My question for the ST experts is how high can I get my FTP in the next 14 months, and how should I go about it?
Back in Oct 2019 I (foolishily?) committed to doing RAAM at the end of June 2020 as part of a four man relay team. Not surprisingly, RAAM 2020 just got cancelled. So the team is resetting for 2021 and I now have a little over 14 months to prep. There isn’t much training advice out there for RAAM relay training, so I thought I’d put this out to ST for your take and advice.
I’m 52 and 143 lbs. Back in Oct I was essentially coming ‘off the couch’ after a 5 year break from competitive racing and two surgeries to reconstruct my femur after a crash. (was a road racer, and then mostly oly distance tri after road racing ended) Starting back in Oct 2019 I had 9 months to get back into race shape for the June 20th start of RAAM 2020. Not a ton of time, but seemed doable.
I’m not particularly talented athlete, but what I lack in genes I try to make up for with constancy and plain old doggedness. My oly results were consistently top 10%, with the bike leg pulling the train. (the one gift I have is being freakishly aero)
At the start of this training cycle my FTP was a pathetic 2.3 WPK (150 watts) and VO2 max software estimated by Firstbeat at 42. As of now my training has ramped up to 12 ish hours a week, FTP is right around 2.9 WPK (190) and VO2 software estimated at 49. Back when I was most recently racing tri my FTP peaked in the 3.4 WPK range, with bike VO2 software estimated at 52. But that was when I was training swim and run as well.
To date in this cycle I’ve focused on getting fat fuel efficient, increasing long distance endurance, and more recently FTP work with a smattering of over threshold efforts.
Current training:
Mon: rest
Tues: 90 min low Z2
Wed: 90 min, 2x20 over/under ftp, remainder low Z2
Thu and Fri: 90 min low Z2
Sat: 120 min low Z2
Sun: 4-5 hours long ride with 2-4k of climbing and 5% to 10% over threshold efforts (currently 70-80 miles)
Up until the cancellation, I had planned to keep ramping up this general distribution of efforts to about 18-20 hours per week, with a bit more emphasis on FTP work and looking to peak training time in late May for a June 20thstart. My goal was to get FTP to 3.5 WPK (227 watts) and be able to average about 75% of that or 2.65 WPK (170 watts) for the event. For the relay I’ll be sharing the 3000 miles of riding with 3 other riders, so that’s 6 hours a day in 30 min intervals on the road for about 7-8 consecutive days depending on our combined avg speed. Essentially 90-100 miles every 24 hours, broken up into segments of 30 min of ITTing.
I’ve got plenty of time now. With another year, I’d really like to get my FTP as high as possible. Life circumstances are such that I should be able put in up to 20 hours a week of training once my body can take it. What, if anything should I change up training wise, and what’s a realistic FTP target?
Any advice sincerely appreciated.
Back in Oct 2019 I (foolishily?) committed to doing RAAM at the end of June 2020 as part of a four man relay team. Not surprisingly, RAAM 2020 just got cancelled. So the team is resetting for 2021 and I now have a little over 14 months to prep. There isn’t much training advice out there for RAAM relay training, so I thought I’d put this out to ST for your take and advice.
I’m 52 and 143 lbs. Back in Oct I was essentially coming ‘off the couch’ after a 5 year break from competitive racing and two surgeries to reconstruct my femur after a crash. (was a road racer, and then mostly oly distance tri after road racing ended) Starting back in Oct 2019 I had 9 months to get back into race shape for the June 20th start of RAAM 2020. Not a ton of time, but seemed doable.
I’m not particularly talented athlete, but what I lack in genes I try to make up for with constancy and plain old doggedness. My oly results were consistently top 10%, with the bike leg pulling the train. (the one gift I have is being freakishly aero)
At the start of this training cycle my FTP was a pathetic 2.3 WPK (150 watts) and VO2 max software estimated by Firstbeat at 42. As of now my training has ramped up to 12 ish hours a week, FTP is right around 2.9 WPK (190) and VO2 software estimated at 49. Back when I was most recently racing tri my FTP peaked in the 3.4 WPK range, with bike VO2 software estimated at 52. But that was when I was training swim and run as well.
To date in this cycle I’ve focused on getting fat fuel efficient, increasing long distance endurance, and more recently FTP work with a smattering of over threshold efforts.
Current training:
Mon: rest
Tues: 90 min low Z2
Wed: 90 min, 2x20 over/under ftp, remainder low Z2
Thu and Fri: 90 min low Z2
Sat: 120 min low Z2
Sun: 4-5 hours long ride with 2-4k of climbing and 5% to 10% over threshold efforts (currently 70-80 miles)
Up until the cancellation, I had planned to keep ramping up this general distribution of efforts to about 18-20 hours per week, with a bit more emphasis on FTP work and looking to peak training time in late May for a June 20thstart. My goal was to get FTP to 3.5 WPK (227 watts) and be able to average about 75% of that or 2.65 WPK (170 watts) for the event. For the relay I’ll be sharing the 3000 miles of riding with 3 other riders, so that’s 6 hours a day in 30 min intervals on the road for about 7-8 consecutive days depending on our combined avg speed. Essentially 90-100 miles every 24 hours, broken up into segments of 30 min of ITTing.
I’ve got plenty of time now. With another year, I’d really like to get my FTP as high as possible. Life circumstances are such that I should be able put in up to 20 hours a week of training once my body can take it. What, if anything should I change up training wise, and what’s a realistic FTP target?
Any advice sincerely appreciated.