When I started TR, my FTP was 251 W (3.25 W/kg). I had tested in Zwift about 2 months earlier at 270 W. In fairness, I think my 251 was a bit of an underestimate because I did the ramp test on a Friday evening after a week of working in the ICU. I’ve had a few bumps in the road but feel like I achieve pretty good consistency. My FTP via AI FTP right before my latest hiccup is now 344 (4.57 W/kg). Not pictured of course is running, lifting, skiing, and climbing.
Of consistency? Yes. But I tend to value time over TSS as it’s not really meaningful across three sports and time also conveys what I think Consistency is primarily about: showing up regularly, over time.
This was my most consistent season, (week numbers along the bottom) last year:
My three year chart. Doesn’t look as smooth as yours Chad. I can see the dips from illness this year (Covid May, and have just lost the last three weeks), and a dip over summer when the kids are out of school.
Mine is interesting in that I keep injuring myself. Red spots are injuries (Dislocated finger, back issues and broken collarbone from left to right) and the pink spot is where we had a baby. Far right trendline is where I went from a Tacx Vortex to a Tacx Neo2, so I actually think I’m at my fittest now taking the delta into account.
I’ve fizzled out a bit since - and wonder why I’ve plateaued
My big spike in May this year was my trip to Girona - originally planned for 2020. I was pretty pleased with how I did on my first experience of long climbs, particularly as I note I did almost nothing for a couple of weeks earlier. Then I ‘binged’ on volume in an attempt to get prepped.
No surprise that my best consistency was with COVID lockdowns, and Remote Working. Now I’m blended 2 days in the office, and racing once a week too.
Largely self selected FTP up until AI FTP. I’m happy with my FTP trendline, particularly with AI FTP which has taken the guess work out of it for me.
I essentially trust AT and AI FTP, and am happy it’s working at MV for me, at 46. It’s really off the bike stuff that I need consistency with fueling and sleep. Can’t say I haven’t been told often enough in podcasts…
Acknowledging that playing basketball and riding my bike were not compatible at my age.
Doing a very full Audax / Randoneurring schedule of events.
Riding all year long to avoid losing too much endurance base.
Surviving the ridicule of my family for having a wristwatch alarm telling me to go to bed at 9 PM.
Weight lifting two to three times per week to maintain non-bicycling strength.
When weight hits X, tracking macros for a month or two till weight gets back to Y.
Chart from intervals.icu using the “compare” functionality. I have other stuff charted, but it’s all just numbers to satisfy the data nerd in me. As long as I’m getting lots of time peacefully riding my bike, I’m happy and able to lead a reduced stress life.
Here is my chart going back to late 2019. I was riding before that time but not on Strava and not with nearly the same volume. The pandemic changed things dramatically for me since I didn’t have to travel for work and had a lot more time to ride.
Last year I was doing great and started joining up on group rides but got dropped from the fast group rides more often than not so I focused on the slightly slower group rides most weeks during the summer. I got a free trial code for TR at the end of summer. Up until that point, I didn’t even really know what TR was.
I did a few indoor rides before crashing at the end of October and fracturing my scapula. A few weeks off and then I was essentially forced to all indoor riding with TR just using Train Now. I started with a MV plan right at the beginning of January and built from there to my A event in July.
My FTP had been increasing the whole time and I only used AI FTP once and normal ramp tests the rest of the time. It was at that point that I came across the thread of anaerobic capacity messing with your FTP. Combine that with the realization that I probably couldn’t actually hold my FTP for an hour. So I dropped my FTP a full 30W to what intervals.icu predicted at 30 minutes. Painful but I just kept telling myself that the ramp test was really just skewed because of my AC.
Going forward, consistency for me look like maintaining a healthy Z2/Z3 load, leveling out my power curve, and lifting a minimum of two days per week. Group rides and the occasional fun ride will cover what threshold and sprint work I need for the fall. Come early winter, I’ll put myself back on a MV plan and start building again.
I’m not very consistent in terms of mileage. Pre Jul 2011 I would only ride when there was zero chance of ice, particularly after dark (not very often in Scotland). I then moved down to the flatlands and overdosed on nearly every day being ice free. I then moved jobs and had less freetime and whilst I still cycled a lot, it wasn’t quite as much. I then went with a coach in 2016 and he encouraged me to cut down on what he called ‘junk miles’. I was fairly consistent on that level distance wise at least (getting cancer in 2018/ 2019 made me less consistent speedwise) until I left my coach in circa July 2020 to go to TR. With outdoors TR workouts my distances have crept up again the last few years, thankfully cancer free my speeds have ramped up too
Those 2013-2015 volume levels are impressive and it’s even more impressive that you’ve ignored them and found a better level for you since then. That is actually really hard to do. So kudos for that!
My chart… The fun part is i’m just about as fast or faster than in 2019. My ‘consistency’ then was basically:
Week
Tue: Some trash ride
Wed: very hard (race like) group ride
Thurs: Some trash ride
Sat: very hard (race like) group ride or long solo endurance
Sun: Same as Sat but reverse
I just kept stacking TSS until I could no longer get anymore in my timeframe (±10-12 hours a week). Got to about 4,5 w/kg
2022/now Low volume TR plan
Tue: Vo2 and gym
Wed: rest or recovery ride
Thurs: Threshold
Sat: Tempo / sweet spot or a race, if today than recovery technique ride on Sunday
Sun: Tempo / sweet spot or a race, if today than recovery technique ride on Saturday
All of this on around 8-10 hours a week I’m around 4,6 w/kg again after consistent training for about 1,5 years now. (+50w FTP)
My TSS obviously drops with FTP increases, but thanks to AI FTP I no longer have to do traditional ftp tests, which were never my forte and lead to basically never getting above a 290w ftp for 5 years until I used TrainerRoad with this tech this year. Now I complete most of workouts, exception being are some breakthrough workouts. But this season I’m up to 330w. I have doing indoor workouts and cat 3 races outside throughout this year. I try to push for a stretch or breakthrough workouts and generally use the training plan as a guide to which energy system I should train.
