I just bought myself a powermeter and did my first FT test. Cool! So now I know how much power I can put out today. The whole point of this is to improve, right? So, how much can I expect to put out next year at the end of the season if I do all the right training?
Those of you who have trained with a Poewrmeter for at least one season: How much did you improve your FTP the first year? Did you see this correlate to better race performances?
Coaches and power gurus: I’m sure there are a lot of variables at play but what is your general experience? How much does an age group first year powermeter user improve FTP? 10%? 20%
Yeah, there are so many variables at work that it is hard to provide even much of a range for the OP. For example, many people immediately start to train more when they get a power meter so that alone would likely cause an FTP rise, let alone the fact that they are hopefully now training smarter as well. I wouldn’t worry about how much you might be able to improve, get training and get better. Let the sky be the limit!
I have done triathlons for a 5 years at AG level. I am hoping that the power meter will help re-focus my bike training so I can do the right training.
I didn’t provide any information about myself on purpose because I don’t want you to take a wild guess at how much I can improve. I want to know how much you actually improved.
I bought mine in late 2003 and looking back I estimate a FTP of 290w at the time. During 2004 I pretty much wathed the numbers all year to understand hoe to use it and had a couple of performances that make me believe it was arround 300~305w.
Last saturday I held 348w for 2 20k TT while on a 3h ride (oh yes and managed to run for 1h after) so no formal testing yet but I believe that it might be arround 350~360w who knows.
And by the way I only really learned how to train with if in the mid/late 2005.
First test… 270… when I finally got around to understanding how to use it… then 350.
Training will never be the same again.
Wow! Did you improve 30% in just one year or was that after several years of focused bike training with a power meter?
You know this is going to become a “mine is bigger than yours” thread…
I’m not even showing mine! (But you know it’s bigger than yours…)
People can reply in % improvement if that is better. Oh, and provide other information they feel are relevant. Like I improved 20% but I also doubled my bike tim from 4 to 8 hours per week in the same timeframe.
I just bought myself a powermeter and did my first FT test. Cool! So now I know how much power I can put out today. The whole point of this is to improve, right? So, how much can I expect to put out next year at the end of the season if I do all the right training?
Those of you who have trained with a Poewrmeter for at least one season: How much did you improve your FTP the first year? Did you see this correlate to better race performances?
Coaches and power gurus: I’m sure there are a lot of variables at play but what is your general experience? How much does an age group first year powermeter user improve FTP? 10%? 20%
Sindre
Lots of variables (eg training program, background/experience, etc) and not enough detail in your OP but I suspect you’ll hear a fair number of people respond with something between 10 - 20%. 10% being much more common than 20%. 20% is quite substantial, imho. Many of those who make claims of 20% probably poorly (ie under) estimated their FTPs the previous year. People also make fairly large claims when they did all of their FTP testing indoors one year and then outdoors the next.
EDIT: I should point out that I increased mine ~10% this last year but I worked my ass off in doing so. “Worked my ass off” is this NEW and IMPROVED training program for those who love numbers and evidence-based coaching only. So most of you don’t qualify…
I’ll get back to you with a “fer sure” number after I go to Austin for a week + at the end of the month. Will be doing some testing down there to nail the FTP for Kona numbers.
