How I increased FTP.
Per Coach Patrick I am going to describe how I upped my FTP after a HIM. My goal races this year are Raleigh and Tahoe. So I signed up for the half in Charleston to gauge my fitness for Raleigh and to see where and what I am weak on. Charleston half is a flat course that occurred on 4/20. I had tested on 3/7 and obtained a 271 FTP. To be honest, I use the data in the form of CP but a 20 minute test is a 20 minute test. So going in to Charleston, I did all the work around this data. I felt good come Charleston and my goal was to "overbike" it to see how I would run. So technically, I overbiked, but not really. The IF was .855 for a 2:20. That is .005 too hard! Charleston received a lot of rain and the run course was soaked. A lot of running in ankle deep puddles. I was able to run around a 1:26 off the bike. With that in mind, I felt I probably had a stronger bike than 271 or 280 CP value. I figured I wanted to up the power on the bike to have a better bike split come Raleigh. The run will be hotter and with more elevation in Raleigh so that will be different.
Starting my lead up, I did most of my riding on the trainer. I wanted it to be focused. I used trainerroad.com to pick workouts and went from there.
Week 1-Thursday had in Antelope which is a 90 minute ride with 5 x 10 at .88, .9, .95, .92 and .90 for the 10 minutes. 5 minutes recovery. The Saturday long ride was the 3 hour balcony. Mind numbing but helpful come race time. I only did two key workouts this week as Charleston took more out of me than I had anticipated.
Week 2 Tuesday. I did the power profile test. But instead of doing the prescribed workout. I did everything at MAX effort. That would help for my CP calculations and it would be a good hard workout. You start off with some 3 1x1's and starting on the 3rd it was max. The 5 minute was max and the 1 30s was max. After the 30s I deviated and did 5 x 2 minutes at max effort with 2 min recovery. Total ride 1 hour. Thursday ride was Abbot. A 1 hour ride that starts with a 5 minute warm up then 3 1 x 1's at 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 efforts. Another 5 minute easy spin then its 3 2 x 1's. These 2 minutes on were at 1.2. 5 minute easy spin and then 3 2x1's at 1.4. Then 5 minute spin and 3 2x1's at 1.3. Then easy spin to cool down. This one was very hard for me. Then the long ride for the week was Balcony again. 3 hours that finishes between .7 and .75 IF depending on if I push some of the efforts. Now between these rides, I had been doing 2, 30-45 minute rides that were easy but with Pxxxr Cxxxxs. I know it's a dirty word to some but I have been trying them.
Week 3 Tuesday Clouds Rest. A 1 hour interval with 3 sets of 12 1x1s. The warm up is a ramp for 5 minutes but still easy. Then 3 1x1's 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 respectively. Then 5 minute spin. THen the 12 1x1's at 1.3. After each set of 12 was a 5 minute spin. Thursday was Clarence King. A 90 minute workout of Threshold over unders. 4 minute warm up easy spin, then 3 minutes of 1.0 FTP. 3 minute spin and start the 5 sets. Each set is 10 minutes long with a 3 minute spin in between. The all start below FTP and you hold that for 5 minutes and then they ramp up over FTP. 1 set at .95 for 5 minutes, 5-6 .99, 6-7 1.03, 7-8, 1.07, 8-9, 1.11, 9-10 1.15. 2d set .9 for 5 mins, 5-6 .95, 6-7 1.0, 7-8 1.05, 8-9 1.10, and 9-10 1.15. 3rd Set 5 minutes of .95 and it has 10 30 second jumps of 2% so .5-5.5 .97 5.5-6 at .97, 6-6.5 at .99, 6.5-7 at 1.01 etc until the 10 minutes are up. 4th Set 5 minutes of 1.0 and then 5x 1 minutes with 3% jumps for the remaining 5 minutes. Set 4 mimics set 2 and set 5 mimics set one for the full 90.
Then on the long ride I did Cathedral. It's 2:40 of a lot of sweet spot training. But gives you about a .80 for the ride.
Now, with all the bikes 5 per week, I was still holding all the runs. By then end of this week, I was tired and knew I needed some rest. So I decided to take a bike recovery week which also coincided with the power meter going out. I sent to quarq and it came back really fast. The rides (3) this week were easy. I wanted to make sure I absorbed the previous training. Then Saturday I tested on the trainer. I did a 10 minute warm up 3 1x1's building to 1.1 FTP. After 5 minutes of easy spinning I let her rip. With my normal FTP at 271 I figured or hoping I would get to about 285 a moderate 5 % increase. But I was shocked to get 295 for the FTP. With all the data the CP is 300 but I do think there is some amount of acclimating to the numbers that need to take place. I have done two rides at HIM intensity in mind. I was trying to push more toward the upper end of the HIM range. The first ride was at .8 of the new FTP and the second was at .82. So it's an in progress and I am not sure how this will relate to Raleigh. So this is definitely a to be continued.....
I know this deviates from the plan but I had an idea and went for it.
Comments
This is a very interesting idea.
While the research is quite clear that time spent around FTP is the key to improving your FTP over time, the more highly trained athlete often requires an increase in training stimulus to improve. For example, an EN power trained athlete in their third year because most of the low hanging fruit has been picked already by our steady diet of FTP intervals.
Dr P Skiba (The Triathletes Guide To Training With Power, page 41) mentions this situation (ie an FTP plateau) and suggests after a suitable warm up, a workout that starts out high in zone 4 and then builds power to low in Zone 5, and then maintains that low Zone 5 power for 5 mins or more. As fatigue sets in, drop down to Zone 4. Then repeat.
Allen and Coggan (Training and Racing with a Power Meter, second edition, page 83) lists two workouts that are similar. "Ramp from threshold", where after a suitable warm up, 5 mins @ 100% of FTP, followed by a 10 min block where power is raised by 10 watts each min, until failure, then cool down.
"Criscross" has after a suitable warm up, 2 mins @ 110% of FTP, followed by 4 mins where power is reduced by 10 watts each min, then 2 mins where power is raised by 10 watts each min. Then 7 mins @ FTP. Repeat 2 to 3 times.
The type of approach Steve has undertaken is consistent with these principles.
As is Coach P's The Five Minute Threshold Hack (or 5 x 5s) (see here http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/Wiki/tabid/91/Default.aspx?topic=The+Five+Minute+Threshold+Hack+-+5MH).
I, for one, am very interested in hearing from any peeps that try this type of approach?
Cheers
Peter