I only started biking about four weeks ago.
On my first day of Zwift I did an FTP Test that I was unable to finish. On my second day I did another and my FTP was a 130. I did it again a few days later and upped it to 139 and then I began the four week FTP Booster the next day.
I just finished the second week and have not missed a day. So far I have found it fairly easy, though I am beginning to get sore. After the first week I upped my FTP to 150 and I am planning to up it by another 10 points to 160 and then to 170 next week.
I have already looked at all of the workouts and I am very confident that I can do these workouts with the upped FTP, but I am wondering if this is the wisest thing to do for best results.
I know it is a big gain, but I would love to score a 180 on my next FTP test after finishing this program. This would give me a 3.0 w/kg.
I don’t mind the harder workouts, but I don’t want to do it if it will actually hinder my results.
Thanks for the help.
Are you updating your FTP manually? Ride around the open world for 20 minutes hard enough and Zwift will increase your FTP automatically, which will increase the intensity of your training plan. Try it out after your next workout if things are feeling easy.
Yes I’m doing it manually.
I knew that it would update automatically, but I don’t know if it’s that easy. lol
It wouldn’t be a problem doing it, but since there are no off days for the entire four weeks I was a little worried about over training. This was the main reason for my question.
I am very confident that I can raise my FTP with a ride, but I was wondering if the training program already had built in the fact that you would be getting stronger as you go.
I am a little worried that with an increased FTP put in the system I will over train.
Each of the zones (different color blocks) in the plan represent a range. You could look at the plan to see if they move you from the bottom end of the range to the top end of the range throughout the duration of the plan. At a glance, the plan appears to increase the time spent on the hard part of each interval and this is probably how it is adjusted for increasing FTP.
You did back-to-back days with FTP test, so it seems likely your FTP of 130 was low since you were still tired from the prior day’s effort. What was your weight average power on the first day? That might be closer to your FTP.
I am enrolled in the “Build Me Up” plan. The first ride was just to see if the FTP seemed to be reasonably close. Very helpful for me since I don’t have a power meter on my bike but do have power reading from my trainer.
I have a similar question.
I have started the FTP builder plan (6 weeks) and took an FTP test prior to the plan.
Thing is I used to have an FTP of 156 (3.39 W/kg) and when tested it went down to 145… I thought I lost some fitness but maybe I was still tired when I did it (think it was a Tuesday and I ran a half marathon the previous Sunday 
). So now I feel like the plan is too easy and I cannot stay in the zone recommended: say I have to pedal @85rpm and thte power should be 80watts… I just cannot seem to stick to that power and will go up!
So my question is: if I manually enter my FTP, will this reflect on the plan even if it’s already started?
(Currently completed the first week only).
Thanks!
If you adjust your FTP in Zwift, it should take effect and be used for your next workout and beyond.
Some plans make increasing your FTP part way through a recipe for failure, for instance TT Tune-Up. I increased mine manually around week 4 back in '20 and the remaining ~4 weeks were crippling!
Yeah I guess it makes sense but at the same time I struggle to stay in such a low power
Maybe I will give it a go for one more week and then repeat the FTP test!
Thanks 