I haven’t been on here for a while, and there’s a few reasons for that, but mainly, I just haven’t had the time, or much to discuss. Like I said at the beginning of this blog page, I’m not going to spam post about every training session I do, that’ll be just boring (what my instagram account it for). However, while my PC does some updates, I thought I’d write about my testing week.

At the end of last week, I message my PT and said that I should probably commence base training early, get a kickstart to the 2021 season – should there be any races between now and New Year, that will be a bonus – but I’m not too bothered if there aren’t. As a result, I would need to undergo a series of gruelling fitness tests, to measure where my strength and (you guessed it) fitness is. I don’t dread doing them because they’re hard (I’ve become accustomed to the pain) but dread them to see what is (or isn’t) my result.

For those of you that don’t know, FTP stands for Functional Threshold Power. It is the estimated measure of power that one can sustain over an hour long period of cycling – the very foundation of all training sessions. FTP tests are varied, some are called ramp, some require a 20 minute all out, guts spewing effort. Unfortunately for me, it’s the latter – since being a Duathlete, I’m more focused on aerobic power over 1-2 hours of riding (approximate bike time for standard and middle distance Powerman Duathlons – respectively).

The last time I did an FTP test was 10-weeks ago – beginning of May – which laid the foundations of may training zones for my new training plan. This, coinciding with my newly acquired understanding of nutrition and rest and recovery, meant full steam ahead for the coming training weeks. Back then, I could produce (for the full FTP hour) 3.83watts/kg (that’s the amount of power you can produce by kg of body weight) – my FTP was 263watts (a PB). My goal by the end of August (beginning of base training) was to increase that to 4w/kg – this meant very hard, consistent, and committed training – and yesterday evening was to test whether it worked.

It was an interesting session. An hour of apprehension and 20 minutes of that hour being shear pain and dread – but get it done and the next one will be in another 10 weeks. My aim – 290 watts for 20 minutes (95% of the average power produced is the FTP). 5 minutes in, I’m normalising 290 watts. Legs feeling okay – so far so good. Ease back for the next 5 to allow some recovery to try and increase that power in the following 5 minutes. Goal achieved there. Next 5 minutes, ramp it up slightly (the last 10 minutes are the worst – your legs are boiling with lactic acid – lungs on fire – but not to the point where you can’t go on further, you have to shut that part of your brain off). I continue to hammer it, with the numbers in front of me on my bike PC pleasing me, and motivating me to go harder and harder – then, after 20 minutes of hell – the buzzer goes off and the test is done. Legs shaking and desperately crying out to stop – but the spinning continues to remove the gunk and horrible stuff out of the muscles.

And the result – 297 watts averaged (FTP 283 watts – 4.13(rounded to 2 decimal places)w/kg). I’ve done it! I’ve bloody done it! After many years and tears of hard graft and commitment, I’ve finally reached that goal of being 4w/kg. Now, it’s a case of retaining it until next season.

Immediately after the test, it’s a recovery drink with added beta alanine and creatine monohydrate, along with compression tights and magnesium spray (I’ll talk about these in my next blog).

Needless to say, I’m ecstatic with the result, and I blame it all down to my new training plan (understanding how my body responds to training), new information and understand of nutrition, and attention to recovery. What I thought was going to be an almost unachievable task in the timescale I gave myself, was done almost 2-months before the deadline.