well here I am, currently in week 5, just did “Escalation” and it was so tough I decided to google this plan 
as I choose it on random, just because it is long and has only 4h or so in a week. Oh boy am I on a trip here aren’t I? Will keep you posted if I will survive week 5
1 Like
Build Me Up Weeks 1-3 Notes
The plan has lots of interval sessions that sit right at your FTP:
- You have to be ready to adjust the difficulty up or down in a session
- Plan your rides weeks ahead, even on a piece of paper, based on life and the challenge of the ride.
- You need rest. Missing one session will not undo the plan. Missing one interval does not wreck a ride. Adjusting your cadence/wattage within an interval is acceptable.
- Fuel before and during the longer rides.
- The cadence requirements will be very taxing; doing wattage at 110 RPM is not the same as 85 or 65 RPM for most of us. Adjust the challenge and know that you are getting a great workout.
- In the same vein, there are lots of over under intervals. Are you good with going over FTP and can handle the higher wattages?
- I tend to enjoy 70-85 RPM and shorter bursts above FTP. I look at rides with these and don’t worry.
- I don’t tend to enjoy riding near FTP for 20 minutes with varied cadence above 95 RPM; I can wind up with a heart rate above threshold towards the end.
- Who are you?
- It goes without saying, but diet, stretching, limiting gym workouts, bike setup, and sleep are clutch.
I am using it to get into condition for a weeklong riding trip in Spain in April. I have raced before, but haven’t committed to much structured training in years. The plan timed out well and would motivate me. I would fall under the ‘ride more and get better’ category, but with some miles coming out of 2025.
Week 1: other than Red Unicorn, if you are coming in Fresh, this wasn’t overly taxing. I did an extra 30 minute ride after the FTP Ramp Test.
Week 2: This is a good example of planning your rides weeks ahead. If you did the longer rides Mishmash and Orange Unicorn Saturday and Sunday, you might find Sunday challenging. I did MWFS and did WGUMCD, Mishmash, Halvfems, and Orange Unicorn on Saturday. This puts the easier rides between the longer, harder rides.
Week 3: Starting to feel the fatigue build going into Week 3. Mentally, I am ready for a rest and then review Rest Week with Purple Unicorn and shake my head. I’ll get to that in a second. I did Novanta, Amalgam and Ham Sandwich MWF. I was tired, but eager. I pulled Sneaky into Saturday and then did Yellow Unicorn Sunday. This made Yellow Unicorn harder, but doable. But now, I get 5 days of rest with just pedalling drills and maybe a 1.5 hour Zone 1-2 ride outside.
With Week 3 complete, both Strava Freshness and Fitness graph and Zwift Companion app show I need rest. Form is at -25, but was -10 to -20 throughout the 3 weeks and Zwift shows I am close to ‘Overreaching,’ but still Productive. The rest week is clearly what I should be doing.
Week 4: The plan is to do pedalling drills, ride outside a little at low zones, and then do a Ramp Test on Saturday and Purple Unicorn Sunday. I travel the next Monday so I would get a rest day before another ride.
Overall impressions are that there are a lot of intervals with a lot of cadence variation. The intervals are mostly Tempo, Steady State, and Over-Under which will lead to an overall improvement in aerobic capacity and FTP. EDIT: weeks 5-12 have more focus on VO2Max, but should contribute to FTP improvements.
If you want an incredible, tuned, AI-driven plan that adjusts to your Heart Rate Variability and Sleep Rating, this isn’t for you and you need to hire a coach or use TrainerRoad. If you could use a boost, want a structured plan to motivate you, can handle adjusting a rides’ difficulty without breaking your ego, and have some knowledge of fatigue management, this could be a good plan for you.
I will put my Week 5-8 notes down in a month.
Thanks for the update Patrick. Regarding doing another ramp test, it’s generally not a good idea to up increase your FTP on BMU - there is enough progression built into the plan that if you increase your FTP you will find some of the later workouts (from week 5 onwards) too hard and either fail them or have to decrease the percentage. If you read through the thread you’ll see a few people have got burnt by this.
