6 weeks ago I had a bad crash that required surgery.
After 6 weeks on crutches and complete inactivity, I finally got on the bike today to spin the legs for 30 minutes. I have AutoFTP detection activated and I was extremely surprised to see that TR detected a new FTP which was way higher than I feared.
My new FTP is 233 - down 7,2% from 251!
I find this a bit hard to believe since I was expecting a much bigger drop ( I was fearing to get down to around 200 or so…)
Should I take this new result with a pinch of salt or is this in line with your experiences? Very curious to hear back from others on this.
Thanks a lot
i’d say yes. As far as i know, all time of the bike is handled the same way by aiFTP. So it doesn’t know that you’ve had surgery, which would impact you’re time off way more then just doing no biking.
As for getting back on the bike after this. Talk to your doctor (or physio, if you have one) about it. They will have dealt with this way more and can give you some good guidelines on how to get back to cycling, in a healthy and responsible way. If that’s somehow not a option, take it really easy and listen to your body. Forget about FTP and structured training until you’re absolutely sure you can handle it.
This is going to be individual, but historically my ftp peaks anywhere from 250-280W. When taking 6 weeks off, my FTP drops roughly to 190-210W (estimated because I restart training with HR zones).
I had an 8 week break in riding (life stuff, not injury) and my FTP dropped from 240 to roughly 210.
I think AIFTP is likely to overestimate your FTP in this situation. Your body is healing and it’s also not used to riding right now.
Your priority for the first two weeks is to get your body used to training volume. It’s especially important not to go too hard right now. Go with 200 or 210W, do endurance or tempo and slowly ramp the volume. It won’t really matter having an accurate FTP if you are riding will below threshold. After two weeks use AIFTP or an FTP test.
Hi Phydomir.
Yes, makes sense… My focus right now is just moving the legs with very little resstance, getting a measure of mobility back, and then in 2-3 weeks starting with some very light strength work. Thanks for your input.
HiWW.
Thanks for that. Yes, I manually dropped the FTP down another 20 watts. Focus for me willbe mobility and streching, then light strength followed by “riding”
Thanks!
Hi Huges84
Thanks for that. I manually lowered my ftp another 20 watts to start really easy just moving the legs and getting used to sitting on the bike. Mobility in hip a big focus for me right now. Later on light strength followed by “riding”
Thanks
As @PhydomiR mentioned, AI FTP Detection won’t know that you had a bad crash and surgery that led to your time off the bike. It only knows that you weren’t riding during the 6 weeks you were away from training.
We’d advise not worrying too much about FTP right now. Instead, focus on getting back to 100% health! Once you’re feeling good again, it might be a good idea to do a Ramp Test since it will have been a while since you’ll have had training data for AI FTP Detection to use. After that Ramp Test and subsequent training, you’ll be in a better spot to get more accurate AI FTP Detections again.
Hope the recovery continues to go well for you – let us know if you have any other questions!
Hi Zach!
I agree, my focus right now is solely on moving the legs a bit without any - too very little power output, mobility exercises, especially for the hip, followed by light strength in maybe 2-3 weeks.
I was just curious about what I thought was a very high estimated FTP.
I do not care about my current ftp - at least not for the moment.
Thanks
The closest I’ve been to being off the bike is 5wks after surgery to remove a bowel (colon) cancer. I arbitrarily dropped my ftp by 50 w (290-240w IIRC) with the intent that if it never felt right and/or my HR wasn’t right I’d change it again. It felt right though.
I had a 235 FTP and after hip replacement, dropped it to 190. I dropped it, and started in doing endurance workouts and happily riding along, and built back pretty quickly. After refusing an auto FTP upgrade, I okayed those that came next. I’m trying to do the same after prostate surgery, but it’s taking a bit longer to get it back. But that’s life. I’ll never have a 250 FTP, but it would be nice to get back to where I was 3 or 4 years ago. We just have to keep working on it…
pushed single mid-summer ride with slightly overused leg too long (24h) that caused overuse injury go very bad (crutches and stuff)
took 4 weeks to recover, AI FTP estimated drop 280w → 246w
whether this estimation was correct or not, doesn’t matter, simply started riding very slowly (~50-55% of this estimated FTP) as leg allowed do it pain-free
for 2 months, no any structure, just went for longer and longer rides (peaked ~20h/week, 6x/week from usual 12h/week Sweetspot-centric plan)
when returned to structured training, AI FTP proposed 249w
in 4 weeks went SS/4x12 → SS/1x105, Z4/4x10 → Z4/2x40
AI FTP suggested 263w, confirmed with Kolie Moore test
In summary, this forced pause and slow recovery was really necessary to build proper base and build up TTE. Yes, FTP was still lower than before but I would never dreamed to ride Z4/1x70 before this. Now I am back at previous highest FTP but with real base that I know I can trust.