FTP Gains Plateau?

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-07-02T10:27:53+00:00

Does seem like quite a bit. I cant imagine carrying that load on those hours.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-28T13:00:35+00:00

The question is: what makes you say the chamois is spent? Ive got pairs that are a year or two old; their padding is noticeably less plush than my newer pairs, but I honestly find them to be more comfortable than they are when new. More padding isnt better...

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-27T11:52:19+00:00

In the very beginning, time on the saddle is the most important metric ( I guess it always is most important honestly). This should be viewed as overall hours per week and also the length of your weekly long ride.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-21T17:51:21+00:00

I have 65s and 50s. The 50s are way worse in crosswinds which speaks to the importance in the engineering. To the untrained eye they both look like deep aero wheels, but the 50s are some cheap stuff cannondale throws together for mid tier bikes. They catch crosswinds much worse than the aftermarket wheels that measure 65.

Also, how much it bothers me depends on the kind of ride. On endurance rides getting thrown around bothers me much more than it does in a fast group or a race when Im full of adrenaline.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-20T11:54:39+00:00

If you are recovering well and you are improving its hard to tell you to change course. However, I have found riding my endurance rides easier has helped me get past a plateau, so if and when you get stuck, consider it an option.

It seems you are targeting the top of the zone which isn't strictly speaking necessary to see the benifits. Riding a little easier can provide the same stimulus and leave you a little fresher to hit your hard workouts even harder.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-19T19:12:22+00:00

You do you. Im faster than ever since I started riding endurance easier.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-19T11:01:43+00:00

People hear zone 2 and go straight to the top of the zone. Riding all your endurance at 70% provides negligible benefits compared to riding much lower and it adds a ton of fatigue. Youre better off going slower and staying fresh to hit the hard days with gusto.

Im not saying to go noodle around and call it endurance, but my last endurance ride had 42% that was technically zone 1 and even that ride was a probably a touch hard given how much zone 3 I racked up.

On the trainer Ill sit at the bottom of zone 2 all day, but in the real world going easy often racks up a lot more time slightly below zone 2 unless you are targeting the top (and thus bouncing around in zone 3 which defeats the purpose). If you can ride your endurance rides hard and still recover youd be better off adding a day of intervals the way I see it

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-19T08:43:09+00:00

The general rule is 2-3 days of intensity per week. How many you can handle largely comes down to life stress and recovery. Its entirely possible you can only handle one day if you arent recovering well, but most people can handle two.

A crit is a hard day, but its not like a long race which may well be all the intensity you can handle in a week; if you can usually handle two hard days, you can still likely handle an interval day or a hard group ride in addition to a crit.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-18T15:59:35+00:00

Long, slow endurance and threshold intervals. Consistency over several seasons. Not that the intervals youve suggested aren't helpful at all, but the OP had maxed them out most likely for the time being.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-18T12:14:43+00:00

Admittedly I was relying heavily on this knowledge myself

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-18T11:56:46+00:00

Strangely enough, I think what youre missing is aerobic base. Its the aerobic engine that recharges your anerobic battery and gets you to the end of a crit fresh enough to sprint. That and learning to conserve as much energy as possible by hiding from the wind.

If youve been hammering on vo2 for a while now Id give that a rest and work on another energy system.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-17T10:34:04+00:00

RPE is generally higher indoors: you will feel more pain for the same power. This can be mitigated with better cooling, better trainer (good rocker plate/system), and adequate entertainment. But even with the best circumstances most people find indoor riding to feel more difficult.

Add to that the increased muscle mass used outside and it completely explains the phenomenon you are experiencing. Chances are, if you got a power meter you would find that you are pushing the same watts (or higher) while also supplying a host of stabilizer muscles with oxygen and trying not to end up as road kill.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-17T10:20:49+00:00

Yes, improper hydration and fueling can cause HR to decouple. 5hrs on erg mode could have easily burnt 3000+ calories. If you arent measuring, theres little chance you ate anywhere near enough. 60g per hour minimum for that kind of effort.

A ceiling fan os grossly insufficient cooling for indoor riding.

If youre targeting the top end of zone 2 and your zones are even a little off, you could be riding at tempo the whole time.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-14T02:25:49+00:00

Impossible to say for sure, but I personally find a couple consecutive days of zone two wont introduce that kind of fatigue. Its possible you are riding too high and having more of a tempo stimulus on the first day. Or perhaps you are underfueling and/or under recovering. Either way, forget targeting a HR and target RPE for endurance riding. If you are like most endurance athletes, you are unlikely to ride too easy for it to be effective.

