Hi all,
I’m putting this out here so everyone can see life isn’t linear. I did my RAMP Test today and lost 26W! Life gets in the way! And in my case, I had a vasectomy in mid-Sep and on the very next day I threw out my back. To say the least, I haven’t done any exercising of any kind in a few weeks, I just couldn’t. The good news is…I think I’m recovering and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am really looking forward to starting again!
I’ve just been humbled by a ramp test.
In May I managed to get up to 264w but then began to lose my structure and just piece workouts in using outdoor training and quick group rides. I then set an outdoor PB on a 10TT of a 300w ftp (26mph av in a road bike class) then got injured and have ridden minimally since. Tonight’s ramp has scored me at 233w entering back into ssb1. Fingers crossed it comes back like newbie gains and AT treats me well!
I don’t think that’s possible with accuracy for all riders.
I’m at PL7.5 and haven’t seen an FTP increase since the start of the year.
There’s probably some maths that would allow a guesstimate, but it is super dependent on where you are in your training history, what your strengths and weaknesses are, and your testing protocol.
About to end my “season” which has run from Dec 20 to Oct 21 - my first time using TR and I have seen some great gains.
Training over the last 10 months has been SSB1MV > SSB2MV > Sus Power Build MV > Train Now with outside club rides. Generally riding 6 days a week with a rest day mid-week. Average 10-12hrs per week. Lots of z2 added around the MV plan as extended cooldowns to key workouts or longer rides on the endurance days.
35 yr old
64kg
4.89 w/kg as of 08/10/21 based on last ramp test
Best 1hr power of 276 in Jun 21 (4.3 w/kg)
Oct 8, 2021 >> 313
Jun 14, 2021 >> 300
Apr 5, 2021 >> 298
Feb 23, 2021 >> 286
Jan 5, 2021 >> 280
Dec 13, 2020 >> 253
Time to take a complete week off the bike, do a season review, relax and set goals and plan for next season, starting with working towards a week long trip to Spain in April 22.
Don’t feel like you have to test as often as TR tells you…Haven’t tested in a long time, maybe a year and have just been guessing since then (know my body pretty well and that has seemed reasonably accurate). Might have tried to hold a peak a bit long and started to go backwards, so have had a reset. Tested for the first time a few months ago, and again last week.
My advice - Don’t underestimate rest, I thought I was dropping off because of not training hard enough, turns out rest might have been what my body wanted instead.
20 min test earlier in the week up 5 watts to 262
That’s 20 watts higher than my last ramp test which was back in June. The ramp test really underestimates for me and I feel like I’ve never trained at the correct FTP before so I’m pretty happy to finally see some gains
Hi all, I got a MTB during the lockdown and have been on the road, trail and mountains with it, at times I use a watt bike for indoor cycling and to test my FTP. I also do mountaineering, ketlebelll and band strengthening exercises.
I done a FTP test in August this year with a score of 256w, av power/wt at 4.32w/kg
Today I done a FTP test, with a score of 268w, av power at 4.52w/kg. I am 53(M). Weight 62.5kg.
I think I will be very happy at 300w FTP, and could take 1-2 years to achieve this, through decent training and having motivation to do so. I would like to take up road racing next year, but Im nowhere ready.
I will work hard over winter on the bike and will test again in December.
Happy cycling,
Allan
Returned to Trainerroad (and structured training) 6 weeks ago after a year of doing my own thing.
Went on ssb1 low volume, adaptive training.
Made every ride harder than adaptive training suggested - around 450tss each week with my own extra endurance rides and what-not. Felt strong.
Tested after recovery week at -2 watts, though I have dropped about 5lbs of flab over that time.
So basically that’ll be all she wrote for me and trainerroad. I left last year as I felt I had platued and I added about 10 watts and a lot more real world fitness doing zwift races then my own outdoor rides over summer.
The app has been buggy too but there’s not much point getting into it but I will say adaptive training was a major let down.
Sorry to hear that, but if it makes you feel any better. I never expect a Ftp gain during either of the “base” phases. My gains usually come during build and the first specialty block.
Also, if you signed up or were already signed up and decided to try out AT, everyone knows it’s a work in progress and in beta so it shouldn’t be expected to work perfectly.
11.5 months after my FTP20 PR, I had another FTP test scheduled (and a few in between), and I got a 4W PR (although not a Wkg PR).
What’s best about it, is that I’ve never felt so comfortable during an FTP test.
Paced it really well, never felt like quitting, slight negative split (more power in the later half).
Really happy
I just completed my first year doing any kind of consistent cycling, and I’m pretty happy with the results. Started in October last year doing “power zone” classes on the Peloton app, and switched to TrainerRoad in April, mainly doing a low volume gran fondo plan, switching out the scheduled workouts with 2-hour alternates and adding additional endurance rides (for a total 10-12 hours a week), plus cross-training with a Concept2 rower 2-3 times a week. Not sure how long these newbie gains are going to last, but hopefully I still have room to grow over the next year.
I just (well last Thursday) retested 276 @ 71kg (3.86), so 5.5% down on my previous 292 but around 10% down on W/KG as I’ve also gained 2 kilos. I don’t think that’s too bad though for a 5 week “off season” (last week September was a recovery week and I didn’t do any structure in October, and reduced volume to about 5-7h/week vs 10h/week the rest of the season). So, cautiously optimistic I can build a bit further on that 292 into next season.
