Well done. Just finished this too. Was intense but fantastic training. 1st time I’ve ever done a proper training plan.
I did up my watts as I went on. 225 after 2 weeks. Upped to 235 after 4 weeks. It was getting too easy.
Then on week 8 I did a ramp test - got 260 watts. I found the training at this power too intense and brought it down to 250 and upped the intensity live if it felt too easy. Probably closed the last week out at 255 apart from the Aspire.
I have just finished Build Me Up. At 57 and having had both knees replaced ( right 2019 and left 2020)I am running out of exercises I can do!
I have done some social cycling holidays and a reasonable amount of mtb and road cycling.I was interested to see if a structured programme could improve my fitness.
Initial FTP was 217 which seemed too low.
3 weeks into the programme I did a free ride and my FTP was automatically increased to 239.
Today after the test I managed 267 FTP.
I weigh around 86 kilos so that’s around 3.1 watts per kilo.
I have noticed all my trousers keep falling down even though I haven’t lost much weight so it must have some slimming effect!
I found the programme pretty hard work but clearly it does build power. One road ride I did about 9 weeks in was a good 2-3 Km per hour quicker than usual.
Will probably redo it over the winter.
I have been regularly Zwifting (level 24) and used to randomly pick up any route depending on the time and challenge I want and never really focused on Cadence, power etc… My setup is the newest version KICKR Smart Trainer and iPhone having moved from Saris M2.
However, I recently did my FTP test and signed up for Build Me up and completed Pre-Training Plan and Pedaling Drills and really struggled with adjusting power and cadence to match what’s shown on the screen. like when its shown that power should be 43 and to maintain cadence of 80+ I started pedalling faster but power goes up and then I shift my gears and this is one example. is there a efficient way of controlling power ?
There should be no need to change gear, check your trainer and Zwift are in ERG mode. Trainer sets the wattage, you pedal at the suggested cadence. Simples
I’ve just finished BMU, all 50 workouts over the 12 weeks, dropped 10kg and upped my FTP!
Apologies, just re-read and realised you do have to change gear during FTP as ERG is switched off (i think) - trick is to increase cadence slowly and let the trainer catch up.
Hi Dominic, thanks for your tip as I really enjoyed my week 2 training on Halvfems, also learning to slowly increase or decrease cadence but struggling to adjust cadence when the time is less like 30 secs.
Currently in week 7. It’s been great reading everyone’s experiences and a relief to see I’m not the only one suffering badly during the VO2 workouts… Did not enjoy Lox today!!
Now that I’m in my second half of the plan I’m beginning to think about the TEST at the end as well… I have always used the ramp test so far to determine FTP so my current feeling is I should probably stick to the same method to test again at the end, what do you all think? Or would the 20 minute one be more accurate?
My story so far with the plan for those interested: I started off with FTP at 183 based on a recent ramp test after the easier ‘Back to fitness’ plan which is the first workout plan I’ve ever done on the bike. Cycled a lot as a kid but only got into more serious (proper racing style bike etc) last year.
Had to give up on the BMU plan in week 2 the first time around due to some family commitments and the workouts feeling ridiculously difficult - was also getting the feeling I’d been overdoing things in the weeks before (with a longer ride event etc) and hadn’t recovered enough.
Started again after a week’s rest, lowered FTP slightly to 180, knowing what to expect this time around (and guessing that 180 was probably still slightly too high) I managed to keep going by lowering the bias occasionally as needed.
After the week 4 ‘recovery’ week I think my FTP actually increased and 180 is probably correct now (or maybe I’m now sitting slightly higher even - although maybe that’s just wishful thinking)… But I have definitely felt much more able to complete the workouts without lowering the bias - except for those pesky VO2 ones
It’s also been interesting to see my preference for lower cadence riding confirmed - I’m always relieved to see an interval coming up with lower cadences! Seems to be a very individual thing though - my partner’s the opposite.
Very disappointed with my results.
I have been following the full plan without skipping one workout and today’s ramp test gave me a 1 W gain . Getting notified of a new FTP from 271W to 272W was a cruel joke. I will repeat the test but I feel pretty hopeless.
I feel improvements in some skills but the main purpose of joining the plan was power and that seems a complete failure for me.
EDIT
I did the ramp test again the day after with a longer warmup and got 287W FTP which is a 5.5% increase that puts me at 3.7 w/kg. Not a huge gain but still quite reasonable.
I’m just going into week 2 on this plan, seeing other posts am I right I’m thinking the first few weeks are fairly easy? I am getting a sweat on and have the odd challenge, mainly the low cadence work or the really high cadence stuff but nothing has been too hard yet. Pretty sure I have my ftp right I done a test when I first got my kickr 2months ago that was 263, I then upped it to 270 after a couple of weeks and done all the zwift academy workouts at this level, only properly struggled with one of those. I did try a ramp test but that gave me an ftp of 258 although I’m sure I could’ve done more on that gave up easily as I thought I was over my target and didn’t want to set everything to hard and it was after 3days or riding.
Yesterday I tried alpe du zwift for the first time and I averaged 267watts on that which has got me thinking maybe I should go my ftp a little more, does adding day 5watts make much of a difference?
Sounds like you have you FTP sorted. AdZ is pretty indicative of FTP and a few watts either way is immaterial. If you are having a challenging workout, you can adjust the bias at the time as well.
Yep, life definitely gets tougher - check out the Stress Points for each week ramping up.
Thanks think I misunderstood ftp thinking that my target of 270 over 20mins would be higher seeing as I got that for an hour where ftp is what you should be able to sustain for an hour and the 20min test is a reflection of this
Many workouts in Build Me Up have specific cadence targets to work on strength at low cadence, and endurance at high cadence. While it doesn’t matter for awarding stars, it is part of the prescribed workout, so don’t just ignore them.
Yes but …FTP tests are a bit subjective and the different ways of testing will likely yield different results for different people. Personally, I’ve found a 2 lap TT race in the desert to be the best motivational way for me to get a quality FTP number but for others, it could be an AdZ ride or Ramp test. You’ll find what works for you with seat time, but sounds like you have some good numbers to work from already.
I won’t as the whole point of training to me is to improve and build on weaknesses so I’d rather struggle trying to hit what the plan says than glide through.
Thanks, I’m happy with my numbers just I could do with dropping a couple of kilos now which should help a lot as it’s rather hilly where I live, winter plan is to gain a few watts and drop a few kilos so il be flying next summer.
Next goal is going under an hour up AdZ, my friend puts out slightly more power but being a lot lighter he flys up the hills so need to try and close the gap a bit
I’ve just completed this plan and really enjoyed it. I’m normally a runner but I had a long term ankle problem that required surgery, expectation was that I would not be able to run for a few months, this was not great as I’d hardly done any exercies for about a year. As part of the rehad, I decided to get an Watt Atom bike, I found that I could use this after about 6 weeks post surgery. I did an FTP test early on and it came out at 221, happy with that considering. I only missed one session in the 12 weeks, it was difficult to fit them in but I made time, working from home definately helped. I didn’t really know what to expect in the FTP test but I came out with 292, which was a huge improvement. My ankle is so much better now, I’m thinking of returning to running this week but I will definately continue with cycling and will likely do another build me up plan in a few weeks, see if I can tip 300 mark.
Still not sure whether to change my FTP, I’m now 2 workouts into week 5. I have found one or 2 workouts quite tough, it’s the long low cadence drills that have been tough. Mine is set at 270 at the moment, if I upped this to 280 or so I’m guessing this would only add a few watts to each interval wouldn’t it?
with my results.