WHO THIS IS FOR
IS THIS YOU?
The structured-but-stalled amateur
You train 6–12 hours a week with some structure but your FTP has flattened.
The rider new to intervals
You ride consistently but have never run a proper threshold or VO2max block.
THE ROADMAN VIEW
The Roadman view
The cycling internet sells FTP improvement as a session you buy or an app you download. The riders who actually move the number do something less glamorous first: they ride easy properly. Anthony has had this conversation with Stephen Seiler, Dan Lorang and John Wakefield on the podcast, and the shortlist never changes — most amateurs are riding 50% too hard on their easy days and not hard enough on their hard days. That grey-zone drift accumulates fatigue without delivering adaptation.
Fix the distribution and the intervals start working. The pattern the pros use is unfussy: a large base of zone 2, then a small number of properly hard sessions — threshold to build the engine's ceiling, VO2max to lift the roof above it. You don't need six interval sessions a week. You need two you can actually complete, fuelled and recovered, week after week.
And FTP is not a number you chase in isolation. It's an output of training that's structured, fuelled and recovered. When it stalls, the answer is almost never 'push harder' — it's 'fix the system around the work'.
EXPERT EVIDENCE
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY
- Professor Stephen SeilerExercise physiologist, polarised-training researcher
Trained cyclists improve most when about 80% of training sits below the first ventilatory threshold and 20% sits well above it. The grey zone in the middle is where amateurs lose the most progress — it costs recovery without buying adaptation.
Hear it: 80/20 Training to Ride Faster | Dr Stephen Seiler - John WakefieldDirector of Coaching, Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe
A self-coached amateur moving from unstructured riding to a properly periodised plan should expect a 5–15% FTP lift in the first block when testing is done honestly — not on a fatigued week.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
DO THIS WEEK
Audit one week of riding
Pull up your last 7 days in TrainingPeaks, Strava or intervals.icu. Colour every ride by zone. If your 'easy' rides are sitting in zone 3, that's your first fix — slow them down until they feel almost too easy.
Add one threshold session
2×20 minutes at 95–105% of FTP, 5 minutes easy between. This is the single most reliable FTP-builder for amateurs. Hold the power steady; don't start at 110% and fade.
Add one VO2max session
5×4 minutes at 110–120% FTP, 4 minutes easy recovery. This lifts the ceiling your threshold work then chases. One per week is plenty — these are expensive to recover from.
Fill the rest with zone 2
Everything else is genuinely easy aerobic riding. If you can't hold a conversation, you're going too hard and stealing from your hard days.
COMMON MISTAKES
WHAT CYCLISTS GET WRONG
MISTAKEDoing every ride at 'medium-hard' because it feels productive.
FIXMake easy days easy and hard days hard. The middle feels like training but produces the least adaptation per unit of fatigue.
MISTAKEAdding more intervals when the number stalls.
FIXMore of what isn't working rarely fixes it. Check fuelling, recovery and structure before adding volume.
MISTAKERetesting FTP every four weeks and panicking when it's flat.
FIXTest at the end of a block when you're rested. Mid-block fatigue makes a test measure tiredness, not fitness.
FAQ
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How long does it take to improve FTP?
Is sweet spot or threshold better for raising FTP?
Can I improve FTP with low-volume training?
Does losing weight improve my FTP?
Will more zone 2 alone increase my FTP?
How do I know if my FTP actually went up?
RELATED EPISODES
HEAR THE CONVERSATIONS
RELATED TOPICS