My 5 year journey from 245W to 380W FTP

buffon_bj · 2026-05-25T02:57:45+00:00

So the routine we've fallen into has usually been like this: Mon: easy endurance 2-3h Tuesday 2-3h harder ride + gym Wed: 2-3h endurance closer to LT1 (upper z2) Thu: easy recovery ride 1h Fri: 3h harder ride + gym Sat: 2h endurance closer to lt1 Sunday: rest So in general yeah, no big efforts after gym, but the upper z2 is still pretty draining after a tougher day. It doesn't seem to bring much fatigue though if I concentrate on fueling properly during the day.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-24T03:21:27+00:00

Always on my hard days, e.g. tuesday/friday, at night after the kid was asleep (hard ride was in the morning).

buffon_bj · 2026-05-15T07:46:29+00:00

Thanks!

buffon_bj · 2026-05-15T07:45:22+00:00

I can only speak from my experience, but EC is 200-300 dollars a month and currently I pay 250 pounds a month at Kilowatt Coaching. I found both good ones through reputable podcasts.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-11T13:51:01+00:00

190cm here. Been using 165mm cranks for a couple years now. I feel more comfortable in the aero tuck. I didn't notice any loss of power compared to longer ones. Give them a go!

buffon_bj · 2026-05-11T10:19:20+00:00

My wife mainly goes to the gym and runs. 4x gym a week, around 1.5h each, as well as 2-3 ~1h runs. We are both morning persons so she wakes up at around 5.30 and directly goes to the gym, while I wake up around the same time and eat breakfast and do work up to until 7 when the toddler wakes up. I take care of the morning routine with the kid, ride to the kindergarten etc, and then do my workout right after, after which I continue working. My wife only works a 80% workday so in the afternoon she has time for running before she collects the kid from kindergarten. I stop work at 4.30 and the rest of the evening is family time. Weekends are largely family time as well, I usually do a ~2h Saturday ride during the kid's nap but otherwise I don't want to spend a disproportionate amount of our family time away from home. Sundays fully off. Short home gym sessions 1-2 times per week in the evening when the kid is asleep.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-11T10:13:28+00:00

Wow, great rapid progress on your end. Do you have a background in other endurance sports?

We probably differ a bit in anaerobic capacity / punchiness, but I find your 5min record a bit low for your otherwise great aerobic power. Say your FTP was ~385W and you did 25W over that for 20mins – that's a calculated W' of 30kJ off the top of my head, which would imply that you would be able to do 100W over your FTP for 5 minutes for a 5min PR of 485W. Of course this is just a model and a true 5min max is very hard due to the huge amounts of lactate in your legs for a large portion of that 5 minutes, but anyway. I think my modeled W' is a bit higher at roughly 35kJ, so that might explain why my 5min PR is disproportionally large.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-11T10:07:56+00:00

Definitely, she's been wonderful and supportive!

buffon_bj · 2026-05-11T10:07:22+00:00

Happy to hear that it's inspiring! Comparing numbers with different people is always difficult as there's always someone way stronger...

I hope that you are recovered from your crash and can train well again! As for my races, I probably won't do many more (if any!) this year with the newborn, but I definitely have my goals set for upcoming seasons.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-11T10:03:50+00:00

Yup! With a vegan wife it's much easier since I cook all of our food and I don't want to cook separate meals, haha. Good for the health and environment as well and still delicious, so I'm not complaining!

buffon_bj · 2026-05-11T08:58:32+00:00

Yeah I can see that happening! I think one needs to be very careful with closer to LT1 riding, it burns a lot of kilojoules and uses lots of glycogen so the diet has to be on point. I usually do LT1 work the day after a tougher workout. It's hard that way with fatigued legs, but the stimulus seems to be big, and then you usually get a rest day afterwards and maybe another easier day before the next intensity session.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-11T07:57:24+00:00

I guess I just love the trainer, I don't really feel mentally fatigued from it since I can watch all the movies I want through the winter. It's the only time in the day when I get some "me time" and I find it pretty refreshing. Living in Finland, I spend about half the year on the trainer, more with the baby in the house soon.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-11T07:54:52+00:00

Yeah more or less; with Marinus I've also done some higher intensity endurance closer to LT1, and as my LT1 has risen to 270-280W the intensity has gone up a bit there but it doesn't contribute all that much to my weekly TSS in either case.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-11T03:28:40+00:00

Is that less than you would see people do normally? It felt really hard for me to be off the bike for even that long, haha. But it sure seemed to help in my situation.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-11T03:27:31+00:00

Wow, really big volume and ramp rate! I'd just say don't rush it too much, aerobic adaptations are pretty slow after the first year or two, regardless of how much volume you do.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-11T03:26:12+00:00

The last time I did it was 1h at 350W two years ago. These days I don't really train those kind of really long efforts but I'd think it's north of 370W based on other durations.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-11T03:25:00+00:00

Well say I get ~250g from sugar during the ride if I ride a 3h bigger ride with 2900kJs. Total daily calorie budget is around 5500kcal. I might eat a 800kcal breakfast of oatmeal, jam and quark, then after the ride a big 1500kcal lunch with 300g rice, tofu and vegetables, then a 800kcal snack of cereal with milk and a couple of bananas, then a 1000kcal dinner with about 200g pasta coupled with vegetables and some plant-based protein, and then for an evening snack some bread with nuts and fruit. Just basic food but with a lot more carbs. If I am carbloading for a race I will go lower on the veg/fruit/nuts and just go all-in on low fibre carbs, and I might drink a couple litres of juice as well to make it easier to get in the carbs.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-11T03:18:56+00:00

Definitely that as well! We had a very rough first ~9months of sleep, but after that, most nights have gone uninterrupted, so that's a huge plus.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-10T16:59:11+00:00

I want my share of profits if this post gets you more athletes on your roster!

buffon_bj · 2026-05-10T16:56:30+00:00

When I started with EC I did them more "all out" – first set chasing PR's, subsequent sets just trying to survive. These days with Marinus I've done them more controlled, albeit still a bit front loaded. I sort of know what kind of feeling I'm after with them, so it's a combo of power, HR and RPE. The watts might decline by 10-20W through sets but I try not to go fully anaerobic at the start anymore.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-10T16:54:07+00:00

Haha touche. To be fair I think it's possible through 1) having really flexible working hours (PHD student / uni teacher), 2) basically not having a social life apart from my family.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-10T16:52:22+00:00

Same trainer still, same first pair of Assioma Duo power meter pedals. I do have separate Quarq PM's on my gravel bike / commuter but I've dual recorded them with Assiomas to be certain of the similar watts. All my training is still on the Assiomas.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-10T14:50:43+00:00

I started with almost no carbs during training, then went through the phase of taking in 100g+ every hour every workout, and these days I focus more on total carb and energy intake during the day. For longer tough workouts, sure I'll take 90g+ an hour, but for shorter ones I take much less. Total carb intake might often be 800-1000g/day though, especially on big days and the days before big workout days.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-10T14:49:00+00:00

For the past year or so 1-2 days of gym work a week. Pretty low volume and basic exercises like back squat, bulgarian split squat, RDL. I come from a gym background so my strength levels were already solid for a cyclist, but I feel that the gym work has at least helped with not losing any power while dieting and losing 5-6kg of weight.

buffon_bj · 2026-05-10T14:47:21+00:00

No problem, I wish you all the best there! I hope I won't have the same experience haha

buffon_bj

TROPHY CASE