I’m in week 6 of the 6-week In-Season Road Race training plan. I’m pretty satisfied with how things are going, having started at an FTP of 238, and having ZwiftPower and TrainingPeaks adjust my FTP to 247 following my most recent online race this past weekend. Granted, it was a (virtual) hill climb, so was probably a little bit inflated as a result… (But I’m currently sitting at 2nd place (B category) in a VA state-wide Zwift points series, which I attribute largely to the Fascat training plan!
Anyway, today’s prescribed Fascat workout is supposed to feature 3x 5-minute ‘Full Gas’ intervals at 121% of FTP, or 299w. I’m sorta sitting here laughing to myself (nervous laughter, perhaps??), as my all-time peak 5-minute power output is 286w, with more typical values (during races, which is when I am usually motivated to go hardest) in the range of 270-280w. So, I’m sitting here thinking, “yeah, 3x5mins at 299w, riiiiight…” Am I better off trying for the 299w figure, and flaming out early (either early in each interval, or blowing up before being able to complete all 3), or lowering closer to my peak or typical levels, in the hope of being able to complete all 3 intervals in a useful/beneficial fashion? (Or, as is typical for me, perhaps I’m sitting here thinking/worrying about this far more than I should be, LoL.
Anyway, any words of advice/encouragement/etc would be appreciated!
Jim
PS, as noted, this is the last week of the training plan, and next week is supposed to be the follow-up FTP test, but I’ve got another race next weekend (ie, after this coming weekend), so need to be doing more focused training next week for that. Any recommendations of a week from the current plan to repeat next week?
Don’t over think it and just go as hard as you can. Most likely your efforts will fall within 93-97% of your all time max 5 minute power. This is assuming this 5 minute max happened when you were fresh. Lower than your max since you are repeating. But unlike a race situation you will go into each effort fresher. So might not be far off.
Try to find a segment or climb to motivate yourself! Bottom to top. This way you are not focused on time but getting to the finish as fast as you can.
Anything over 105% is good as that is the start of Zone 5. But push yourself above that minimum.
As for what to do next week I would recommend something similar to what you are doing this week. You won’t get faster for that race next weekend between this week and then. So you want to do some short rides with short high intense efforts. So similar to this week. Rest two days out, openers the day before and you’ll be good to go.
Thanks, Jake - that is helpful advice! I’ll be doing this evening’s intervals on my trainer via Zwift (ERG mode), so a large part of my concern was not setting an ERG level so high that it went into ‘terminal grind mode’ as I started flagging toward the latter part of the intervals, thus making them impossible to complete. It sounds like maybe setting the level to around 95% peak 5-min power (which is my ‘typical’ 5-min power, oddly enough) would be the answer, then if things go better/worse, I can always tweak up or down a percent or two in Zwift, so I can get in the full duration and number of the intervals.
Between your plan, and the races on the weekend, I’m feeling like I’m getting into decent shape again - it’s been lots of fun, and productive time and effort! (in that weird definition of ‘fun’ that bike training involves…
That went alright - I did the 3 intervals at 271, 275 and 297, respectively. I was happy to be near the 120% target on the last one, but there was no way in HECK I’d’ve been able to pull that off on all 3 of them. (I probably should have gone harder on the first two, though.)
I imagine your peak 5 minute power maybe even higher since you hit your peak on the third one! But now you know and will have an even higher target in the future.
Am I better off trying for the 299w figure, and flaming out early (either early in each interval, or blowing up before being able to complete all 3), or lowering closer to my peak or typical levels, in the hope of being able to complete all 3 intervals in a useful/beneficial fashion? (Or, as is typical for me, perhaps I’m sitting here thinking/worrying about this far more than I should be, LoL.