Hey — I’ve made some good progress over the last 3-4 months :
FTP 209 > 271
Weight 114kg > 98kg
~ 2.75 w/kg
I’m 48 if that’s important.
Originally I was targeting a sub 5 hour 100mile closed road Sportive at the end of Aug (previous best is 5:28) so started with High Volume Sweet Spot Base and then used the plan builder with a century speciality.
That ride has been cancelled so I set myself a new target 3 w/kg.
My weight is still coming down (~0.5kg/week) but my FTP is stagnating a bit — I’m only seem to get ~1% increases each ramp test.
My legs are fine. I know they can push more power and are not tired when doing the ramps. It’s my heart rate & breathing. They give out long before my legs want to quit.
So my question is now I’m not specifically targeting a century, what sort of plan would be best to improve my FTP, specially the fitness rather than strength portion of it?
Personally I would be very happy with gains of 1% each time
I get good gains when I’m training for my event but tend to get less focused once I’ve reached that event. Plus life means that some of the stuff I’ve moved to the back burner whilst I’ve made my priority to arrive at the event in my peak condition means I’ve got plenty of stuff to catch up on.
Thanks Chad but that is what I was following. The goal has changed from riding a fast century to getting to 3.0 w/kg. And specifically which plan would be good for targeting the fitness rather than strength portion of raising FTP.
Somewhat counter-intuitive, but I’ve had really good results with doing a lot more 2-6 hour zone 2 / aerobic endurance rides. As mentioned above, doing some vo2 work will also help. To combine those look at the full distance triathlon base plan - yes I know you aren’t training for a triathlon but that is only plan that combines longer aerobic endurance rides with vo2 work. Or you might want to try something like traditional base and add one or two vo2 sessions a week.
Success!!!
I did 4 weeks of VO2 work and managed to push my FTP from 271 > 290.
Weight has stayed stable at 98kg
I didn’t try and lose any weight in that time and rested more than I had in the previous weeks too.
But it worked.
So close to that 3.0 w/kg goal now.
Thank you to all that gave advice.
