Almost every cyclist wants to go faster. One of the best ways to get faster is not spending a lot on a new bike or the latest and lightest gear and components. It’s improving the engine which is you. To improve yourself and go faster you want to improve your FTP (Functional Threshold Power).
FTP is defined as the highest average power you can sustain for approximately an hour measured in watts. In order to know your FTP, you will need to have a power meter either on your bike or as a smart trainer.
Using FTP and power is one of the most common metrics used by cyclists and coaches. The advantage of using power for training and measuring performance is that power is constant and instant. 200 watts is 200 watts whether you are inside, riding up a hill, or riding on a flat surface with a tailwind. While heart rate is reactionary. HR takes time to adjust to the efforts being done. Also with heart rate, there are many other factors that can affect it like temperature, emotion, or nutrition. Speed is an instant metric to see, but many variables can affect speed like hills or wind.
To be able to improve your FTP first you need to know what it is. You need to do an FTP test.
If you use a program like Zwift there is a test they have for you to do. It will take you through it including a warm-up and cool-down. After the test is done it will automatically calculate your FTP.
Another way is doing the test yourself without the aid of a program. Start with a good warm-up including a couple of hard efforts to get the legs and heart going good. Then ride as hard as is sustainable for 20 minutes. It helps to use a lap button to mark the beginning and end of the test portion. Follow up with a cool down after your hard work. Find your average power for the 20 minutes and subtract 5% to get your FTP. These tests rely on assumptions about your physiology and relative energy system. So they may not be 100% accurate but doing the test for a full hour can be very hard.
Now that you know your FTP it’s time to set zones. There are several ways to set the zones. For the most part, they are similar to each other. Some ways use 5 zones while others use up to 7 zones. Six zones is the most commonly used. After you pick what method you want to use, do the math and plug in your numbers.
To put it simply you train. Without knowing your FTP most cyclists tend to ride at their endurance pace or zone 2. While this is helpful to build endurance it most likely won’t help you improve your FTP or help you ride faster. To improve FTP we need to move out of the comfort zone and start doing workouts that include time in zone 3 and 4. Doing regular workouts with intervals in zone 3 and 4 is where we start improving FTP with easier zone 2 efforts in between the intervals.
For example, start with a good warm-up of 10-20 minutes. Then do 3 X 15-minute intervals in the higher end of zone 3 to lower end zone 4. About 84%-97% of FTP. This is the sweet spot we want to work in to improve. After each interval do 5-10 minutes easy zone 1-2 for 5-10 minutes. Don’t forget to do a cool down after. This is where recovery begins.
Knowing your FTP and using zones can help come race day also. Set a power zone where you want to be during the race. Stick with this plan and it can help prevent going out too hard and having nothing left at the end of the race.
Using power, knowing your FTP, and setting zones combined with doing structured workouts with this data is a great way to increase your speed while on the bike.
READ MORE: CONSISTENT BASIC BIKE MAINTENANCE
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