Yesterday I hit a huge training milestone. I was taking my usual 20 minute power test before each block (yes I prefer this to a ramp test, specifically because I like that it forces me to practice pacing at high power) and I was able to do an even paced 421 watt average for 20 minutes. I finally reached an estimated FTP of 400! Here is the workout from TD:
I wanted to share this to show the success that an athlete can have using TrainerDay and also show my appreciation to Alex and whoever else is a part of the App. As someone who is self-coached, TrainerDay has been invaluable in my pursuit of performance and racing success. At the beginning of my 2 year journey, Coach Jack’s plans helped me build a great foundation. As someone who trains and optimizes my life relentlessly, I rapidly progressed and while I still use Coach Jack to generate my plans and workouts and schedule them out, I now personalize them a bit to add more intensity when I think I need it. Creating and finding workouts is also a breeze, and following them in real time on my turbo is simple.
I’m unashamed to admit that I promote TrainerDay at every chance I get because I really do believe in this product. So thank you again.
That is a serious power output. Well done. I’m using Trainer Day too and I work with Alex to make things even better. He is a dedicated guy and someone you want on your team.
That being said, your result would never have been possible without your hard work and dedication. So keep that up and you will keep improving.
I see that I’m not alone on the 20 minute test.
If you have any questions… I’m always here to help.
Hi Robert.
I appreciate all of your feedback to me and other users in these forums as well. I’ve taken lots of bits of advice from your responses to questions.
If you don’t mind me asking, how closely do you work on TD? Would you have access to view user’s training plans or workouts?
Reason I ask is that my race season ended last month, and my next race is not until May 2025. I’m obviously very interested in keeping my fitness throughout the winter, and while I have made a custom plan with Coach Jack and trust the overall strategy, I’d be very interested in having someone as experienced as yourself take a look at it and give me your opinions on how you would structure training blocks leading up to the race next Spring.
Either way, thanks for your content and what you provide with TD. It is a great training app.
400w incredible thank you so much for sharing. This is the kind of stuff people need to see.
If you have the plan in your calendar or my plans you can create a shareable link and send it here or send a direct message to Robert. He does not easily have access to see unless you send him this link although if we can’t figure out how to share and he is willing I can find him a way
I’d be happy to take a look at your plan. If you can sent me the link of your TD training plan I will give you my thoughts. Which platform do you use to keep track of your fitness? That is vital info together with the plan. if your plan for next season os not the same as this year, please sent me the link from last years plan too.
Wow @Tayno_25 , that’s really impressive and I wish I could do something similar with my training.
Quick question, over these 2 years of plan with coach Jack, can you share with us what the different plans you’ve followed look like? Can you share a link like @Alex explained so we can get inspired/emulate by your success? Thank you
Respect, a great achievement.
You are a living, driving example who proves that with TD you can achieve such a result, and above all, thanks to your own work and determination.
This is actually just a workout I found with searching.
It follows the TrainingPeaks 20 minute FTP test protocol which is to do 5 min pre-exhaustion after a quick warm-up, then 5 minutes recovery, then the 20 minutes.
I do this pretty frequently to gauge where my fitness is if I’m entering a new training block. It takes some practice to get your pacing right. I actually don’t even use ERG mode just to get more used to having to pace it without the trainer doing the resistance.
I could share the stock plans I used, but I don’t think you would necessarily get a great idea on my training history from just the plan.
I use Coach Jack to set up my schedule for daily training, along with how much time per day and how many days per week leading up to an event on my calendar. So for me I train 6 days per week. 5 of the days I have a max time I can train which is 2 hours. Then the 6th day I can go a bit longer, but even then I try not to be gone really long every weekend because I have a young family.
So then Coach Jack will create the overall outline of what to do each day. For the most part, I will follow the plan. When it calls for Z2 endurance rides, I do the endurance rides. When it is recovery, I take the recovery ride. I usually always go the full 2 hours, since I basically have a volume ceiling I just do as much as I can all the time.
The key workout days is where I go off the rails a bit. I still follow the general idea of the plan. Meaning if it is a VO2 block, I do VO2 workouts, if it is Threshold Block, I do Threshold workouts. I just usually end up making them a lot harder than Coach Jack’s workouts. Now I’ll warn you, I truly believe that Coach Jack’s workouts are effective and most people should use them. However, I’m very unusual in that I can grind myself to dust day in and day out and never lose motivation or consistency. I love hard workouts. I workout at 4:30am most mornings, and I’m one of those people who can pop out of bed without an alarm because I’m looking forward to the VO2 workout I have that morning.
As an example, here is a threshold workout I did a couple weeks ago:
Now I know the workout name is 3x20, but I actually modified it to be 2x30. So you can see I did 2 intervals of 30 min at 365w-368w. Then I followed it with another 30 minutes of endurance. Coach Jack’s threshold workouts don’t come close to 30 min per interval. And like I said I think that is for good reason for most people. Suggesting workouts like these without absolute certainty of the athlete would spell disaster in many cases.
If you have any more questions don’t hesitate to ask. Good luck training!
That is a very wise word. Tayno’s win in these two years is mainly due to his consistency in his training. You can see his dedication getting up at 4:30 in the morning. That is not for everyone.
The key to consistency is finding a way to repeat every week for the whole year.
When I take on new clients, I always take them on for a whole year. I don’t do 3-month programs. And this is exactly why.
Everyone can commit to training hard for three months. So, after you ride your event, you’re happy, but now it is time for a break. Next, you look forward to getting on the bike again because you know what you need to do to get this good again.
I ask my clients, “What are you doing now?” How much time can you realistically spend on training without conflicting with your family life, job, mind, and life?
The important lesson is that you will get better by doing less but consistently, than by doing more but inconsistently.
If your read between the lines this takes much more than a training schedule.
He gets up early, meaning he needs to go to bed 8 hours before 4:30.
He trains 2 hours a day, which means he burns 1200kcal extra each day, so he needs to eat at least 400-600kcal extra each day.
No junk food, but focussed on quality. He is probably prepping home meals to take to his job.
And there is probably more.
You need to think this through before you start training like this.
Yes, @Robert_UCL is right and I have left out many details that attribute to the performance gains I have seen. I’ll touch on some of the points mentioned. Which by the way I’m very impressed because it’s almost like you know me with how accurate you were!
He gets up early, meaning he needs to go to bed 8 hours before 4:30.
Basically yes. I actually subscribe to the belief that if possible you should wake up naturally without an alarm. From many years of doing this, I’ve noticed I average about 7-7.5 hours of sleep per night, sometimes slightly more if needed. I’m ASLEEP around 9 pm. So in bed a little earlier.
He trains 2 hours a day, which means he burns 1200kcal extra each day, so he needs to eat at least 400-600kcal extra each day.
I eat like crazy. I weigh nearly 87kg and with my FTP, even my Z2 workouts require lots of calories. My family thinks I’m a bottomless pit.
No junk food, but focussed on quality. He is probably prepping home meals to take to his job.
So even though admitting in my prior point about eating a lot, Robert is right once again, I am very strict on what I eat. I allow myself to eat whenever I am hungry (which is a lot), but no high fat or sugary treats. Obviously some exceptions to this, such as after a particularly hard workout or special occasions with the family. I also eat basically the same meals for breakfast and lunch every day. Once again I’m probably unusual in that I really don’t get tired of it. We do vary dinner each night though otherwise my family would probably kick me out . Even for dinner though, I have a rule of having vegetable be at least half of my plate. In addition we rarely eat red meat that is higher in fat, we eat mosly lean proteins such as chicken, turkey, and certain cuts of pork. I can get into more detail about diet if someone desires.
I’ll add one more detail I think is quite important, and that is my training/athletic history. I did not start cycling 2 years ago out of the blue without any prior fitness. I played team sports such as American football, basketball, and track and field all my youth. When I attended University, I got very involved with powerlifting and bodybuilding (partly why I’m a bit heavy). I then had a bad injury to my shoulder, so decided to challenge myself and start running when I couldn’t lift. I ended up training for and running several half marathons and full marathons. So my point is, I’ve had a long history of incredibly consistent training in both aerobic and strength.
As far as pure cycling, 2 years ago would have been around the time I started “structured” training on the bike. Prior to that I had only done cycling for fun or cross training and maybe just a couple times a week.
The catch is that for about 2 years before cycling, I was doing about 6 days per week of structured running training. Prior to this even, I had about 8 years of very serious periodized strength training.
So with that being said, I remember that the first FTP ramp test I took I had an estimated FTP between 255-265. Within the first year, or even less time (9 months) really because I peaked during the race season around August, I had gotten my FTP up to around 365.
Thats hard to believe that someone would double their FTP in a couple of years.
I am in the same boat, endurance athlete all my life and picked up cycling about 10 years ago. Just riding hard, slow, group rides etc. Last year I decided to take the FTP test and give TD a go for few months. Started with 248ftp (3.3W/kg) and after 4 months, when I stopped for the summer to just ride again and have fun, got to 268ftp (3.6W/kg) which from what I read, especially by posts like yours, is nothing.
I followed coach Jack plan to a T. Finished every single interval, every single day (even those 3h in the saddle Sat / Sun rides). Finished with I think 12h weeks and only saw that 20W increase.
So i would love to know what myself, and others like myself, are doing wrong. I was fully expecting that with dedication, time and knowledge base from the app, I could hit 300W. Nope. Not even close.
I am trying to just say, what I see in this conversation. He went from basically using a bike as periodic recreation to training. So this has some similarity to a beginner starting at 100w and going to 200w in 2 years which is completely believable. It’s just he was already a serious athlete capable of 400w which is the minority. So at “day 1” he was 200w where most beginners would be more like 50-100w.
And @Tayno_25 it sounds like from Aug 2023 to Oct 2024 you gained like 9%?
@soulo_ridah your case is more typical in that you were probably much deeper into cycling by the time you did your first FTP test so started at a higher level relative to your potential. Not saying you are at your potential, just saying you won’t gain as quick as a “beginner” at this point. Two year cyclist vs 10 year cyclist.
thank you so much for sharing. This is the kind of stuff people need to see.
