Sounds awesome, best of luck!
Dave
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I wanted to do a workout today as an FTP calibration effort while still being a workout first. I did a 2x20 at 104% of the FTP I’ve been training with. Effectively this is #6 of the Seven Deadly Sins.
“the seven deadly sins…
…er, ways of determining your functional threshold power (roughly in order of increasing certainty):
- from inspection of a ride file.
- from power distribution profile from multiple rides.
- from blood lactate measurements (better or worse, depending on how it is done).
- based on normalized power from a hard ~1 h race.
- using critical power testing and analysis.
- from the power that you can routinely generate during long intervals done in training.
- from the average power during a ~1 h TT (the best predictor of performance is performance itself).
Note the key words “hard”, “routinely”, and “average” in methods 4, 6 and 7…"
Today: (2x20 at 180W in ERG and RPE 8/10 or “Very Hard” ending with something left in the tank)
Last FTP type effort 45 minute test in August: (1x45 in slope and RPE 9/10 of “Extremely Hard” not a lot left in the tank was really glad for this one to be over)
I’m very pleased with this and think I’m getting better. I’m confident I could have held the 180W for ~ 40 minutes if I had been sufficiently motivated. I think 180W as FTP should be ok for my 90% sweet spot intervals.
Dave
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This sweet spot block has been a spectacular success. I’m in the recovery week now and have been 100% compliant to the plan. FTP has gone up to 180 W. I’m recovering well and feeling good. I plan to repeat it in February: Trainer Day
I feel like I’ve wasted so much time. My FTP has stayed in the 170-175 range from late 2023 until the end of 2025 as tested in 30 to 45 minute efforts. I had listened too much to the influencers following the advice intended for much higher volume athletes than me and not doing much intensity at all while riding a lot at “zone 2”.
I’ve learned lower volume athletes should not avoid intensity. What they need to do is training that is hard enough to cause adaptation, but not so hard that they can’t recover. Riding mostly zone 2 on 5 hours a week sadly isn’t going to lead to very much improvement.
I’m not saying my plan is even any good, but there is evidence it is working for me and I believe in it.
Dave
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is the key to it.
I can make a strong case that using all of those 5 hours per week for Z2 (HR) training would be reasonable to include in the base phase of a training plan.
Just imagine the possibilities if/when you get to the point of including the appropriate amount of threshold, then VO2, then anaerobic in your plan!
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I’d say here it’s a case of specificity. Meaning FTP is all about that threshold range, which includes sweet spot. So if you want to improve your FTP, Sweet Spot is a perfect workout. Just like anything, it will stall in progress as well, and you’ll need to have some more variety. I always say, if it’s working, do it. Seiler’s study saw better results from Zone 2 and VO2 max for people doing six hours a week. But then again, everything depends. It depends on your personal weak spots, let’s say. Anyway, congratulations. That’s fun.
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I think you’re right, but given I’m coming from a place of being not well trained there should be considerable growth possible even at lower volume. I’m at 2.5 W/kg now there is no reason I shouldn’t be able to get to 3.0 W/kg.
I expect to go mostly unstructured in 6 weeks or so, we’ll see how the outdoor season goes.
Dave
Another GCN video that pretty much sings the praises of tempo training.
Watch it from around 15’ to 15’45” and you could be forgiven you were watching the Steve Neal Fatmax video
Tempo is fashionable right now.
There’s this one too. I’ve queued this up to where Landy gives a recommendation for who may possibly benefit from more tempo.
Dave
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Enough time has passed I think I’m able to make some observations with where the bread and butter 2x20 L3/L4 winter base training ended up.
Target family of rides:
Overall HR vs power data: (2024, 2025 first half, 2025 second half, 2026)
2026 is a little bit better than 2025 second half based off the Power vs Heart Rate outdoor graph although the key ride is the same.
Either of those are much better than 2025 first half or 2024.
I think at my current volume what I choose to do doesn’t really seem to do much to change FTP, etc… Maybe if I was willing to turn myself inside out with hard intervals I could improve it, but that hardly seems worth it.
I’m more/less pleased with where I am at this point. We’ve slightly changed the key ride route to closer to 2 hours 20 minutes and I’m been finishing these in good form. I’ll take RPE 6/10 or “Difficult” in intervals.icu speak and be happy with it.
I want to keep focusing on riding outside whenever feasible until end of the season and then in the late fall when it is cold again work towards trying to consistently keep the volume up. If I can increase from 4.5 hrs / wk to 6 hrs / wk I think there’s room for further durability gains with something like the Ferrari thread.
The 2x20 L3/L4 experiment was positive. I called it a “spectacular success” in January and while that seems like probably hyperbole now, there was value in it.
Dave
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