FTP Workouts for Cyclists
Maintaining FTP Gains, FTP Intervals, VO2Max Workout Placement, High vs. Low Volume
We are back with Episode 11 of Bike Racing Cat 4 Questions! Let’s get right to it. We're going to be discussing:
Maintaining FTP cycling gains
Where to place the VO2Max workouts in your calendar
2 x 25 FTP exercise in relation to your FTP. How do I train to increase FTP?
Alternating high volume and low volume training weeks based on an athlete’s life schedule
What is my FTP? Do I Do and FTP Test? Read this Blog: Click Here
Maintaining FTP Exercise Gains
Question number one:
I've been riding and racing for almost 30 years. So any gains I get are going to be tough. <I disagree with that.> But I managed to go from 280 to 289 watts about 3.3 watts per kg in the last three weeks, plus one week recovery.
I’ve done the short power build, low volume supplemented with zone 2 rides to give me about 500 TSS points during the work week.
I'm looking forward to busting another three work week and one Recovery Week block and testing again. My phenotype is time trial but short power build seems to move my needle, whereas sustained power just makes me tired and cranky.
So how do we keep these gains? Where do you go after a build when you don't know when your big races are coming?
Just because you've been riding racing for 30 years doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to be very tough. Yes, newer cyclists make gains faster simply because they get “new cyclist fitness”, and you're able to make huge gains from just consistent training. For people that have been riding and racing for 30 years, we must remember that the training techniques were nowhere near where they were today. If you’re training like you were even just 10 years ago, you can definitely make new gains!
So where do we go? How do we keep these gains? Well, the one thing that people seem to want to gravitate towards right is you make gains in one thing and it worked for blocks, you're going to do it again. And you're going to do it again. And you're going to do it again, until you plateau. And you're just not having fun with training. So I wouldn't do that.
It looks like he's doing FTP work and trying to bump up his threshold. So even if you don't have big races coming, what I would do is go into something harder, do a VO2Max block, raise your aerobic ceiling so that when you go back to FTP intervals, the work is easier after a VO2Max block. Number two, you've now pushed out your aerobic ceiling, so you're gonna be able to see some higher wattage is for the same duration.
If you're dead set on doing a via FTP training block and you want to do another one, don't do the same durations! You heard Grant Koontz in the podcast, he made the comment that 3 to 10 minute efforts are American bike racing.
Go and look at what you've done for 10 minutes and try and beat that 10 minute effort, or maybe 12 minutes or 15 minutes; take something sub 20 minute. The 20 minute FTP test has us all fixated around that, and then everything in the past few years that have been talking about “go longer”, and I preach go longer. But everyone's forgetting to also go shorter. Hit those eight to 12 minute max efforts to test your capacity.
There's a ton of different ways to work FTP exercise without just banging out 20 or 25 minute intervals. Those are important, but don't do the same thing over and over again.
So my first recommendation, go do a VO2max block and then come back to FTP. Even if there aren’t any races, you can still make gains there and that's going to leave you better off down the road as a cyclist.
At this point of the year, it is October 21 that I'm writing this, so I would say that you want to be going back through your foundation work: your base work, tempo riding, and getting the gym. Building strength in the gym is a big focus right now!
See Also: Cycling Endurance Training For Beginners
Cycling VO2Max Workout Placement
Is it okay to do VO2max cycling workouts the day after a long ride or the day before?
Or should I spaced them out as much as possible?
I would do the VO2max before the long ride because the long ride is mostly going to be endurance work, unless you're doing some big kitchen sink for a massive race coming up.
I’m going to assume that the long ride is going to be pure endurance, so you're trying to stay at zone two, a little zone 3, and you're really focusing on aerobic work; it's going to be tiring though. So if you do that first and then go to complete the VO2Max workout the next day, you might not hit as high of a wattage or be able to hold it for as long of a VO2Max effort, therefore not getting as much adaptation as you could if you did the VO2Max workout the day before.
It’s also mentally more refreshing to get the harder work done first, and then wake up Sunday knowing that you have a nice endurance ride on deck. Go burn a bunch of calories and come home and feel great! It's going to get tough at about our three, but keep pushing, and you're gonna nail it and you're gonna have a solid week.
FTP Workout : 2x25 minute intervals
I just started outside training in the last few weeks. Today I did a 2 x 25 minute interval at 240 watts and my FTP is 245W, So it's about 95%.
Should I increase the time of these intervals? Or maybe do more intervals? and increase the intensity? Let me know.
So I really like 25 minute intervals. I really like 30 minute intervals. I like 20 minute intervals. Those are good. I really like seeing if athletes can nail the first one at 100% FTP and then, is the second one the same? For this question though, we need to ask: what are we working on?
Are we working capacity?
Or, are you just trying to set a new max watts to then set zones?
Where are we really going with this?
Let’s break this down. There's an interval duration component. Do I want to go longer? Should I try and do this 240 watts for 40 minutes? Yeah, you should.
Should I try and go harder? Should I try 2 x 30 minutes at a higher wattage than 240? Yeah, I think you want to be doing 105% of 245 for like at least 20 minutes.
You did two by 25 minutes, so let's talk about how much rest did you take in between them? What about lowering the rest interval? Yes, do that!
And the fourth one that you guys know I love? What about doing that 2 x 25 later in the ride? So you know, go out riding, get 2000 kj in the legs, and then attempt them and see where you're going.
So there's a lot of ways to attack this. The one thing that I would say that you don't want to do, don't go back and do 2 x 25 minutes at 240 watts, because you're not going to get any faster from that right.
So change something up. Also, to tie this into the previous question, don't forget, go do 10 minute intervals at 105%. Maybe you can even do them a little bit harder, really start to push the envelope because we see numbers that are if it's supposed to be an FTP interval and athletes think they shouldn't go over 105%.
Test different variations at different durations. Sorry that that answer is really just a bunch more questions for you, but that's how you really want to think about this. What's your goal? Why are you doing 2 x 25? And then we can go from there.
See Also: Improve Cycling FTP or Get Faster?
Cycling High Volume Vs Low Volume
I was wondering if there is any benefit from doing high volume one week and low volume the next. This is not by choice but necessity as my job is very unstable.
In some weeks, I work a lot and then others I do less. I would love to keep the volume steady, but it's really super random.
Am I better off just doing low volume consistently or throwing in some long rides when I have time? Do I lose adaptations if I change the training too much?
You can only do what you can have time to do. I think the biggest thing here that you want to avoid is just totally bombing the system on random weeks.
Let’s say you're doing eight hours, eight hours, and then fifteen hours, and then you rest. You might just be really crushed. You might just have really low quality rides when you enter your low volume period, which is when you really need to have quality sessions since your volume is low.
So make the the volume of the bigger weeks within reason. Don’t go above 150% of the time have the lowest week. So if you're doing eight hours, don't go over 12 hours; make them consistent sessions.
So just avoid doing too much. When you ride too much, you're not actually absorbing that training, it is just making you really tired, and your next session is going to suffer.
The random big rides they are fun, but it can leave you with an overuse injury. Your body's just not used to that, so even though I love big mega rides, make sure your body can physically handle that. Be careful.
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