Tuesday means kicking off the riding week with a Sweet Spot Training (SST) session. It doesn’t seem to matter that I have a reduced FTP at the moment, as these sessions always feel hard no matter what targets I have to hit. By the fourth interval I am more than ready for it to be over with.
Which does bring me on to the thought of whether or not to increase the intensity just yet?
My aim at the moment is to slowly build back up from 235w FTP to 245w, and hopefully beyond, with the aim of making Quarter 3’s FTP test significantly better than that of Quarter 2.
Actually, major fail alert. I just realised I did not do a write up for Quarter 2 2023.
Whoops.
OK, so the plan to correct that will be to do this following week’s review as a very late Quarter 2 review, right up until this week. No big problem, this isn’t life or death stuff. Glad I noticed that, though.
Anyway, the plan I did have in mind – although I can’t remember now where I wrote it – was to build back up, slowly but steadily starting from 235w. It’s around the time now where I need to tick that number up, switching to 240w.
I’m not doing a test for this.
This is about building back up to what I was at, pre everything going wrong.
The question becomes how things will be impacted in rides like the SST session with that 5w difference? I’ve been there before, so I know I have been capable of it in the past, but am I back there now? Hard to tell.
5w doesn’t sound like much, but over 40 minutes it really does take its toll.
Anyway, between now and the end of this week I will be sticking at the current 235w FTP figure. So maybe this is the last ‘easy’ week, for now. At least until I get accustomed to that extra 5w requirement.
Still can’t believe I missed that Quarter 2 write up. What a fail!
Do you do all your training on Zwift, and are you assessing FTP via ramp tests?
I hate doing ramp tests, and as I use TrainerRoad as my principal training platform, I use their AI FTP assessment monthly. FTP increases very slowly! TrainerRoad seems very good for structured training blocks, though I need to use Zwift for something to look at during 1h30m turbo sessions.
I’ll have a bit more free time available from next week, and I plan to reactivate my rather moribund cycling blog site!
Robert
I’d say it’s 95% Zwift, and then I check out other programs as and when. The problem I’ve had historically is that the Tacx Neo 2 I own seems to misreport my metrics outside of Zwift and a small number of other programs, which does limit what I can use. The Wahoo stuff is frustrating as it seems great but when I’m working 10% harder to hit the numbers, it’s totally unsustainable.
I don’t use ramp tests much. I aim for the full 20 minute FTP test, and have also done the Wahoo / Sufferfest 4dp tests previously.
What I’ve been doing is intentionally riding at a lower FTP figure to build back up some base stamina and confidence, so what I’m talking about in this post is ticking it up 5w towards what I used to be at before my recent disastrous FTP test. I know I’m slightly under egging it at the moment, but not by much.
I’ll take a look at your blog 🙂 I’ve got the link with the comment, good stuff 🙂