That’s a huge increase in consecutive months - well done 
2 Likes
Start
nov 2021 215W
Dec 2021 234W after SSB1LV
January 2022 242 after SSB2LV
Februari 2022 246 mid sustained build LV AI detection
March 2022 254 mid sustained build LV AI detection
April 2022 258 after sustained build LV AI detection (upto 260 peeping through AI detection)
May 2022 250 ramp test 2rd of the way through climbing road race specialty LV (253 with AI detection)
Climbing road race LV specialty really didn’t work for me 
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Below is my FTP history since I started cycling late 2019.
My weight has gone down from ~95kg to 73kg earlier this week.
I’m currently sitting around 4.3-4.4W/kg.
I’m no longer testing FTP as frequently as I used to. I know it is a bit higher now than when I last tested late Feb. I guess I’m a bit more in tune with where I sit and RPE and dial intensity in/out.
One additional note: I started working with a trainer in April last year and we dialed down volume quite a bit, and moved towards more of a polarized model which really helped make some more progress.
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Update:
Aug '21 - 296w @ 3,74 w/kg
Sep '21 - 288w @ 3,64 w/kg
Oct '21 - 311w @ 3.9 w/kg
Nov '21 - 318w @ 4,0 w/kg
Dec '21 - 331w @ 4,19 w/kg (After finishing SSBMVI)
Feb '22 - 325w @ 4,18 w/kg (After finishing SSBMVII)
Mar '22 - 338w @ 4,28 w/kg (Sustained power build)
May '22 - 344w @ 4,35 w/kg (XCM speciality fase before A race)
Satisfied with my performance on A race. This was 4 day XCM stage race with 3 days of over 200 TSS back to back. Went home with around 255/260w Np for these days for 4+ hours per day. 18 hours of cycling for the week while my normal load hovers around 8 to 9 hours (including strenght work).
Stretch goal for next A race in October would be to get to 365w @ 4,6 w/kg. Probably need to start adding a bit more volume to get to around 10 hours a week. Any suggestions otherwise?
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| Date | FTP |
|---|---|
| 1/7/2022 | 216 |
| 1/8/2022 | 216 |
| 1/8/2022 | 231 |
| 1/9/2022 | 231 |
| 2/14/2022 | 240 |
| 2/15/2022 | 240 |
| 3/28/2022 | 212 |
| 3/28/2022 | 240 |
| 3/30/2022 | 240 |
| 4/22/2022 | 248 |
| 5/16/2022 | 252 |
Started TR first week of January, 2022. I used a combination of accepting Garmin, Intervals.icu, and TR suggestions to adjust my FTP numbers through April. Since AI has been introduced, am relying solely on TR. Pretty good for an over 50 filthy casual, right!?!
13 Likes
Haven’t done an FTP test in ages, but was pleasantly surprised when I pulled off 2x20 min at 206 watt (with 10 min rest in between), after 40 min at high tempo/low treshold.
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) outdoor
28.07.2021: 212 (2.8) outdoor
19.09.2021: 205 (2.6) outdoor
14.11.2021: 2x20min @ 180 indoor
15.12.2022: 60 min @ 181 indoor
18.01.2022: 202 indoor
05.2022: 2x20m@206 (10 min rest)
08.06.2022: 207 (3 minute RAMPS) outdoor
10 Likes
I had another Ramp Test scheduled which I exchanged for an AI FTP Detection. An increase of 3 since last month. Seems small, but I guess I should be pleased with it…
| Date | FTP |
|---|---|
| 6/11/2022 | 255 |
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wow, very good progress !
Jan 5 2022 166
Feb 15 2022. 176
Apr 2 2022. 182
Apr 25 2022. 188
May 15 2022. 195
May 30 2022. 200
20% increase in 6 months 
14 Likes
Impressive progress, nice work! May I ask how you created the graph? I’d like to keep track of my FTP improvements using such a graph too.
Oh great! I thought I was the only one! 
Actually I started really great with big increases, but after 4 months I believe I was quickly reaching a plateau. I’ve been on Climbing Road Race High Volume complete program since Feb 2022.
So, you can see, my gaining progress was increasingly lower:
17 watts,
11 watts,
14 watts,
8 watts,
5 watts
And in percentages:
12,09%
7,58%
8,85%
5,70%
2,02%
I admit that the following factors probably contributed to this decreasing gains:
- 16:8 Intermittent Fasting on lower intensity days;
- 2 or 3 weekends with weddings, vacations time-off → no sunday/saturday training.
