Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

I have 5 weeks to get back to where I was before an enforced break...then 3 months to find, coincidentally, another 40w to reach my aim of 5w/kg threshold. hard goal will be hard.

5w/kg? Oof.

Pretty much the same story here. I had a couple of months off proper riding towards the end of the summer due to an injury and I'm only just now getting back to where I was. It might have been quicker, but work has kept riding time at a premium.

I'm also aiming for 5. I got fairly close this year, but not quite there. Losing weight was the hardest thing for me. Good luck.

What type of training are people doing to add c.40W on FTP? Would be great to get a basic feel for what workouts and how many hours a week... unless it's all secret squirrel classified info of course!

If i could even add 20W over the next 3 or 4 months I'd be chuffed.

I can't say with much authority as I've only started training with power for the first time this year. I added around 60w over the course of 6 months through sheer monotony, I'm afraid. 4 week phases with around 8-10 hours of training a week, half of that a variety of threshold stuff both indoors and out, the rest Z1/2 having fun. Add fixed commuting and strength training (particularly core) to keeps things a little less dull.

I think the only bit of advice I can confidently give is that my focus was as much, if not more so on recovery. It's the only way I can maintain a decent quality of workout during any given week. And keep your FTP to yourself, no-one else wants to hear what it is as I've found out :)

I'm not in the league of those other lads but I managed about 35 watts increase through last winter (Jan to March) using a mixture of TR's 40k TT prog, a few structured commutes (17m each way) and some Sunday rides with the lads.
It was enough of an increase to find me 30 seconds for a 25pb.

Without a PM I couldn't be certain but I think I was floating around 320 at my best.

If you've found that you've reached a plateau then it's time to try some different things. For me, I found that when over/unders stopped giving me gains a shift to Vo2 max stuff saw things moving up again. Also, as others have said, quality recovery is really important.

Oh and that off around 5-6 hours a week so most sessions were pretty engaging.

Thanks for all the above. I probably do need to mix things up a bit more, and i am a bit naughty when it comes to allowing recovery time. I don't do huge training hours a week, but i seem to be a bit slow at getting over aches and pains etc.

And @onyerbike i'm certainly not going to be boasting about my ftp, don't worry.... It's a closely guarded secret shame!

For TT'ing at least, a good FTP can be totally negated with a crappy position.

Ah, that wasn't aimed at you at all @jim1985..

My structured training is done on my TT setup, although I've no idea how much more aero I could be. Probably a lot.

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Just out of interest, has anyone tried droping their crank length?

I got a track bike earlier this year and consequently have to ride 165mm cranks on it and really like the feel of them. My road and TT bike have 172.5mm. I'm tempted to drop down to 170mm maybe even 165's on those too.

FYI, 6ft and inside leg 32"

Just out of interest, has anyone tried drooping their crank length?

Paging @mdcc_tester and @Scilly.Suffolk ...

Oh no, am I in trouble?

5w/kg is GOOD power for an amateur. You should be able to #smashitup.

Oh no, am I in trouble?

No, you're fine. I'm back on my long cranks, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try shorter ones, and they might even make you faster. From the several experiments I've made, I'm pretty sure that they never made me any slower, including dropping all the way down to 140mm. I'm an insensitive brute, so I don't really notice crank length, which ranges from 165mm to 177.5mm on my current fleet. I also have femur length/height around the 95^th percentile for my ethnicity and gender, which probably explains it.

Appreciate the response.

Must admit I don't really notice going from 172.5 to 165 but the minute I get on anything 175 I know within a couple of revolutions.

I'm pretty sure I have one leg longer than the other, left shortest as that's the one that complains with any saddle height adjustment.

I was thinking the shorter cranks might create less sensitivity with the left leg.

I was using 160mm towards the end of this season, but they didn't get much use so the only thing I can say for certain is that it's easier to maintain a high cadence.

The particular cranks I was using had a beefy Q-factor though, so they're not going back on.

However I've tracked Mike Burrows down and he'll shorten a pair for £25, so I'm planning on getting some 7410 chopped to 145mm...

I was thinking the shorter cranks might create less sensitivity with the left leg.

They'll certainly be easier on your knees.

I've read his articles before on much shorter cranks. Quite interesting.

Do you think if there were huge advantages the pro teams would have adopted it? Maybe they've not looked into it as deeply.

... if there were huge advantages the pro teams would have adopted it...

I'm not sure that there are massive gains to be had, rather there's no downside and there are incidental benefits: higher cadences are easier, less stress on the knees, open hip angle, and positional options.

If you find more power and are more aero, then that's a bonus.

Most of cycling would rather forswear their first born, than believe that crank length is not dependent on leg length, so it's hardly surprising there's little demand for good quality, short cranks.

did my first ftp test via wattbike/ sufferfest last night.

here are my results:

pretty happy I managed to keep a consistent effort throughout.

Very interesting.
I'm not sure if I'm classed as a "spinner" but my TT's are usually done at around 105 rpm and that's without looking at cadence data so I'm guessing it's my natural leg speed.

Obviously on the track is a whole other world!!!

Cheeky little ramp over the last five minutes.

Apparently if you tested 'well' then you shouldn't be able to up the intensity at the end of a test - you should be hanging on. However that is easier said than done!