This. Unless you have a very good reason, leave your FTP well alone for the duration of BMU.
Thanks for all the info. I’ve just done the benchmarking and seem to be OK with that, perhaps even a tad on the conservative side, but given everything I’ve read, I’ll leave it there and play with the bias buttons if desirable. I’ll no doubt be consulting earlier portions of the thread again in what I expect will be a few darker hours as we progress…
First off, thank you for starting a thread on the BMU plan and staying active. It’s a popular plan with lots of mentions in reddit, but little analysis so people can base their approach to it. This forum seems to be the best analysis and discussion of the BMU online. Have you done the plan more than once?
As for changing the FTP, I appreciate the advice, but I read through all the posts and opinions seem to vary. I had AI analyze the posts and summarize findings. Some find weeks 5-12 easy as they did not increase FTP and likely left a little on the table in terms of their training time and effort. Others find it harder. Changing FTP did not seem to the reason, though increasing it would make the underlying problem worse.
The plan is called Build Me Up likely after Joe Friel’s approach of Base Build and Peak periodization approach. Some riders appear to have started BMU with little base. Without a base, the fatigue from VO2Max efforts in weeks 5-12 would be taxing. Others had life interfere and struggled.
A few increased FTP and said it was impossible, but again, I would say every rider needs to know themselves. I cannot hold FTP at 110 RPM and would likely go 5 BPM over threshold. I can hold FTP at 65 RPM and my HR drops 5-8 from threshold. I know; I should work on it.
So if you are a rider like me that has a tendency to love VO2Max efforts, sprints, and has good recovery during rides for this type of thing, I can see testing FTP at weeks 4 and 8. And I mean, I love Tabata intervals.
If you are new to structured training, lack a base of 8-12 weeks, or don’t look forward to VO2Max efforts, are doing 2-3 days in a row of intervals to meet the schedule, I would argue that you should retest FTP for motivation, but follow the advice not to increase FTP. It is better to mentally crush the rides and improve than to bury yourself.
Regardless of FTP testing, every rider should be aware of their capacities and remember that a single part of an interval, a single interval, a single ride will not degrade a 12 week plan overly much. If adjusting the difficulty to complete the ride is required, do it, especially given the RPM changes in the intervals.
I would also hypothesize that a rider that is new to structured training would be better with a 4 week plan. The mental capacity to complete that goal is far less taxing and the reward would build the rider up rather than kick them to the curb. Doing shorter 4 week training plans will also allow the rider to figure out fatigue and form management as well as getting their gear in order.
So I am going to stick with doing the FTP Ramp Test and follow my own advice to reduce my FTP if it is required to complete the rides and plan. I’ll update in a month.
I’d be interested to know how and where you adjusted the wattage targets during weeks 1 to 3.
If you were reducing the targets, then my advice about not re-testing FTP definitely stands. 
Another bit of unsolicited advice: when doing the 3 VO2Max workouts, consider doing them in Resistance mode at high cadence and pushing above the power targets if you have good short power. Otherwise they might be a bit too easy for you.
I didn’t touch the settings. I did every ride and added a few more in weeks 1-2.
Ah, OK. Not sure why it was the first point you made in your original post, in that case. 
No worries. Go slay weeks 5 to 8. 
To normalize the concept that every rider needs to own their journey and not judge themselves by whether they hit every interval or not. I’d rather encourage than judge.
I have absolutely found myself on the floor, unable to complete a Zwift ride, I’ve been spit out the back of races, and fallen off group rides. It happens. I’m not a worse rider for trying.
But the most likely reason I could do the rides is that my FTP was too low where most riders have found week 3 crushing. So… I should probably retest.
I’ve also been looking ahead and placing the vo2max work against my goal. I don’t know that a trip centered on long friendly group rides in April fits with weeks 5-12. I’d likely benefit from more aerobic and threshold work rather than a VO2max focus. I’ll do purple unicorn and might develop my own plan beyond that.