Ten Minute Tips #62: Why FTP Isn't For Setting Training Zones (And Alternative Approaches)

This episode is one of our deepest dives ever, into the literature on creatine's effects and tradeoffs with cycling performance, and how the results fare against Kolie's standard for being meaningful, noticeable, or measurable. Because individual studies report such varied results, we instead look at a meta analysis on creatine supplementation in aerobic performance, another on repeated sprints, plus a bonus study with a simulated road race. There's also a brief and explicitly non-expert look at a popular paper on creatine and cognition. Instead of recommending whether cyclists take creatine or not as a binary, we discuss the pros and cons, realistic expectations of effects, and in what cases we would consider supplementation. Plus your listener questions!

This episode we start with the old cycling adage "train your weaknesses, race your strengths" as the jumping off point to discuss strategies for diagnosing and training weaknesses in the off season. We decide for whom this would make sense as a strategy, the opportunity cost of training a weakness, low opportunity cost things to train, how race selection factors in, and much more.

This episode we look into the published literature on the surprisingly tight agreement between FTP and RPE and a couple different lab-derived measures of threshold like MLSS and critical power, along with the concept of anchoring. But first we get philosophical about how measurements often become definitions that can lose sight of our valid observations and experience. We wrap up by discussing FTP testing with RPE, plus answer your listener questions on RPE scales and anchors, RPE drift, common mistakes when using RPE, Borg's 6-20 vs 10 point scale, and much more.

This is a deep dive into four papers on hypertrophy and strength training, and use them to find guidelines around how cyclists can improve strength without gaining weight. We evaluate the stimulus and overall impact of eccentric vs concentric contractions, sets and reps, minimum dose for strength improvements, progressive overload, and nutrition.

We take a deep look at ten commonly used ways to test or estimate FTP, and dissect how and why each method does (or is supposed to) work, how often we might expect accurate result and who it'd be accurate for, and the Empirical Cycling standards for test accuracy. We also dig into some data on ramp test accuracy and bias, plus how anaerobic capacity, RPE, and daily fluctuations in performance can play a role in test results. Plus time in zone, %FTP, normalized power, lactate tests, the "Kolie Moore" test, and your listener questions on DFA-alpha1, eFTP, and more.

Our coaches sit down to discuss the downsides of using FTP as an anchor for many types of intervals, how your individual physiology can make those targets suboptimal for the best stimulus, and the many alternative approaches that we use instead. We dig into VO2max, anaerobic and sprint efforts, plus first threshold and endurance riding. Then we answer your questions on minimum effective dose, breaking out of a rut, assessing realistic targets, and more.

Dr. Eric Trexler joins the podcast for a nuanced discussion on energy expenditure and endurance sports. He explains measurement methods, the constrained energy expenditure model and its interpretations, the difficulty of calculating your total energy expenditure and needs and practical solutions, some curious results from papers on energy expenditure in cycling grand tours, and much more.

Our coaches answer your questions on identifying limiters, how to take a rest week on a low volume plan, resuming training after a break, training for fitness vs racing, total time in zone vs structured intervals, the things that cyclists under-optimize, making the most of unusually large training weeks, the benefits of ice cream, and much more.

This is a critical look at our previous podcast episodes on VO2max training, and with hindsight provide new and additional context on those training recommendations, plus other effective ways to do VO2max training, with their coaching and contextual aspects. We investigate some instances of "VO2max blocks" in the scientific literature, reexamine the 30/15s paper, and discuss additional factors that confound the interpretation of those and other published results before considering how we can use that information to our advantage when training.

This is a practical guide to FTP training, through three lenses: where you are in your season, where you are in your training journey, and opportunity cost. In each instance we think about reasonable expectations for improvement, if you should add more power or interval time, when to switch to VO2max training, periodization strategies, and how to prioritize your training. We also answer listener questions on over unders, progressing longer or shorter intervals, block training, in-season maintenance, and more.