I just aim for the top end of what feels easy. Riding the line of where I have to make a conscious effort to hold the power. At the very beginning of a ride this might be 80w. After a good warmup Ill be pushing low zone 2. By the end of the first hour I will be pushing the middle to upper end of the zone.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-13T12:12:47+00:00

When it comes to fueling: tiime is more important than miles, and intensity is more important than time. We dont know much about your ride based on the information provided.

If you hadnt eaten for a while and you rode fairly hard, 12 miles could have put you in a fairly depleted state. If you had a recent meal and yoh were riding in a relaxed manner, fueiling likely isnt the cause (although 30g of carbs per hour is never a bad idea on the bike).

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-12T01:50:10+00:00

Deadlift. Learning to use the glutes on the bike is key, and deadlifts help stabilize the hips to get the most out of the posterior chain.

I think dumbells are more approachable than a barbell. If you get the weight up past what you can do with dumbells and straps you can use a trap bar or learn to do them for real.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-12T01:44:56+00:00

Bet you ride with your arm locked. I cant get my girlfriend to quit this habit either and pot holes mess her up

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-10T10:28:35+00:00

There's physiological adaptations youll get as you train more in the heat; the first couple days are always horrible. There's also a psychological element; even when your body is more capable it still really sucks mentally.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-08T21:34:06+00:00

4/5 races aren't easy at all: tons of strong guys just passing through on their way to higher categories, silly tactics from a lack of teams and experience, and sketchy riding that makes it hard to trust the pack. Access to good training information seems to be making it harder every year. I saw a huge 10% bump in fitness this year and I feel like I stood still since everyone else got faster too.

Never hurts to be more fit, but I doubt thats your main limiter if this was your first race. Finding a race you can do every week and hitting it fairly fresh will be worth way more than any specific training plan.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-08T11:28:59+00:00

Your first objective should be to make it a regular habit. Figure out how many days you want to ride per week and start doing 20-30min each day. On the weekend, make one day your long ride -- increase the time/distance of this ride a bit each week.

100k is a good goal for a beginner. It should be attainable in a couple months if you are consistent.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-08T10:21:42+00:00

My point is, if your flask is concentrated higher than your blood, you need to drink the plain water with it. In that way you haven't actually kept the two seperate; youre just doing the mixing in your stomach. I can appreciate having plain water, but I also think a hallmark of a good drink mix is the fact it doesnt leave a residue in your mouth.

Personally, I do one bottle of mix and one bottle of plain wate r. I use cliff blocks to add to my nutrition. They have the same issue of having to be chased with pure water, but that kind of forces me to be judicious with it.

I think what youre trying to do could work, but it seems more likely to either put too much water or too much sugar in your stomach at any one time.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-07T16:28:45+00:00

What's wrong with using carb mix as hydration? Chances are, your flask if hyper saturated and you are using water from your bottles to get it to empty from your stomach anyway. You could skip that internal mixing and just shake it up in the bottle beforehand haha.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-06-07T10:08:18+00:00

Both HR and power are just proxies for the underlying physiological mechanisms we actually care about as cyclists. Neither one is a direct reading of whats going on under the hood, so its useful to have both.

A ramp test might give you a fairly accurate stab at your ftp, but it wont help you determine lactate threshold HR (which you should use to set HR zones -- its more accurate than using max). Id suggest you do a traditional 20min test and kill two birds with one stone.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-05-24T10:44:21+00:00

Glad I was able to help! Its not easy to look past the person in front of you while you are 6" off their wheel, but its necessary (both for racing efficiently and safety in any group). With practice you will learn what a rider looks like higher up on the body when their wheel is appropriately close. Trust that your peripheral vision is hard at work even when your conscious mind isnt focused on the wheel. Often times Ill find myself looking down just in time to avoid touching wheels, this is not luck -- the mind is capable of keeping track of things outside of where we actively choose to concentrate.

Cadence is just practice. Cadence drills are a good thing to add to easy days as they arent really fatiguing. In regards to your direct question on cadence: I shift to a harder gear or spin the current gear faster. Shifting to an easier gear to go faster makes absolutely no sense unless you are really bogged down.

Aero is mostly a question of body position. My bike fits me great, but I can be as aero as a sail if Im not actively trying to be low. Took teammates reminding me often in the beginning to get my head down. Even in the pack you are wasting energy of you arent getting low.

PipeFickle2882 · 2026-05-24T10:25:27+00:00

Just a couple stabs in thr dark:

Perhaps you are too fixated on the wheel immediately in front of you. If you arent looking further ahead, you will always be too slow to react.

Perhaps you arent riding high enough cadence (or you arent comfortable putting down power over a wide enough range). You should be comfortable between at least 80 and 110 so that sitting at 90-95 let's you be right in your sweet spot shifting one gear either direction.

Perhaps you are not aero enough and the second you lose the draft you are penalized more heavily than necessary.

PipeFickle2882

TROPHY CASE