Here’s another good option for people that isn’t as stressful, and is actually a good threshold workout.
If you want to test a new FTP, go do 2x20 @ what you think your “FTP” is with 5 minutes rest in between. If that’s right at my FTP, or just under it the last 5 minutes of my second interval are a solid hard, have to focus, but heart rate has pretty much stabilized (or creeping up slowly) right around 90-91%, and I’m not all out, soul crushing, heart rate blowing up hard. It doesn’t work as well at your existing FTP if you’ve been training TTE and pushing out how long you can hold it, but I’ve had good luck when it’s a new bump.
Go too high once, start to get familiar with your HR and what threshold feels like, you can just tell without killing yourself. Conversely if it’s a little easy, try bumping your FTP the next time or in the second interval. Then, once you dial in FTP, do a threshold progression to extend TTE.
FTP is not 1 hr power as you say, although it tends to correlate well for me as an Olympic triathlete (distance, not quality) where a 40km bike is just over an hour for me.
I’m a bit unsure of my progress at the moment, still training but less and less indoors. Concerned how I’m going to train triathlon which is a lot of sweet spot and threshold which is the opposite of my commute pattern. I might continue with bike plans that have sprint and short vo2 intervals I can do outside. Hoping to start semi regular weekend long rides for the first time ever…it will be weird to finally be like most cyclists and TR users.
This was fun and I love my new bike and the time I’ve spent on the road but…I have to take the rough with the smooth:
Dropped 6W to 260 a shortly after that post. Despite 9, 10, 11hr training weeks.
I’ve switched up again and reintroduced indoor training…and boy it feels good
Low volume masters olympic build plus 4x 1hr commute rides should she a good volume. I saw good gains in 2021 on high vol olympic build with poor compliance, this I’m hoping will be more consistent and have similar gains thereby.
Two weeks until next ai assessment, I’m hoping to recover some of those watts.
Key point: 6W at 260W is within margin of error for power meters and minor fluctuations due to your body. 2. The AI FTP algorithm is a black box, do you have any evidence in your brain/body that your fitness has declined? Are you in a rest week after the 9, 10, and 11 hour training weeks?
So true. @JoeX, have you had any interruptions lately? My last three months have had some interruptions & to top it off I’m now in the process of moving 2500 km away. When I think about AI FTP right now I’m a bit “”. Just doing maintenance & I’m calling it an off-season. Hopefully in three weeks I’ll be sufficiently settled in & ready to hit it again.
My consistency has been on off in recent weeks, but I’ve put in some really solid threshold intervals on Box Hill so my feeling is that there’s been a lot of good quality work.
This decline is over a longer period, my exercise heart rate is higher (see another thread) and I’ve gained weight. Also uncharacteristic for mid season.
I haven’t been through the metrics, but it’s true that I didn’t take my own advice and reintroduce indoor workouts. And outdoors can be really difficult to get consistent power.
I’m thinking of switching back to bike only focus and getting almost everyday time on the bike. My triathlon was cancelled anyway and I haven’t been running much.
I have been setting PRs which feels good, but these are on climbs I haven’t ridden much since 2019.
Looking back at your career it appears that your fitness regularly goes through cycles where it typically peaks around early spring and then falls back a bit over summer.
This is exactly what happens to me almost every year because I’m much more focused on really solid training inside all winter long and when summer comes I’m usually riding for the love of it.
I agree with you about Outside workouts being more difficult to knock out with really good accuracy and consistency, but it is possible! Regardless, it does look like some of your recent workouts haven’t simulated the structure of the prescribed workouts as well as they could and ultimately you’re not likely getting the stimulus that’s expected.
There are two directions you could go here.
The easy way out which you know works for you is to start doing your key workouts inside again. This ensures that you’ll get the right stimulus from the prescribed workouts.
The “harder” but potentially more gratifying way is to work on developing your Outside Workout skills by finding routes that work well for specific types of workouts and bettering your power output consistency away from ERG mode on the trainer. This one gives you more options when the weather is nice and will help you to get more in tune with controlling your efforts when out in the real world in both structured workouts and races.
Either one will likely get the job done, but I could probably try to sway you towards one over the other (if I haven’t already) if I had to.
Training isn’t always linear, and it’s normal for your FTP to go both up and down throughout the year. Nobody’s fitness only increases over time. That’s not sustainable.
Keep up the hard work though and if you can find a way to knock out those workouts with accuracy, I think you could start to peak during race season rather than earlier in the year.
Just shout if I can help with anything along the way!
I’d add a third gratifying option as it’s reliably worked for me: 1 or 2 hard group rides per week, where I’m fighting to stay on faster wheels. Then when I get dropped, “catch the group behind me” and start pulling high tempo / low threshold for others.
Outdoor is fun only if you have a convenient hill with smooth tarmac, and no traffic lights. Otherwise, you get what the road is giving you and the workout becomes a vague guide.
Indoor is only fun when the family haven’t stolen the Apple TV, which they have this year…so I’m in a bit of a quandary!
Thanks for the tips, the last two weeks have been hit and miss but I hoped it was going well overall. However I failed an achievable threshold workout today in the first interval where I was knocking out four or five without issue a few weeks ago. I need to examine my sleep, non-exercise stress and nutrition, as well.
Yeah, there’s a lot that can make or break a hard workout. I’ve found that nutrition, even for workouts that are 90 minutes or less, makes a really notable difference for me.
I agree that constant traffic lights can make structured workouts a bit of a drag. Hopefully, there’s somewhere nearby where you can get away from all of that! Even finding one area to do repeats could make a difference…
Just because you didn’t have a steady indoor-like workout doesn’t mean it is useless.
Those surges/variations are exactly what makes us better cyclists, and able to cope with different scenarios while riding in a group - personal opinion.
Now that, is what I really enjoy. This is such a great advice. Can I like it more than once?
I forgot the specifics, however you live near London? IIRC there is a crit series near the Olympic velodrome. You can get a lot of intensity on those races. Weekly I think for a couple months? Thats another option. Some people around here do Zwift races in late winter. I’ve met more than a few that got faster racing than while doing structured intervals. I’ve also been able to get faster thru weekly practice races / drop group rides.
Certainly resonates with me. Hard group rides around me are as hard as any intervals I could do. With that, how do you (if you do) manage ramping load over time? Is it that you let the group rides be a relatively consistent chunk of work, and then modulate your endurance load around it?
My group rides are Wednesday and Saturday, and my off days are Thursday and Sunday. So if I really blow out a group ride, I’ve got a full recovery day and then focus on feelings the next workout (Friday and Monday). During the summer without other events, I don’t bother managing CTL load. But will make some tss adjustments if ramping load during base, or maintaining load during build.
(Seven eight months later)
As triathletes overall hours aren’t higher but I’ve had a much higher volume on bike and not seen an increase in FTP. With much reduced run and swim.
For the next block I’ve re-introduced lifting two weeks ago, I will get to my 2020 level (a not very hard 47.5kg 5x5 squat) and try to make that consistent.
Also, I’m ramping up running which will mean less biking than in Jan-jun.
July was a down month, and hopefully a refresh for motivation and consistency…
In 2020 I did a lot of virtual tri racing, so I’m looking into whether I can use the summer holidays (less taxiing the kids) to get some interesting days in.
Despite 9, 10, 11hr training weeks.
”. Just doing maintenance & I’m calling it an off-season. Hopefully in three weeks I’ll be sufficiently settled in & ready to hit it again.
