Getting Started/Resetting

Hi There!

I’m loving being in the fascat universe so far!

I’m looking to go faster by both increasing my FTP, and losing weight (right now Im 5’9 190 w ~22% body fat, would love to over time get closer to 10-12%). I’ve only been training w/power for a bout a year so I’m still getting used to it. I’ve been more of an anaerobic athlete (Rugby/Football) than aerobic, but have been slowly transitioning to more aerobic (a few marathons and more recently some triathlons).

For the past year I was doing “time crunched” plans while also bike commuting, so doing a decent volume of time on the bike, but a lot of low quality miles (stop lights and stuff). Quarantine has meant more structured training.

I Just started on the 32 week offseason plan, but unfortunately I got sick so I’m going to need to take it easy this week at least if not longer. I’m guessing I’ll be able to ride easy by mid week this week, but I don’t know if I should just push everything forward a week, or just move straight into strength when Im feeling better, so would love some advice on that front.

Another two questions:

  1. I do a decent amount of time on the peloton as a trainer, with kids and work this is a really efficient way for me to ftfp, do y’all have thoughts on that? I’m open to upgrading to rollers or a smart trainer at some point, but rn the fitness budget is going to home gym setup.

  2. I set my ftp as 5% of my field test, feels a little aggressive but I think I’ve done ok w/the intervals so far.

Thanks so much!

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@LABikeDad, we love hearing that! We are glad to have you in our community :slight_smile:

Some of the other coaches may chime in, but my advice is to push it back and complete the foundations plan if possible. If your race/event schedule for 2021 doesn’t allow for much wiggle room, then jump into the strength stuff and do what you can this week for the foundations plan .

We have had quite a few athletes use the pelotons, watts are watts! But try to ensure your power on the peloton is consistent with your powermeter.

Yes, you should use 95% of your power from your 20 minute field test to set your FTP. Intervals should feel hard, but again – if your power meter on your peloton and bike are different, it could result in incorrect zones!

Hope that helps & hope you start feeling better soon!!

if I was starting out with a Peloton and a road bike, seems like a good plan would be to go for Assioma or Garmin Vector 3 pedal based power meter and swap between Peloton and bike. One power meter to rule them all.

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I have heard great things about the Assioma pedals!

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I’ve got nothing but wiggle room! Seems like it makes sense to push this week off until next week, and try to get some riding in as I feel up to it this week.

I have the assioma pedals! It’s way more time and effort than I’m interested in to swap them each time I ride, but I think it makes a ton of sense to do a test ride and see how the power data compares between the two.

@Lacey_Rivette I’m a coaching subscriber so I think it makes sense to use my monthly adjustment to reset my plan. It seems like that might not be synced to my forum account? I’m not seeing the “training plan customer badge” so wondering if something didn’t make it over when I purchased in August.

@LABikeDad to take advantage of your coaching subscription, head over to this thread and make a post about getting an adjustment to your plan :slight_smile: