7/22- 278 prior to SSB1HV
8/11- 297 mid SSB1HV
8/30- 313 completion SSB1HV
8/30 to 10/25- rough personal stretch with very inconsistent riding
12/3- 329 after SSB1MV with an extra long ride thrown in.
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I was not on a good legs day and throughout the whole test it felt like I literally could not go any harder but the final 2 minutes was like ok the end is in sight, letās kill ourselves. I have done lots of 20 min tests before and am normally just holding onto the power rather than kicking. Yesterday was an exception.
| Date | FTP | W/kg | |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 2020 | First Ramp Test | 166 | 2.3 |
| July 2020 | End Zwift FTP Builder | 197 | 2.9 |
| September 2020 | End of TR Oly Tri Base MV | 218 | 3.2 |
| October 2020 | End of TR Oly Tri Build MV | 231 | 3.4 |
| December 2020 | TR Oly Tri Base MV + 2 Week Break | 221 | 3.3 |
Another ramp test, first decline in FTP since I started structured training. But I was already expecting it. I stopped training completely for two weeks due to personal and professional commitments combined with stress and low motivation for training. But now Iām back and motivated to get back to keep improving.
According to my previous plan I should be going to Tri Build now, but Iām just going to repeat base, and only then go to build, and shorten the specialty phase.
Now I need some advice: do you think I should accept the lower FTP and the new training zones, or is it acceptable to keep the previous number? I thing Iāll get back to the previous number fairly quickly. Iām thinking of either keeping the old FTP or maybe retest in 2-3 weeks to adjust.
What do you think?
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Reset and rebuild would be my suggestion 
1 Like
Accept the lower FTP. You can always bump it up as you go, or reassess in a few weeks.
An FTP set slightly too low will still get you almost all the desired training effect, you wonāt lose much if anything.
On the other hand you risk digging yourself into a hole if your FTP is set too high.
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Thank you @HLaB and @univox you guys are right. Canāt get the ego get the best of me.
Iāll keep the new FTP and retest half way through the block
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How hard do the workouts seem? Have you failed any?
How hard is the ramp test?
If you make your profile public for a bit and share a link the folks here can probably tell you exactly what you may be doing wrong.
Today i finsihed my ssb hv 1 and started 2nd phase.
298w when i started ssbhv 1
310w today starting ssbhv2.
I hope i can improve it again in the second phase. And also want to loose 3-4 kgs too (now 79.3 kg with 1.88 cm height).
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Iāve made my profile public:
- I feel like Iām going properly deep on the ramp test: gasping for air and hitting ~97% HRmax.
- I like to ride outdoors, so Iāve tried doing outdoor workouts this past summer
- sometimes life and/or other riding plans get in the way and I end up pushing a week out; however, I usually try to complete/attempt all workouts in a given plan
- poor discipline on recovery/rest weeks. Often end up riding outdoors at higher than ideal intensity.
- struggle on longer intervals; usually OK on short intervals
- last 2 wks of SSBLV2 is usually pretty hard
- 2nd half of SuPBLV was hard; preferred to do them outdoors because I seem to be able to hold power a bit better outdoors
- indoor cooling is decent I thinkā¦cool garage with a couple fans blowing directly on me. Still sweat buckets
- try to fuel longer (>1hr) workouts with some sort of small snack/drink
- could always use more sleep; but sleep pattern has not changed over this time period
- ramped up volume this year
- 2019: 320h/8233km
- 2020: 359h/10122km (so far)
Since the end of 2019 summer, I believe Iāve done
- SSBLV1
- SSBLV2
- GBLV
- SSBLV1
- SSBLV2
- SuPBLV
- SSBLV1
- SSBLV2
- and now starting GBLV
FTP history with 2 different bikes. Both power2max. Bike2 consistently reads lower. Looks like small improvement since last year, but pretty stagnant (especially over this summer).
Bike 1
Dec 2, 2020 245
Sep 17, 2020 246
Jun 17, 2020 245
May 13, 2020 234
Bike2
May 6, 2020 222
Jan 22, 2020 218
Dec 23, 2019 207
Dec 21, 2019 207
Nov 20, 2019 202
Bike1
Sep 24, 2019 237
Jul 31, 2019 229
It appears that the only time I was able to make any gains this year was between May and Jun where I strung together 3 successive weeks of 600+TSS. Perhaps this is the keyā¦
3 Likes
I dont know shit about shit so take my response with a grain of sand and let more experienced folks dig into the weeds. The one thing that jumped out at my though is you were seeing 1-5% jumps in ftp when you were consistent with structured training. Then in July you took 6 weeks with almost all unstructured work. The next 3 months you had structure every other week, or 2 weeks on 2 weeks off.
Thing is, a lot of those unstructured weeks you have lots of high IF work. Its not like you were phoning it in or doing all Z2 or something so I am surprised you didnāt see some improvement.
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It appears that some of my outdoor workouts did not show up as TR rides, so there was a bit more structure in the summer than how it appears on my career page. That said, I think youāre right; the shuffling/pushing of workouts in the summer is probably the reason for the plateau. It was enough to maintain fitness, but did not provide the progressive stimulus to drive improvement.
Conditions are pretty ugly where I live nowā¦ So maybe this will force me to more strictly adhere to the plans.
Thank you for taking the time to have a look.
Joined Trainerroad in October. My results so far are below:
Ramp FTP = 289 Watts (3.89w/kg)
Speciality Triathlon MV - Had a rescheduled race, so focused on fine tuning.
Ramp FTP = 299 Watts (4.01w/kg)
Sweet Spot Base 1 MV - Followed the plan, with 2 runs per week, no outdoor rides.
Ramp FTP = 312 Watts (4.15w/kg)
Still trying decide what next, more base or a short power build.
5 Likes
3rd winter on TR but the first time I could consistently train. Took getting a new job but itās really paying off for my fitness.
Off of Virtual Power now as well and using a 4iiiiās LS Crank PM
Nov. 2 SSBLVI - 204W @ 2.08W/KG
Dec. 14 SSBLVII - 233W @ 2.48W/KG
To say iām pleased is a huge understatementā¦
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| Date | Plan | FTP | W/kg |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 20th, 2020 | Initial Test | 208W | 2.2W/kg |
| June 2nd, 2020 | Completed Sweet Spot Base MV1 | 224W | 2.46W/kg |
| July 15th, 2020 | Completed Sweet Spot Base MV2 | 240W | 2.74W/kg |
| August 11th, 2020 | Midway Sustained Power Build MV | 244W | 2.83W/kg |
| September 9th, 2020 | Completed Sustained Power Build MV | 249W | 3.04W/kg |
| November 9th, 2020 | Completed 1st half Century MV and Traditional Base MV1 | 239W | 3.03W/kg |
| December 15th, 2020 | Completed Sweet Spot Base MV1 | 252W | 3.21W/kg |
I was going a bit off the rails during the Century plan, so I dialed things back and went with Traditional Base to give myself a bit of a break from all that intensity. I didnāt even bother testing, just watched Netflix while spinning my legs during those four weeks.
In retrospect I was definitely underfueling for far too long. Iām happy with the weight loss, but it was time to shift my emphasis. I started Sweet Spot Base again, this time with a greater focus on fueling myself. So far, so good.
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Nice gains! I just tested for the first time at 234 and man to be at 293 by May would be LIT! What volume did you do if you donāt mind me asking?
Hi all, Iām new to structured training. Been using Trainerroad for the past 5 months (I did the SSBHV & am in the middle of the SSPBHV phase). I started at an FTP of 243.
Context
3 days ago i did a TR FTP test that gave me 266, after a 5 day rest week. Today after 3 days of non-activity I did a Sufferfest 4DP test that gave me an ftp of 279.
From Trainingpeaks analysis both tests give me a 20min ave power of 279-280W. I know TR uses 95% of ave 20min power while SUF uses 100% of ave 20min after all the sprint efforts.
Question
Do I keep the 279 ftp from hereon & carry on with the build phase? choose middle ground ftp between 266-279? I LOVE threshold & VO2 max sessions but am a bit nervous with the new FTP so could use some advice.
Thank you
Only way to find out is giving it a try.
Stick to just one test and see how that FTP works out for you with TR workouts.
Adjust as required, plenty of info in the forums on this and which workouts are good to judge if your FTP is correct.
You donāt want to be collecting a bunch of uncompleted workouts for the sake of an FTP with 20 more watts on it for ego. You want one which puts you in the correct zones for training, and youāll get faster that way more quickly.
Good luck with your journey
3 Likes
Thanks so much for the advice guys, really appreciated.
Hereās an interesting take: after taking a day off yesterday this morning I did a 4hr outdoor ride with the first 1hr as TT. Surprisingly I hit 299w for 21m so I see Int.icu recommends 286w ftp while Training peaks & Xert gives 284w. I suppose for my ego it might be okay to run with the 284w ftp & continue with the build workouts, should they prove unreasonably hard I then decrees intensity by 3-5%
This is exciting & terrifying at the same time given that Iām going into threshold & vo2 max for the next 4 weeks, with my goal event in 6 weeks.
Please excuse that Iām using multiple platforms, Iām testing which platform to use moving forward. My assumption was that the recommended ftp would guide power zones & workouts regardless of platform, but I see not.
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In this post, I wrote about my second FTP test result. My first in September was a 20 min effort on Zwift. This last one was a TR ramp test. Essentially the jump was 230 to 260 in about 2.5 months. Iāve been riding less than a year so noob gains are expected.
The last two weeks in SSB II, the 90 minute workouts (Mary Austin and Carpathian Peak) have broken me and crushed my soul. I was able to get to the 60 minute point, but after that a serious struggle. I am pretty new to training with power and am pretty convinced that the ramp test overestimated my FTP. I probably have an inherent strength bias in my performance.
I am thinking about manually dialing it back to 245 or 250 and repeating week 4 of SSB II. Thoughts?
3 Likes