Training Update - FTP Work

Had two heavy days of FTP work thrown in between getting work (that pays the bills) done.  I've been finding some time to train and making the best of it, although I'm still at a sub 90 CTL.  I don't think that is going to go up this season, every time I produce more kJ for the week my FTP estimate has gone up and my CTL is lower.

The whole reason why I'm working on my FTP is to actually not be DFL in time trials this season.  My previous season I was able to get some wins by sneaking away while no one was looking.  That might work in crits but it sure as hell is not going to work in road races and time trials.  My lack of power was evident whenever it was me against the clock, usually finishing in the bottom 20% of all racers in my category.  Cat 4s.  Yes, my time trialing is that pathetic.

Well, time to bust out my e-wang.  Right now my FTP is about 280 if I use my best 20 minute power and take 95%.  Today I think I proved it to myself by doing my first set of 3x20s ever, and really nailing the third 20 minute effort at 290 watts and using a pretty solid negative split of 284/296.  I know I could have gone better and it was the third set of 60 minutes of FTP work today, so 280 is pretty realistic as an FTP with which to set training zones by.  That means my 6x5x1s need to get up to about 302-305 watts, which is doable considering yesterday I did them at 300 watts average over the 6 intervals, +- 3 watts variation between reps.

Anyways, that puts me at 4.21 W/Kg.  Not that great, but better than ever for me and also within reach of 4.5 W/Kg for Washington County.  I'm dropping weight pretty well at about 1.5 lbs per week since laying off the sauce, something I'm sticking to for the next few months.  Another 12-15 watts FTP and 3 lbs and I'm at 4.5.  the 3 lbs is going to be easy, the 12-15 watts not so much.  I basically only have one more build cycle before TofWC and another 5% increase is really pushing it.  One day if I get to 4.75 I'll stop posting my numbers or just grossly exaggerating them :)

Anyways, here are the two workouts... Pretty pictures.

298W/298W/301W/303W/300W/302W = 300W Average

The 3x20s showed an interesting trend.  Here are the splits for each set and also the cadence for each split.

Interval 1: 281W/288W = 285W
            97 rpm/95 rpm
Interval 2: 278W/284W = 281W
            93 rpm/91 rpm

Interval 3: 284W/296W = 290W

            90 rpm/89 rpm

My cadence seems to be dropping as I get tired.  I'm happy to see I'm still above 90 rpm when I thought I was grinding away at 75 rpm.

285W/281W/290W - Negative Splits!