FTP - whats yours?

[Jaco-fiets]

I have no idea but I can tell you that with a lot of effort I have increased mine by maybe 20% and I am nowhere near those levels ..... Clearly I don't have it in the 'Levis' [emoji53]

I feel your pain!! I ride about 6 to 8hrs per week. In the last years I only had about a 5% increase. I know I can't expect anything better with the amount of training I do but it is also a very good indication that I am an extremely mediocre cyclist at best.

 

Does not bother me much. Still enjoy it plenty

Edited March 30, 2016 by Jaco-fiets

[NotSoBigBen]

I feel your pain!! I ride about 6 to 8hrs per week. In the last years I only had about a 5% increase. I know I can't expect anything better with the amount of training I do but it is also a very good indication that I am an extremely mediocre cyclist at best.

 

Does not bother me much. Still enjoy it plenty

Sure I have also made peace with it ..... Luckily there is no meter that can measure a persons ability to suffer though and despite the big numbers those people are not always unbeatable [emoji36] #eksemaarnet

[J∆kk∆ls]

40 min test

242W

81kg

['Dale]

I'll be testing mine on Thursday. Have dropped about 4Kg since the last test, so hoping for at least a 5% increase, maybe 10% if I go on my training only.

Good going getting that power-weight ratio booming ????????????????

['Dale]

New bike and first ride in a year and a half yesterday, so things are looking good

 

I only have hr, but I want to try my first 30 min. hr threshold test this coming saturday to see how **** I have become. I'm probably going to try to ride hard like when I had form and then blow up before the real 20 min. test ever starts

 

Ah, welcome back to the pain cave, Andydude

????

Edited March 30, 2016 by Puncheur

[Stricker]

Had my best test to date yesterday , everything was perfect, HR on limit but wasn't in pain, legs was eina but not over the top.

 

Was bouncing around the 4.3-5wpkg and then at minutes number 25 , as I am about to cool down .... I run out of data  

Boom internet connection lost   :cursing:    

 

No Data..No results ... but even more demoralising no strava= Didn't happen     

 

 

Ja ne,,, the joys

[Patchelicious]

How long does it take one to build up to those power levels?

 

I'm riding properly for just about a year now, started from having no endurance and very little sustainable power.

 

Last test was about 7 weeks ago at 222w, feel that I improved quite abit since, will do another test after emperors I think.

 

Another thing is that I'm using Cycleops Virtual power with the Garmin speed/cadence sensor so Im not sure how accurate this is.

 

No Wattbike at my local VA so no other way of testing for now.

It takes a while to up your power. Took me about a year of relatively hard training (13000km 10-14 hours per week) to go from 270W to 315W. It wasn't all power training, as there was substantial endurance work too.

 

But this gain in conjunction with losing weight made the biggest difference. Lost 8kg in the same time period.

 

I maintain that if you are an average to slightly above average rider, the power to weight gains are easier by losing weight. If you have a body fat % of less than 10% then obviously losing more weight becomes more difficult.

 

Doing intervals after intervals to gain 10% in power is sore, and it's sore lots as it takes time. Losing weight is not sore and doesn't take effort, just discipline.

 

Now many people say do both, as I did, but that doesn't always yield the best overall improvements, especially when you start getting to higher end if thing.

 

I would suggest you look at where you are on the spectrum of both weight and power and the try make the improvements where the biggest margins are.

 

Eg: if you are a bit chubs, but you push 330W first focus on weight loss. If you are 65kg but can only push 200W start working on power. So in my case to go from 315 to 340 will take a few months and some hard training, but I know that I have a few jiggly bits and could shed the same 8% in weight within about 6 weeks of focused calorie restriction.

[Dicky DQ]

Damn I don't want to know what my current FTP is. I struggle to do 200W at the moment and have gained about 8 kg.

 

I also see my CTL has dropped from almost 100 to 42. Must say my freshness is way high at the moment  .

 

Long way back for me I fear.

['Dale]

I started at 3.15 w/kg in 2014

Hovered mostly around 4.2 w/kg for 2015

 

Dropped a few kgs from 72 to 68-69

And data from 2016 summer races are looking good

Hovering at 4.4 w/kg with the last test

 

What helped me get there:

 

A good winter base

Lots of HIT

Shedding those extra unnecessary kgs

A solid recovery protocol

[Cas_1]

I also started off in 2014/2015 with around 3-3.2W/kg and is now up to around 4.0-4.1W/kg. Its however getting very difficult to improve on this and will have to start with dropping the last few unwanted kg's which will help.

[Dicky DQ]

I started at 3.15 w/kg in 2014

Hovered mostly around 4.2 w/kg for 2015

 

Dropped a few kgs from 72 to 68-69

And data from 2016 summer races are looking good

Hovering at 4.4 w/kg with the last test

 

What helped me get there:

 

A good winter base

Lots of HIT

Shedding those extra unnecessary kgs

A solid recovery protocol

Donder I have always been around 2.2 to 2.6 W/kg to get to 4.4 W/kg Eina! At best I can drop my weight by 17%, but that wont give me 100% power to weight increase.

[Patchelicious]

Donder I have always been around 2.2 to 2.6 W/kg to get to 4.4 W/kg Eina! At best I can drop my weight by 17%, but that wont give me 100% power to weight increase.

What is your current weight and FTP?

[Jakkals.]

I've just done a training block of note: TSS3300 in the last 10days. its time to lose some weight and that will help the w/kg immensely 

Edited March 31, 2016 by antonj

[Patchelicious]

I've just done a training block of note: TSS3300 in the last 10days. its time to lose some weight and that will help the w/kg immensely 

3300 in 10 days? Thats 330 per day, a 330 TSS day is roughly 5-6 hours, did you do 50 hours riding in last 10 days?

 

Are you using a power meter or is this HR based TSS?

[Veebee]

Eg: if you are a bit chubs, but you push 330W first focus on weight loss. If you are 65kg but can only push 200W start working on power. So in my case to go from 315 to 340 will take a few months and some hard training, but I know that I have a few jiggly bits and could shed the same 8% in weight within about 6 weeks of focused calorie restriction.

 

Thanks for the reply Patch. definitely still on the chubby side after loosing 15kg, could do with another 8kg loss to get to 80.

 

I've been at the power training thing for just about 4 months now, got an IDT after breaking my collarbone so at first I was still in recovery mode and started out with an FTP of 187, so have improved by 19%.

 

Just have the Emperors and Tour Durban to go, and then I will work on improving endurance and weight loss through winter and then turn up the power training.

 

I want to see results but I guess I just have to be very patient about it.

[Jakkals.]

3300 in 10 days? Thats 330 per day, a 330 TSS day is roughly 5-6 hours, did you do 50 hours riding in last 10 days?

 

Are you using a power meter or is this HR based TSS?

I rode from East London to Cape Town, actually 9 very tough days! 1100km