- A bit of a cold after this wedding weekend #partyHard #tooMuchDancing #heavyToddlers
- Increasing endurance achievable days from 1h/1h30 to 2h/2h30 productive.
- Some knee pains due to bike fit still not on point.
Nonetheless, after reading and listening to other athletes progress on TR on Mid and Low volume, learning about overtraining and plateauing (listen to the podcast on spotify) and also studying a bit about polarized training, I’ve decided to start with the Criterium Mid Volume plan on the end of this endurance week of build phase 2 (really toning it down first) and forget about the specialty phase of my previous plan.
Let’s see if this works better for me 
Actually what I’d really love is to hear/read any suggestions on how you guys think would be the best direction for me to proceed right now 
5 Likes
This doesn’t look like a plateau at all.
Lets point out the fact that you have gained 5 watts (2.5%) in 21 days which is awesome progress (projecting ~8 Watts over 31 days).
I don’t know what you were doing prior to TR structured training but it looks like you were at the very least adding “structure”. The initial surge was caused by this. Then your FTP gains started to level out and like all of us you are chasing that magical felling you had after that first increase. Also remember 5 watts gained by a rider with a higher FTP is a less % change but it is still a change.
Plateau would mean you were going 200 → 202 → 198 … for several months. enjoy the improvements and don’t get bogged down by the numbers and over analyze things.
7 Likes
Also, a reminder that FTP is just one measure.
Can you hold threshold for longer than you could three months ago? Yes? You got faster.
Can you do 3 minute VO2 Max efforts at 120% now when you could only manage 2 minute efforts three months ago? Yes? You got faster.
Three months ago your best 15 second power at the end of a two hour ride was 600 watts. It’s now 900 watts. You got faster.
Can you now stack three hard days back to back without dying? Faster.
Do you feel more awesome than three months ago?
ETA: but if you want to change - change! The best plan is the one you’ll folllow. Go smash it. 
7 Likes
Yap, You guys are spot on!
Yes, I started “off the couch” in feb 2022 and yes, of course the percentage will allways naturally decrease… duh… lol sorry I didn’t think of this before. 
…And yes, my “FTP gains started to level out and like all of us you are chasing that magical felling you had after that first increase”
I found a very pertinent podcast on this:
3 Likes
I think the weak point of some of the low volume race specialty programs is the lack of sweetspot and just intensity intensity intensity. After this I tried polarised somewhere between low and mid volume (sometimes skipping the threshold work for outside mountain biking but low volume only has either 1 vo2max or threshold workout per week anyway) it didn’t do much for me and my ftp plateaued.
I really would like to start another round of base+sustained power build maybe even mid volume this time as I really felt getting stronger doing those ever longer intervals between 90-100% ftp interspersed with 2-4 min vo2max but at the moment I cannot imagine doing this inside. Sometimes I try but it is just too warm and the weather too nice not to be outside. Next fall…and a different specialty, perhaps 40k tt, century or off road marathon…
And maybe for me an important lesson when failing a workout i should accept at downgrades and not keep retrying the same exercise over and over
1 Like
It’s been a long while since I updated but there’ve been a lot of revelations for me.
5/11/19: 231 watts at 100 kg
- this was my first ramp test
6/30/19: 247 watts at 99 KG
8/12/19: 252 watts at 97.52 KG
4/22/20: 280 watts at 95.25 KG
- this was the last ramp test I took
6/2/20: 265 watts at 96 KG
- went with a coach who put me on a 20 minute FTP test, ramp test significantly overestimated my threshold power due my heavy reliance on anaerobic performance.
2/9/21: 294 watts at 99 KG
- FTP found using 20 minute test. This begins my downward spiral into non-functional overreaching, my FTP did not change for the next year in spite of being coached
2/10/22: 303 watts at 103 KG
- FTP found using AI FTP. I started on TR’s rolling road race plan and was able to complete the workouts though they were a 9/10 in RPE
4/5/22: 310 watts at 101 KG
- FTP set using AI FTP after following TR’s rolling road race plan phase I.
4/26/22: 275 watts at 100 KG
- After the last bump I wasn’t able to complete the prescribed threshold workouts. Even a level 1 workout felt like a VO2 workout. It was at this point I realized I was bordering on overtraining and AI FTP wasn’t helping me. I ran a test using Kolie Moore’s method and ended up with a 275 FTP. This was the right number.
