: Recovery week
Week 23, 24, 25 again FTP.
Week 27 Racing
Another option is going now into vo2max:
Week 16,17 and half 18: Vo2max (week 18 half restweek)
Week 19, volume, and some intensive in Limburg (Netherlands)
Week 20 restweek
From week 21 again FTP and making race ready for July.
I know that i need a vo2max block before racing. But is vo2max in april to early or the right moment? How would you do this periodication?
Thanks in advance!
I think your first plan is good. Two weeks (or a little more) of FTP work, I’d take a couple of days of recovery. Your high volume and VO2max work into recovery.
Travel isn’t recovery - it’s very stressful. A lot of people take a break from training when they travel for a couple of days, but that’s not usually going to be great for recovery.
The other thing is what races you’re doing. If you’re doing time trials or climbing focused events, the focus on raising FTP will have you ready. If you’re doing crits or road races, you don’t have any repeatability trained at your anaerobic power in there, and that could be your limiter. Just depends on your physiology and your races.
So I’d go with the first plan, but put a couple of recovery days in before you head to Limburg. Then I’d do a focused block of training on the demands of your race from Week 23-25 (repeatability, FTP, whatever.)
Thank you @kurt.braeckel travel to Limburg is for me 2.5h riding with a car, so i dont need to recover from that. But thats why i do in week 18 (before i move to Limburg) some recovery days. (Thats why i called week 18 and a half block 
Iam riding crits, so i need some anaerobic work before the races going on…so from week 23 i have time enough to do race prep work. Thanks!
No worries, sorry I didn’t know how far Limburg was. 
I did a three-day cross country (USA) road trip in 2019 and didn’t ride through that taking that as a “recovery period”. Needless to say, I wasn’t the least bit recovered when I tried to start training again.
Haha yeah in The Netherlands you can ride from the North to the South in 3 hours.
This I would focus more one repetability and include more anaerobic efforts. Doing only FTP work will leave you flat when it comes to top end. Do some 15/15, 30/20, hard starts followed by threshold, sprints followed by threshold, sprint-threshold-vo2 efforts (similar to last workout: Over Under Intervals – FasCat Coaching). So more race specific efforts to polish that top end.
Great addition! Thanks !
I have a parcours with a hard start (riding up against a aquaduct) and then 2-3min hard as i can with finishing 10s sprint uphill (bridge). That’s like race winning efforts. Maybe that is a nice workout for that weeks…
For the workouts you posted do you mind doing a quick breakdown of the time and % targets for each?
Ex Workout 1:
Warmup = X time at Y%
Working sets = 8 rounds of… 10s hard start @x% for Y time followed by x% for Y time finishing with kicker of x% for Y time.
This looks like a fun one i might want to replicate.
Overall: warmup - whatever you want and what works for you.
First one:
Sprint - individual, as hard as you can without destroying yourself, then 4 min@FTP and finish with 1 min@150% FTP
5 min recovery between sets
Second one:
Third one:
3x sprint max for 12s, recovery 24s. The third sprint (without recovery) is followed by 15min@FTP
10 min rest between sets
