In honour of SJP's thread I have also started working on FTP a few weeks ago before being interrupted for a week, and now sick. Anyway it's the basic 12 week ftp builder that's offered as part of Zwift, and I'm in week 2. The reason why I'd like to increase FTP is to boost the numerator side of the power-to-weight equation which I'll explain more below. Big picture goal is to actually get on track in the real world and duke it out in the local crits. From what I can tell I'd prob do ok in C grade as but as I have NFI what I'm doing, and I still don't have a bike, I'd rather just work on the engine in these remaining months and have a crack first thing next year. It's also doing no harm to my mtb riding at all.
Background is I've been enjoying some Zwift races since Feb this year, generally 2-3 races a week of late each 35-50km in length. But I regularly get munched at around the 20km mark where I lose the lead pack and drift, and I really suck on the sustained climbs, in fact I usually get dropped if I don't see the move, I can't bridge for sh1t anything more than a few s despite being a solid sprinter (comparitive to the e-racers), and if I do I explode shortly after, and to be quite honest I'm at the low end of the B category limits which means across anything longer than 30km and I really get my a$$ handed to me and that sucks right about now. I'm not pretending this is real life for a second, but my results are real enough to me to want to improve it.
Following the principle of 'don't get bitter, get better' (Fabio?) and after speaking with & observing e-racers in e-land and real world roady scum at local crits, I have plucked a lofty figure out of the air and reckon a power to weight approaching 4.0w/kg is what is required to return a few favours. And so over the next few months, I am not sure how long but hoping it is around 6 but under 12 as that's the extent of my interests these days, I will increase my power to weight from it's current ~3.5w/kg to a target of 4.0w/kg. More than that 4 would be ace. The weight side of things has been good so far dropping 9kg since feb this year and is now 77kg, which is surprising given its still kfc/mcsh1t & many beers a week , but I'm changing). Current FTP is ~271w on the Elite Drivo, which is allegedly 1% accurate, so that's the baseline I'm working with.
Obviously, the whole target "4.0" equation can be tweaked a bit, e.g. if aiming for 4.0, I can maintain my mass but need to jack up the FTP power to 308w, or more. Or lose another 10kg, or more, and I'll be sweet with current FTP. In reality it's going to be a combo of both. I think 75kg/300w feels about right as far as each target is concerned to get to 4.0, but both seem a very long way away atm (can drop weight but sustaining power is not easy). I also think the FTP tests can be gamed by practicing them and knowing what your body can tolerate and sustain, but that's pretty much racecraft anyway so fair enough!
I'm also trying to do the training in addition to the zwift races atm, but it's a bit sh1t as I can only do the training after the racing, so I will prob progressively cut the racing back and focus more on doing the training as it increases. I'll try to remember to post weekly updates, hopefully not too boring. BTW I'm not expecting an FTP boost of 30w in 12weeks. But 10-20w would be nice, combined with realistic weight loss it might see 3.75-3.8 by Dec, or more, fingers crossed and injuries avoided.
Background is I've been enjoying some Zwift races since Feb this year, generally 2-3 races a week of late each 35-50km in length. But I regularly get munched at around the 20km mark where I lose the lead pack and drift, and I really suck on the sustained climbs, in fact I usually get dropped if I don't see the move, I can't bridge for sh1t anything more than a few s despite being a solid sprinter (comparitive to the e-racers), and if I do I explode shortly after, and to be quite honest I'm at the low end of the B category limits which means across anything longer than 30km and I really get my a$$ handed to me and that sucks right about now. I'm not pretending this is real life for a second, but my results are real enough to me to want to improve it.
Following the principle of 'don't get bitter, get better' (Fabio?) and after speaking with & observing e-racers in e-land and real world roady scum at local crits, I have plucked a lofty figure out of the air and reckon a power to weight approaching 4.0w/kg is what is required to return a few favours. And so over the next few months, I am not sure how long but hoping it is around 6 but under 12 as that's the extent of my interests these days, I will increase my power to weight from it's current ~3.5w/kg to a target of 4.0w/kg. More than that 4 would be ace. The weight side of things has been good so far dropping 9kg since feb this year and is now 77kg, which is surprising given its still kfc/mcsh1t & many beers a week , but I'm changing). Current FTP is ~271w on the Elite Drivo, which is allegedly 1% accurate, so that's the baseline I'm working with.
Obviously, the whole target "4.0" equation can be tweaked a bit, e.g. if aiming for 4.0, I can maintain my mass but need to jack up the FTP power to 308w, or more. Or lose another 10kg, or more, and I'll be sweet with current FTP. In reality it's going to be a combo of both. I think 75kg/300w feels about right as far as each target is concerned to get to 4.0, but both seem a very long way away atm (can drop weight but sustaining power is not easy). I also think the FTP tests can be gamed by practicing them and knowing what your body can tolerate and sustain, but that's pretty much racecraft anyway so fair enough!
I'm also trying to do the training in addition to the zwift races atm, but it's a bit sh1t as I can only do the training after the racing, so I will prob progressively cut the racing back and focus more on doing the training as it increases. I'll try to remember to post weekly updates, hopefully not too boring. BTW I'm not expecting an FTP boost of 30w in 12weeks. But 10-20w would be nice, combined with realistic weight loss it might see 3.75-3.8 by Dec, or more, fingers crossed and injuries avoided.