@giventotri, you should do one of the TR athlete podcasts… would love to hear your story!
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After covid / long covid and a declining FTP (also different turbo) I finally see a 11% FTP rise today to 206 - quite a way before 2019 levels but this is a happy day.
I understand the reason, but come on TR give me some warning you are going to reset all my carefully cultivated progression levels. At least my endurance isn’t rock bottom 
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I am over the moon!
Just got off after my ramp test and my first rise in FTP since April 2020.
I have in the past at 60KG ridden a 49:41 25 mile time trial at 310W avg.
I achieved this with a 10 mile each way commute daily which covered a large amount of base milage, and did structured training ontop of this.
Since then in early 2020 I began a new job which is shift based and I can no longer commute due to the timings of the shifts and I find less time to get onto the turbo.
Due to this my FTP has slowly been in decline/ holding steady with my FTP being 284 in April 2020
With various training including a personal coach and using Zwift workouts I managed to maintain some level of fitness.
I heard about Adaptive training and rejoined TR and have stuck to a low volume plan and have managed to stick to the planned sessions and enjoyed the flexibility of alternatives when more or less time availible and added session using train now when I have another day availible to train.
All in all very happy with thing now going the right way and hope that I can see more improvements.
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First indoor session after over training/riding and under eating cooked me gave me low iron so had a month or two off napping all day.
I’ve dropped a whole 20% and now at 160 at 66kg, which considering two years I was 250W at 63kg is sad but I hit 200bpm today so at least I tried. Going in stick with LV and actually eat and carry on supplement in iron and b12.
Gotta stay positive and move upwards.
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At week 6 of SS base MV after a summer of mostly unstructured cycling. Been using TR since '19.
This season has shown some great results.
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In the coming months I’m not doing FTP tests per se, but will be training to sustain power longer (2x20m, 1x90m, 2x30m sessions etc). Next goal is 170-180 watt for 90 minutes (indoor)
16.01.2021: 164 (2.1)
06.02.2021: 182 (2.4)
20.03.2021: 185 (2.5)
13.04.2021: 198 (2.6)
11.05.205: 205 (2.7)
09.06.2021: 212 (2.8)
28.07.2021: 212 (2.8) outdoor
19.09.2021: 205 (2.6) outdoor
14.11.2021: 2x20min @180 indoor
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My most recent ramp test resulted in a new FTP of 325, an improvement from 320 back in September 2021. An improvement is an improvement but I haven’t been pushing myself enough so wasn’t expecting a big jump anyway but pleased nonetheless.
Question for others - when I was on the penultimate interval, it felt like I was pedalling a tractor, I couldn’t raise my cadence to combat the fatigue anymore, I was swearing, laughing and gasping all at once and my heart rate was topping out between 160-170 bpm. I have a low resting heart rate (average is 35bpm sitting) but wanted to see if other TR users are in the same boat on that penultimate or final interval - is your cadence dropping due to sheer exhaustion and it fees like your pedalling an earth mover?
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I find that the penultimate interval is generally the hardest one for me. My cadence doesn’t tend to drop, it’s more of a mental battle. If you’re tackling what is turning out to be a Hard or Very Hard workout, you know that you’ve got to dig deep once more.
For me, the final interval is almost always easier. You can see the finish, Coach Chad is often offering encouragement and I’m making a mental agreement with myself that this is the interval that really counts.
Yes, I have crashed and burnt a couple of times on the final interval but for me, it’s the penultimate one that presents the highest hurdle.
Thanks for the reply! It’s very much a mental battle at that stage for me and I’m assuming that I just can’t dig any deeper to turn the pedals over at a consistent cadence without wanting to jump out of the saddle and start grinding. I also find extra motivation seeing the live FTP tick over my current FTP but it still doesn’t provide any comfort for my beleaguered legs!
Has anyone experimented with a warm up ride before taking a test? I have been diving in head first without any prior warm up.
