Wow Dave that's for sure a BIG one and you will enjoy it ... but the steps will get smaller the higher your level of fitness gets!
My first test on a PM ever was last years in September (or was is October ... can't remember) but it was somewhere around 260W. In January i started the JOS and my first test there in week 2 of January was around 295 as I was training a lot volume during that period and I also paced the test much better. From there on I trained only EN-JOS-style and got a lot stronger in my believe and my second test in week 8 (February) gave me a 320W of FTP but compared to the first period i almost doubled my WORK. Currently I'm pretty sure my FTP will be pretty stable maybe a few Wattz up but no huge steps here ...
Thanks, this is my first year with EN. In the past I would just get on the bike and ride with not much of a purpose. I have put in a lot work this year and can't wait for the season.
Nice job. In the first year many see dramatic gains from the FTP/Vo2 work that is EN. There used to be a stat that over 20 week OS (shorter now) you will see a 15% increase in FTP. You just got 10.7% so right in line with that stat, of course there are numbers below and above that to average it out. I saw a large gain over the 15% in my first year. I was coming off the couch with not much fitness and thus the large gains.
my garmin 910xt uses the 7 zone power system, but EN uses the 5 zone system. does anyone know if we can change our watch from 7 zone to 5 zone?
If you can manually enter your power zones I would enter Z1-5 and just don't use 6 and 7. That said, I have a 500, I "think" I can input zones, but I've never seen a reason to do so. I:
Have my FTP set correctly in the 500 and I know what this number is, as well as what 85% of my FTP is.
Have a screen that shows me current watts, normalized power and IF for the ride.
Need to ride a FTP? I stare at the screen and make sure I see numbers near my FTP
Need to ride at 80-85%? Same drill, see my 85% number above.
I then watch my IF for the ride and as I ride similar courses all the time, I have informal benchmarks for IF and Pnorm for each of these rides. For example, in about 2hrs I'm going to ride my "Top of Lake TT Route." I've done it so many times that I have IF and Pnorm goals across a range of fitnesses.
For added fun, when I'm fit, I'll see what recent KOM's Dino or other local Strava friends have put up then go out and poach their rides. Sometimes you gotta make your own fun
Nice work - definitely seeing results. If you are relatively new to both this type of training as well as the testing protocol you can see some substantial gains initially. The best way to increase FTP of course is to focus your training there a lot - as is the EN way. But from that training you also get better at mentally dealing with that sort of effort so you end up learning to pace longish (15-20min) hard intervals better and simply become better at enduring the associated suffering. As a result you get better at the testing protocol.
Comments
My first test on a PM ever was last years in September (or was is October ... can't remember) but it was somewhere around 260W.
In January i started the JOS and my first test there in week 2 of January was around 295 as I was training a lot volume during that period and I also paced the test much better.
From there on I trained only EN-JOS-style and got a lot stronger in my believe and my second test in week 8 (February) gave me a 320W of FTP but compared to the first period i almost doubled my WORK.
Currently I'm pretty sure my FTP will be pretty stable maybe a few Wattz up but no huge steps here ...
Dave,
Nice job. In the first year many see dramatic gains from the FTP/Vo2 work that is EN. There used to be a stat that over 20 week OS (shorter now) you will see a 15% increase in FTP. You just got 10.7% so right in line with that stat, of course there are numbers below and above that to average it out. I saw a large gain over the 15% in my first year. I was coming off the couch with not much fitness and thus the large gains.
Gordon
If you can manually enter your power zones I would enter Z1-5 and just don't use 6 and 7. That said, I have a 500, I "think" I can input zones, but I've never seen a reason to do so. I:
For added fun, when I'm fit, I'll see what recent KOM's Dino or other local Strava friends have put up then go out and poach their rides. Sometimes you gotta make your own fun
Nice backdoor brag
"Does anyone else get really light-headed while swimming 20x100 leaving on 1:25s?"
"Is it normal to lose so much weight while training for Kona?"
"Do your hips hurt when you hold 5:50/mile pace?"