In last 3 years I’ve learned the following:
- How riding at FTP feels for me: Burning legs but no burning lungs. Heavy but even breathing and no gasping. Having to focus to keep the watts up but not have tunnel vision. A 1x60’ FTP workout should be a 7-8/10, hard but doable.
- I can feel when I’m riding over FTP. 30 seconds of even 10 watts over FTP makes me start breathing raggedly and my lungs start to burn, RPE quickly hits 9/10. I can do a 3x10’ interval at this power but it’s not a threshold workout.
- Unfortunately I don’t fall under TR’s or even the 20-minute test bell curve. My anaerobic fitness is much more developed than my aerobic fitness and this is going to take years to change, if I rush it I will burn out like I did last year.
The above points are applicable to me. No I don’t think you need to be able to hold your FTP at 60’ but for me, and other anaerobically-leaning athletes, it would behoove you to find your 60’ power as this is likely where your threshold is without anaerobic contribution.
All in all I have seen tremendous fitness and mental improvements after resetting things. When my FTP was set at 294 watts a 3x10’ interval session at 300 watts was nearly impossible and I dreaded every workout. Today I can hold 4x12’ at 300 watts at an 8/10 RPE, so it’s likely I’m due for a bump next block. And on the fast group ride in the area I’m actually relevant now on the flats (unfortunately climbing is still an issue at my weight), I’m able to hold VO2 power longer than before and cause splits in the group or chase back breaks. I never would have considered being able to do that last year.
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How did you find your experience with a coach? Can you detail a bit more on that side?
1 Like
How did you find your experience with a coach? Can you detail a bit more on that side?
I like my former coach and I think he’s really good when it comes to serious and competitive athletes. I was a bit of a challenge because I’m middle aged with a very stressful job and several young kids; my ability to recover is much lower than the average person, let alone athlete. I don’t think he was ever able to understand that and he over prescribed my training, causing me to build up a ton of fatigue that took me a few months to shed.
My suggestions for finding a coach are the following:
- Shop around and compare, ask tons of questions and make sure they’re a good fit for you.
- Make sure that the coach is really into communication, I want a coach that will ask me questions about my training and follow up when they don’t hear from me for a couple days.
- If possible, find a full-time coach. My coach was not full-time with a very busy job, unfortunately I think this hurt my coach experience with him.
3 Likes
Some good learnings, in particular recognizing when you started experiencing under-recovery / functional overreach.
On the topic of threshold, its really refreshing to read your comments on learning how to ride by feel. The best thing that happened to me when I started road cycling in 2016 was learning to ride at threshold by feel. No power meter, just heart rate.
Congrats on recognizing your AI FTP (and 20-min test) was too high, and dropping it 35W to something more reasonable and sustainable.
For what its worth, my coach is full-time. He has over 50 coached athletes including this year’s female Unbound Gravel 100 winner, performance director for an elite US team, coaches juniors, and data scientist of a world tour team.
Busy guy.
But he is super responsive to my emails and request for help when life interferes. My plans have been customized including power targets. Since this is the FTP improvement thread, here is my FTP and Garmin ML FTP over the last 18 months of being coached:
Color guide:
- green is coach assigned FTP setting from field tests
- pink is a moving average of Garmin Edge 530 ML FTP with WindWarrior +4% fudge factor
- grey is +/- 2.5% confidence interval band of Garmin ML FTP
Two years of spin classes got me to 240-245W FTP by November 2015. Self-coached to 275-280W FTP in 2016 and 2017, with ability to ride 70 minutes at FTP. About 7-8 hours/week average. Then I reduced volume with TrainerRoad down to 5+ hours/week, because it was supposed to be more efficient, but that reduced peak FTP to 245-250W a couple times over 2 years. Bumping up volume to 8 hours/week with heavy focus on endurance and always be doing above threshold work got me to around 270-275W FTP this year.
The other big result from switching to endurance focus is that my Resting HR (RHR) has dropped 12bpm over those 18 months. Another conclusion from my self-coached and TR years is that my training had too much intensity and/or intervals, and in addition to significant drop in RHR my morning HRV has seen improvements. And late 2021 I was easily able to easily drop 4 pounds a month over 5 months.
Therefore it should be no surprise that I feel this way:
about training plans that don’t prioritize endurance training as a first principle.
7 Likes
Great results. What’s the +4% fudge factor to account for? Just a known, consistent difference between feel and the Garmin number?
1 Like