I seem to remember this being discussed on the AACC Podcast. Might have been a year or more ago. I believe that the TR Team felt that a warm up wasn’t needed. The first five minutes and steps 1-4 should essentially serve as your warm up.
That’s not to say that a warm up isn’t right for you. I think what you have to mindful of is ‘gaming’ the test. If you introduce a warm up prior to your test, will you introduce the same warm up before each workout?
Let’s say you do achieve a sizeable FTP increase during the Test. Will you be able to complete future workouts without the same protocol you used for the test? Yes, AT will now adjust your PL Levels and subsequent workouts but an over estimated Test result could lead to a rapid increase in fatigue.
I don’t warm up before a Test and I don’t typically ingest caffeine so I don’t use that either.
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All my rides (inc the ramp test) are early so I do a warm up, the first 10mins of Agassiz when doing the ramp test. (all other rides I usually extend the warm up by 5 mins)
I just make sure I’m consistent and do this every time I test.
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Start of my next block (SSBLV2).
Pleased to get +10 watts; up to 294 after a few days feeling a bit under the weather during my rest week.
Little video as evidence 
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Yeh - I think my HR monitor needs a new battery. It’s given weird readings on and off the last couple of workouts 
Big gains 
After Covid hit and it became clear that being overweight was a significant risk factor for severe disease I lost about 15kg of ‘dad bod’ weigth early last year. As a reward I gifted myself a smart trainer in the summer and used Zwift for a bit. My first ramp test in Zwift gave me a 230W FTP (2.8 W/kg) off the couch. But the Zwift training plans were pretty frustrating and I am really glad I found TrainerRoad.
I’ve been following a low volume plan since October 2020, pretty much sweet spot base and sustained power build on repeat. Today the ramp test gave me an FTP of 302W (3.7 W/kg) which I am super stoked about. Progress hasn’t been linear, but when I tested lower than before there alwayswas a reason like recovering from a cold so I kept the old value if I was able to complete workouts with it.
Besides FTP one of my favorite metrics is the ‘efficiency’ metric from intervals.icu (NP/heart rate) which seems to track really nicely with cardiovascular fitness (and shows the effect of summer heat in both years).
I am not training for any events but mainly for general fitness. Due to life I do about 95% of my riding indoors. And also my riding buddies seem kind of slow now 
But my goal is to reach 4 W/kg (maybe as early as next year?), maybe get a KOM somewhere and to participate in some grand fondos or gravel races.
Still enjoy Zwift from time to time but really love TR and the podcast (but miss Amber and Pete) and just renewed my annual subsciption 
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Nice gains! Can you make as screenshot of the fatigue/form chart in intervals.icu as well? I’m working on a SSMV1-SSMV2 build and seem to be in the ‘grey zone’ or above most of the time. While previously before I was using trainerroad, I spend most of my time in the ‘ideal’ fatigue territory. Curious where your training took you.
Mine:
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Great work. That’s killer progress 
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I’ve just completed my first TR plan: SSB1LV (with some extra workouts).
Before: 233 W @ 65 kg (3.58 W/kg)
After: 255 W @ 64 kg (3.98 W/kg)
That’s +22 W (9.4%) and -1 kg in just 6 weeks. I didn’t expect that much progress… maybe there is a nice 5.0 W/kg in my future
In case someone was wondering how PLs changed after the ramp test (SSB2MV):
- Endurance: 5.4 → 2.5
- Tempo: 6.9 → 4.4
- Sweet Spot: 10.0 → 6.4
- Threshold: 6.9 → 2.3
- VO2 Max: 8.4 → 4.1
- Anaerobic: 8.1 → 2.4
- Sprint: 4.4 → 1.0
Right after the ramp test I completed the next suggested 90min threshold 3.0 workout and it felt great - AT works perfectly for me.
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Just completed TBMV1 and went from 243-248 W.
Not bad for something I threw on the calendar just to avoid laziness over the holiday season! Doing one more round of TBMV1 before heading into SSB in the new year. It would be nice to see another little FTP bump while I try to make the number on the scale go the other way!
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