Functional Threshold Power (FTP) – average power during your highest possible effort in a 60-minute race. Your FTP is used to gauge proper race intensity so you can still run well off the bike.I created a firestorm of debate on slowtwitch.com last spring by starting the post “25% Increase in FTP!” . While the debate went round and round, I will offer up the following...
Last season, I went from PR marathon shape (2:54), zero bike fitness to an FTP increase of 25% after 5 months of dedicated work. From 0 bike fitness to a 25% increase. Everyone knows that building from zero bike fitness is much easier than building from a 300W FTP that has been 5 years in the making.
Nevertheless, my first ever FTP test was 210W, 5 months later I tested at 278W for a 25% increase.
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| Marty, we're gonna need more power!! |
My protocol to achieve these results was basically a 3 day cycle. Day 1 FTP, Day 2 FTP, Day 3 rest. Repeated ad nauseum or until my legs fell off (surprisingly, neither happened). The nice thing about a format like this was that I put in a shit-ton of work, in a short amount of time. I got super fit and it limited my off-season training time. This allowed me to hang with the fam more and not be a complete self-absorbed, tri junkie, nerd all year round.
This winter, I plan on following a similar protocol. I don’t expect to see anywhere near that sort of increase (not starting from scratch)…but what doesn’t kill you, will surely make you stronger.
I am starting something very similar as well. I started my first 8 week FTP block on October 10th. I will then move to a VO2 Max block of 6 weeks and then a 6 week block of FTP. Yes just like EN. IT makes complete sense to me. I'm looking for 12.5% gains at a minimum. That will move me from 3.3w/kg to 3.7w/kg. Lets put in the work. When do you start?
ReplyDeleteJeff - 1. The pain has already begun, I'll be reporting some surprising findings soon. 2. You're blog is cool and alot of what you write, I feel. Amazing how similar life phases will do that! 3. I get excited reading about people that are willing to put in the work, as simple as a concept as that is, many people don't get it.
ReplyDeleteBest of Luck!