Well yes, but also no. Natural ability, strengths and weakness play to this. I’m a classic time triallist pattern and a U shaped power curve - a 1300w 15s sprint, I can hold 210w/3wkg for 4-6hrs yet I struggle at threshold for 20 mins.
Vis a vis when I started being coached my coach and I moved to longer MTB events - I was always doing XCO, XCM, and 24’s - because I was mid pack at XCO but top 10 in 12/24. So we targeted my natural ability - also becuase I’m mentally susceptible to “not doing well” beating me up - I dropped the XCO.
We still train Z4/5 and in fact I am right now but for me it needs a big aerobics base to be sustainable. Where I am now with this is I drop less of a gap on climbs than I used to then reel riders later as they fail to sustain power over time. For that reason it’s important for me never to be in the red on a climb - I can’t compete and would be wasting energy, so I sit in under the radar.
TDLR: I’m not a natural power athlete. I do train my weakness, I could train it more, but chose to defer and train to my natural ability and go harder for longer to propel me up the rankings in the longer events. An understanding of my power curve has helped me with a race strategy to use my power and fitness appropriately to my advantage.
It means that even though you have a very respectable sprint and a pretty good FTP, my grandma will still beat you up a 1-min kicker on her steel clunker loaded with a basket of groceries.
Intervals.icu will give you a similar chart but generated from real Intervals.icu data and age group specific. As you can see I haven’t been doing any short stuff lately! You can choose watts/kg or watts (for the big guys!).
It means that even though you have a very respectable sprint and a pretty good FTP, my grandma will still beat you up a 1-min kicker on her steel clunker loaded with a basket of groceries.
I prefer the curve on Strava as it shows power to weight and whilst I am unlikely to beat my power records of 3 years ago having lost around 8kg I am beating or matching the power to weight figures which is reassuring. The isolated watts fall alone looks at first glance worrying.
Kind of breaks my heart to show this, but when I did a major event last year they said here comes our last 10 riders. So here I am at TR trying to get better. I’m heavy at 232 lbs. I’m at the green line, but even at 40 lbs lighter I am still only on the red line.
And according to this chart, I haven’t yet learned to ride a bike…ouch…a bike harsh!
The chart might as well have fine print that says “seriously dude sell your bike cause you don’t know how to use it”. I mean, I’ve had grandmothers in their walkers pass me saying “get the fu$# out of the way”. Maybe I should take it as a sign, but I love this sport and I am too stupid to quit! And what does that old lady know anyways! LOL
But seriously guys…help me suck less so I catch up to the old broad and tell her off!
Without any more info about you and your training history, the typical mantra is to pick a training plan (or use TR Plan Builder) and execute it with consistency. Get that FTP test and do your best to nail the workouts from week to week and get your recovery dialed as well. Nutrition is key in regards to proper fueling and potential weight reduction (it sounds like you may want to do that).
There are probably better people than me to really help, but I know that getting into a regular pattern of riding and training, and doing my best to do the workouts as prescribed has been a big part of my gains. Try to see the forest for the trees, and not get overly fixated on the minutia, which can hide real gains and make losses seem greater than they really are.
Get the “90% precision” that Coach Chad recommends, which means you don’t have to hit every workout perfectly, but get the majority of them as intended. A missed or short workout on occasion is ok and even a sign that you are close to the limit of your training world.
My numbers are not far from yours: 225lb, 199W FTP, started riding about 15 months ago, now I’m generally at about the first or second percentile… all right around what you’re saying.
From what I’ve learned around here, these are my answers:
If you’re at your ideal body weight, then TrainerRoad’s SSB (Sweet Spot Base) will help you increase your overall available power. Combine that with as many hours as you can of Zone 2 (endurance) rides at roughly 70% of your maximum HR, or 60% of your FTP in watts. The combination of SSB and Z2 (on different rides) will make you better and faster.
If you’re overweight, then losing weight in a healthy and sustainable fashion will certainly help… but you still have to combine it with #1 above.
Getting significantly better is going to take a long time (for me, at least a couple more years). Focus on the process and the input: do the right thing each day, be consistent in your training, mind your sleep/recovery, and so on. And do NOT focus on the results or output (whether that’s your FTP, speed, whatever). Results will come in time, but draw your satisfaction from the work, not the results! Failure to follow this advice is setting yourself up for frustration and failure.
And always remember that, on TR and Intervals.icu, you are comparing yourself to serious athletes. You and I may be at the very bottom of the chart, but we’re still already competent cyclists by the standards of most of the public. You may be in the last 10 riders, but you’re probably already in the top half of results compared to the general population. Chill… it’s OK to be near the bottom of a great group. As an extreme illustration: wouldn’t you still love to be the very last guy in an Olympic race?
