Got to agree.
Even people in their mid to late 40s detrained tend to have a FTP ~ 250
It depends on their background, off the sofa it might be considered impressive. With a sporty background it is around average.
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To aussie1 If you have room to lose weight, you came increase your FTP per kg. This will help to make you a better climber. You want to lose weight slowly and donât go overboard. There is a point when to much weight lose can make you weaker. There is a book by Matt Fitzgerald called Racing Weight. It is about how to lose weight to prepare for the racing season. It has tips on training as well. also it is true that you may not be able to increase your FTP much but that trainer road will help you to ride harder at your at close to your FTP.
FWIW, you will notice i was not refuting obndy. I was responding to someone who attacked my simple post pointing out not to let the answers here be discouraging as you have no possible way to know where you can go. I still stand by my answer. What level is this for an untrained cyclist? The answer to that question is âuntrained.â âYour V02max is within a few points of average,â is interesting data, not an answer to that question. I made no attempt to refute that, i have agreed with it several times and I think it was a valuable helpful response. You people are all getting all in my face about this. The science is a guide it is not a black and white answer. "How good is 250 watts? We have no idea, your untained v02max is around average but that is not a predictor of potential. Are you in shape from life in general or totally off the couch? Go out there and tell us in 10 years how you did cause thats the only way to know. "
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I think thatâs rather curious semantic logic, but I have no wish to argue. I agree that untrained VO2 max tells you relatively little about where you will be in 10 years.
Erm, you said that he didnât answer the question but yet he did plus you didnât even understand what he said. 
Thatâs exactly what it is. He asked where he stands and OBNDY explained it to him. His explanation is based on actual data. How good is that. 
Perhaps people get in your face because you refute actual scientific evidence and come up with anecdotal evidence that has nothing to do with the question at hand.
Again, OP wanted to know where he stands. He didnât ask whether this is good or bad with respect to the training he has done. He also never asked what his perspective might look like. You made that all up. 
No. I didnt. I said it was valuable and interesting not wrong⌠I said it was interesting data that didnt answer the question. You keep framing this as some anti science thing. Your readings of what I have written is entirely wrapped in your own bias here.
I never once replied to or spoke to him. I replied to your post to me cause it was crappy in tone and content. My responses have all been to your adversarial negative posts, not obndy. I keep saying his point was valuable and valid. Are you just trolling?
âWhat sort of level is this at for someone untrained with no previous cycling or endurance experience?â
âYour v02max is about average.â
âuntained.â
âthats a good level, you should go train and see what you can really doâ
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Mate, I and others have quoted it several times by now. Read up! Perhaps also try to understand what OBNDYâs explanation was based on. Hint: that kind of data is available for both sedentary, mere mortals, and also highly trained athletes.
As always, Google is your friend. Thatâs literally the first result when you google âVO2Maxâ, âsedentary & activeâ, and âage groupâ. Plenty of more research available on the matter.
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Some of our members will go to great lengths to go off on a tangent about one word in someoneâs post, or provide information which was not asked for in order to show everyone their intellectual superiority. OP didnât ask about vo2, being 3 weeks into cycling probably doesnât know what vo2 is, yet we went that way because giving someone some praise would be âego strokingâ. I think this thread is just an embarrassment of this forum at this point, we have someone whoâs close to being an âoff the couchâ cyclist at 3.2w/kg (a point that takes many cyclists some actual training to get to) but we find some data point where we can label them average, because giving a new untrained cyclist some encouragement is a big ask.
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Thereâs no racing. Might as well win an argument on a cycling forum!
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Iâm still in cat 3 then! 
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One has to participate in 10 worthless arguments to make sure your keyboard handing skills make you safe before you can be upgraded. Clearly I should have been pulled in the 2nd lap as I was fully aware i was in a shouting into the wind argument yet didnt have the keyboard handing skills to step away. Maybe I should attend a pointless argument clinic so I can get a few upgrade points safely before attending my next spiral out of control thread.
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This weekâs training plan Argument - Monty Python - YouTube
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This whole thread is somewhere between entertaining and incredibly uncomfortable.
Still read it all though.
Reason I popped back in was 'cause I saw the latest Couch to Crit video that RecoveryRide just beat me to and the guyâs FTP is 2.3w/kg and thought Iâd see if itâs cropped up here yet and if anyone had laid into him for putting himself out there.
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The only people who should be embarrassed are those who have given the OP false hopes by lying to them.
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Thatâs pretty good!
When I first started out, mine was 258 watts, 3.22 w/kg.
I might be remembering wrong thoâŚ
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I canât imagine being an untrained cyclist and having access to an indoor trainer, outdoor PowerMeter, trainer road and only 500 miles on the bike; especially as a 19-year-old. I remember being a broke architecture student. Whatâs the story Aussie? Durianrider told you to buy a power meter didnât he!
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Stocks mate
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I think of my FTP as merely my personal yardstick, ie, is this months better than last? Rather than it being an absolute measure to compare with everyone else. There are too many personal variants for that type of comparison.
So. Iâd be thinking about why you have a road bike, is it for fun, commuting, events, be they TT or races. How many hours/week do I want to ride, be that out on the road, commuting or indoors doing intervals, then select a training plan that will help on that path.
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