New to TR and loving it but not new to indoor training. Was on another platform for about a year riding and racing. That platform assessed me at 300-322w FTP (4.4 - 4.8w/kg). I always rejected the higher FTPs and reduced them back to 305 (4.5w/kg) as I never feel it’s warranted (I have only been riding for 3 years). I raced Cat A and rode almost every day including unstructured workouts. It was very intense and In January this year I burned out hard and was off the bike for 3 weeks really sick.
When I switched to TR this month, the ramp test assessed me at 276w (4.1w/kg) which I accepted as evidence my other FTP was too high and as a result of my 3 weeks sick off the bike. I love the workouts but I’m finding them good but not exhausting. E.G. I just finished Taylor -2 and my final 42nd interval of 30 seconds, I had no problem holding 430w instead of the prescribed 330w. I assumed at the end of a 1 hour VO2 workout I would have been a lot more cooked.
My question is this: Is it either my Ramp test just didn’t go well and my FTP is actually closer to my previous assessments; or is it more possible that I was just used to burning too hard at an unhealthy intensity (as evident by the burn out) and not performing workouts correctly? And my experience with the TR workouts with my new FTP is how proper structured training is supposed to feel?
I just want to make sure I’m setting the right levels and expectations to get the most out of the workouts and not short changing myself but also not wanting to burn out again.
There are a couple of other discussions of Taylor -2 here:
It seems that it’s just not very difficult!
If you have other workouts you’ve done which are supposed to be around threshold or under/overs etc, I think these would be a better way to gauge whether your FTP is set correctly or not.
You’re at the beginning of week 2. Wait until you’re done with Carpathian Peak +2 & then take inventory of how you’re feeling. Not that that workout is some monster but by then your accumulated fatigue will start to weigh on you.
Thanks Brennus and neil. I did do some searching in the forums but was looking for FTP and not the workout in particular. Excellent thought!
I am still content to leave things where they are as I know this is early in the plan and things are looking to continue to ramp up further. I will continue to enjoy the challenging yet not lung busting workouts …for the moment. That may soon change!
As above, Taylor is pretty easy introduction and can be done far in excess of 120% (same for Bluebell - after-which, it gets more challenging in terms of holding the VO2 Max power).
The TrainerRoad workouts should feel like a challenge depending on the IF (basically around .85 should be challenging and .90+ being rather difficult), but not destroy and crush your soul. If you feel like the workouts are too easy and you’re clearly working beneath the intensity zone you’re supposed to be in (threshold feels like sweet spot), then start increasing the intensity by 2-5%. If you have multiple workouts in a row where you increase the workouts by 2-5% then manually adjust your FTP up that amount. However, not every workout is supposed to feel difficult. Make sure your RPE matches the intent of the workout, meaning don’t increase the intensity on planned “easy day” to make it feel moderate or difficult. For instance, in SSB2 mid volume the intensity of the days are as follows:
Lastly, remember you damage your body training so your it builds back stronger during rest days. So rest as hard as you train to reap the benefits of your training.
Yes, this workout ended with an IF of 0.9 which (based on my current FTP), in my past experiences, let me much more fatigued than this did.
I will leave the remainder of the week as is and explore increasing the intensity by a few % points next Tuesday (I’m on the SSB2 mid) and see how that goes. And yes, I will definitely be leaving the recovery rides alone. I learned hard the value of rest and recovery!
Taylor-2 has an IF of 0.83, so it’s comparatively easy. If you want to test if your FTP is too low, sub out your next VO2max workout with something like Kaiser (IF of 0.92). If you can complete Kaiser with not too much bother, then your FTP likely is too low.
Another good workout to test your FTP is Lamarck. Sub out your next SS or threshold workout for that one. Same thing - if that feels not too hard, then your FTP may be too low.
This type of session is supposed to be performed at pVO2max or up to 120% of pVO2max - the author of the session expects that to be around 120% of ftp which may be too low - suggest you hold 10% more power on the on period and keep off period at z2-3 to increase your difficulty as you should really be reaching 95% of max hr or more
Not that that workout is some monster but by then your accumulated fatigue will start to weigh on you.