Good FTP - where's my speed?

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Kermithimself
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by Kermithimself

Been using the winter to increase my FTP with lots of 20 minute intervals at or below FTP, and some Sweet Spot as well. Did a test on the road a couple of days ago and was pleased to find my FTP was 306 watts, which is 2 watts more than when I was in peak condition last season, and about 15 watts more than the same time last season. So far, so good.

Did a training session with my club today and had trouble keeping up with the best, with who I usually belong, when we did max intervals for 4x 2 minutes.

I'm not too worried about it, as I've planned a peak in the end of April/beginning of May, so I still have some time to find my topspeed. But which intervals are good to increase that type of speed? Should I be including 3 minute VO2max intervals, some 30/30, 40/20, anaerobic capacity etc?

I'm thinking that my future workouts should have those speed building workouts in the beginning, and then probably some AT workouts in the end.

For the record I will be racing at events that will cover about 100-120 kms in length, and some criteriums. No time trialling focus this season. I'm a sprinter type of rider who had a peak of 1500 watts last season(5 second just above 1400 watts).
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devinci
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by devinci

Some very hard efforts between 20s and 2m should help you out. I would also include some 3-5m efforts.

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mattr
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by mattr

How much do you weigh? If you are 100 kilos, 306 watts isn't going to get you far!

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Kermithimself
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by Kermithimself

Currently I'm about 77,5-78 kgs, so I'm at 3,9 w/kg.
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devinci
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by devinci

don't take the numbers too much for what they are. Being 2 watts above your peak does not mean much, given the measurement error of the powermeter. You could as well round your 306 value to 305, or even 310, and it would not make a huge difference.

So, to work your speed, as you call it, I thinnk you've pretty much nailed it. Short, sharp efforts, at high intensitis. Some 3-5 minutes efforts are also good to push things up, don't forget these.

ghisallo2003
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by ghisallo2003

I would stick to working with power, and simply work on your 4 min threshold rather than FTP.

That or just insist the guys do 2 x 20 with you next time.

11.4
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by 11.4

You may simply have been tired from these workouts and not been up to your usual road performance. It happens to everyone.

Alternatively, you are training for a certain intensity and duration and certain combination of gearing and other variables and you've veered away from what you actually need to do to emulate your desired road performance. You get better and better at your home workout but you drift away from a good road performance. Your body responds to workouts in a very specific way -- it adapts to the specific stresses you impose, and at the levels that you impose. If you don't quite do it right, your body trains to a different goal. You have to keep testing your performance on a trainer against real performance (road, track, whatever) and modulate your whole training methodology so you get the best real-world benefit. Nobody can tell you how to change your workout or what will help you pick up performance. You are an experiment of one and you simply have to learn how your own body responds and adapt training to give the best on-the-road performance. That's why you could follow all of the suggestions here but none would necessarily fix your problem -- one might give you a partial improvement but you would likely still be getting very inefficient improvement from the workout. If you get to understand your body's own training response, unique as it is, you can achieve much greater gains. You just need that personal experience with your own body's adaptations and nothing else will substitute.

glepore
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by glepore

Devinci nailed it-I'd do some very short on/off efforts, maybe stacked (like 6x 30/30, rest, followed by 6 20/10 or similar) and some AT work -4 or 5 min at 125% or so of FTP. All of the 2x20's are great for FTP but do little for snap or the spiked efforts of a group ride, and crits require the ability to do mini sprints followed by recovery at a relatively high power.
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dgran
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by dgran

glepore wrote:Devinci nailed it-I'd do some very short on/off efforts, maybe stacked (like 6x 30/30, rest, followed by 6 20/10 or similar) and some AT work -4 or 5 min at 125% or so of FTP. All of the 2x20's are great for FTP but do little for snap or the spiked efforts of a group ride, and crits require the ability to do mini sprints followed by recovery at a relatively high power.


Ditto. During the winter I work on sustained threshold and my short power suffers. To remedy this, I do 30 second on/off intervals at about 150% FTP and it bounced back pretty quickly. Just think of these different power bands as different forms of stimulus and response. It is very hard to be well trained across the whole power band so you often have to choose where you are optimizing your training. For endurance sport the 20 minute intervals cover the broad middle that is useful across a large range.

mallardducks
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by mallardducks

At the risk of sounding over simplistic - the 20-minute interval training you are doing is for a different kind of power than max short burst speed, whether that short is a "long" 2 minutes, 1 minute or a true 100m top-speed burst. You need more leg speed the shorter and more explosive the effort to go with your power.

There are many ways to do this, pick whichever works best for you. I like maximum acceleration from a very slow 5-10 km/h rolling start in something like 53x17 as quickly as you can possibly do it to your maximum speed in that gear and then hold for 10 seconds or so. No shifting up as this is about getting your top-end speed from increasing your leg speed. Do maybe 2 sets of 10 repeats. You are looking to increase your top-end speed in the same gear over time by developing better and better leg speed.

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Kermithimself
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by Kermithimself

Thanks for the feedback guys. Will include this in my trainingschedule for the future.

My reason for focusing a lot on FTP was basically to develope a good base, and then top it off with these shorter intervals where I would gain speed.
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Kermithimself
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by Kermithimself

BTW, when doing intervals such as 30/30 or 40/20, what are you aiming for in terms of % of FTP in the "on" part of the interval? Or is it just to go as hard as possible?
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dgran
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by dgran

Kermithimself wrote:BTW, when doing intervals such as 30/30 or 40/20, what are you aiming for in terms of % of FTP in the "on" part of the interval? Or is it just to go as hard as possible?


My FTP is hovers around 300 (maybe closer to 290 right now) and I do my 30 second "on" part at around 430-450w, so from my experience it is about 150% of FTP. This is an effort level that I sustain maximum for about 90 seconds. During the off portion I'm really off, just lightly spinning under 100w to recover a bit. I tend to do two sets of five. These are much better done on the trainer because it takes a lot of concentration on the power numbers as well as the clock.

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WMW
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by WMW

Kermithimself wrote:BTW, when doing intervals such as 30/30 or 40/20, what are you aiming for in terms of % of FTP in the "on" part of the interval? Or is it just to go as hard as possible?


I do 60/90 x20 sometimes. The on part averages ~150% FTP, and the off ~50%. Up a hill and back down, repeat.

I don't pace using a PM, I pace by feel... it's still pretty consistent.
formerly rruff...

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glepore
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by glepore

I don't try to hit a number, just go really f'in hard. The off is very light spin.
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