FasCat Cycling Training Tips Podcast

Your FTP is the most useful number in cycling. Set it right and every zone, every interval and every workout for the next three months is dialed in. Set it wrong and you train too hard or too easy for weeks without knowing it. And most cyclists set it wrong, because every FTP test depends on the one thing you cannot produce on demand: a truly all out effort. For 20 years, Coach Frank Overton, the Big Cat, monitored his athletes' FTP the old school way: by hand. Pulling best efforts from different days to build a critical power curve, checking heart rate to see how hard they were really going, and weighing how much they had been training lately. It's tedious work that takes a coach all day. This week Frank shows you how CoachCat's new FTP Tracker does that same analysis on your rides instantly, and how to set your FTP without dreading a test ever again. But first, a big announcement: FasCat is now the AI Research and Development Partner of CANYON//SRAM, the Women's WorldTour team. Frank shares how CoachCat's AI predicted the power it would take on Mont Ventoux and the Col d'Èze at the Tour de France Femmes, how the race data validated those predictions, and the season in review reports he's building for the team: Analyze, Predict, Prescribe. And the punchline for this episode: there isn't a single FTP test in the team's data. Not one. Their FTP comes from their racing and training, using the same engine that now runs in CoachCat. Frank also answers the question listeners keep asking about Zwift's new coaching feature, and the five things a game can't do that a coach can: your long ride outside, real power data analysis, recovery, nutrition, and a human coach in the loop. Ride Zwift, and let FasCat be your coach. Then the three old school principles behind the new school FTP Tracker: Tip 1: FTP is CP60, so build your critical power curve from every ride. FTP has always meant the best power you can hold for an hour, and the critical power curve finds it from your best efforts at every duration, from any ride, not a single test on a single day. Saturday's climb is your best 5 minutes. Sunday's race is your best 20. Plot them all and the hour takes care of itself. Frank explains why 95 percent of a 20 minute test cannot be right for everyone: two riders can hold 280 watts for 20 minutes and the diesel holds 272 for the hour while the punchy rider holds 260. Tip 2: Heart rate is the honesty check. The curve is only as good as the efforts that build it, and on its own it cannot tell a hard effort from a maximal one. Heart rate can. An effort at threshold heart rate is maximal and builds the curve. An hour at 240 watts at 90 percent of threshold is sub maximal, so your FTP is above 240 and the curve does not get dragged down to meet it. Even a steady sweet spot ride at a known heart rate tells us almost as much as a test. Wear the strap. Tip 3: Level brings the number to today. A curve built from July efforts still says July in November. Your FTP goes up with training and down without it, and your Level, CoachCat's daily measure of how much you have been training, is the one signal that knows what you have done since your last hard effort. Frank shows how one athlete took his Level from 33 to 64 on 16 Weeks of Sweet Spot and his FTP from 260 to 284 watts, why a rest week is not a layoff, and why the relationship breaks once intervals start, which is exactly why a new maximal effort always wins. And the new school part: we built all three into CoachCat. Sync your rides and the FTP Tracker runs the whole analysis instantly. You see two numbers side by side, the FTP we determined from your data and the FTP set in your profile, with a degree of confidence behind the number and what would raise it. If they don't match, update it in one tap and every workout on your calendar recalculates to your new zones. No test required. Plus: the FasCat Winter Training Series starts Tuesday, November 17. Three coach led rides a week on Zwift: Turnt Up Tuesdays, Zone 2 Thursdays and Sweet Spot Saturdays, pace groups A through E, free to join. Next week, Friday, November 13 at 2pm ET: Episode 49, AI Power Data Analysis and the Next Frontier. Frank goes behind the scenes of the CANYON//SRAM season in review reports and what the data says separates a good season from a great one. Read the articles: Find Your FTP Without a Test: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/find-your-ftp-without-a-test/ FTP versus Critical Power: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/ftp-versus-critical-power/ Level and FTP: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/training-load-and-ftp/ FasCat Named AI R&D Partner of CANYON//SRAM: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/fascat-ai-rd-partner-canyon-sram/ Ride with us this winter: https://fascatcoaching.com/ride-with-us/ Start your free trial of CoachCat, sync your rides, and see your FTP: https://app.fascat.ai/intro Work hard, ride fast, have fun and as always FtFP!

Trainer season is here, and so is the FTP Tracker. This week Coach Frank Overton, the Big Cat, splits the show in two. Part one: how to make indoor cycling suck less. Why the trainer is a tool and not a plan, the sunny day rule, how to avoid Indoor Training App Syndrome (too hard to be base, too short to build durability), the pain cave setup that fixes heat, friction and boredom, three workouts that make the hour fly by (Sweet Spot Bursts, Criss Cross and Over Unders), the survival week that keeps you from ever going to zero, and why you should never do the long Saturday ride alone. Everything in this half comes from our new free Indoor Cycling Guide. Part two: the brand new CoachCat FTP Tracker, released this week. Frank was one of the original power nerds, helping develop TSS and the Performance Management Chart with Dr. Andy Coggan and pioneering sweet spot training. The FTP Tracker is the analysis he would do on your FTP by hand if he had all day, that's now done instantly & in rela time in CoachCat. He walks through the science: critical power modeling, why CP60 is FTP by definition, how heart rate answers the one question every coach asks ("how hard were you going?"), and how your Level brings your number to today whether you've been riding more or less. No all out test required. Review of the week from Dr. Saswata Roy. Links: Free Indoor Cycling Guide: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/indoor-cycling-guide/ Find Your FTP Without a Test (the science behind the FTP Tracker): https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/find-your-ftp-without-a-test/ Winter Training Series schedule and Zwift club: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/winter-training-series/ Start your free CoachCat trial, no credit card required: https://app.fascat.ai/intro Hire a FasCat Coach: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/hire-a-coach/ Share your story for review of the week: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/customer-reviews/ The FasCat Winter Training Series starts Tuesday, November 17: three coach led group rides a week, live in game on Zwift, free with CoachCat and 1x1 coaching. Turnt Up Tuesdays, Zone 2 Thursdays and Sweet Spot Saturdays. Join the FasCat Coaching club in Zwift Companion and RSVP. Two ways to ride faster: the CoachCat app or 1x1 coaching with a FasCat Coach. Both start with a complimentary consultation and a custom training plan. Work hard, ride fast, have fun and as always FtFP! Two notes: fill in the timestamps after the stream from the recording, and if the schedule actually lives at fascatcoaching.com/pages/winter-training-series/ rather than Ride With Us,

FtFP. Follow the F*%'ing Plan. You've heard us say it at the end of every episode, it's on the shirts, it's in the app, and this week we finally tell you where it came from. FtFP was not born in a coaching meeting. It was born in a comment thread. Back in 2019, FasCat sold static training plans and ran a private Facebook Group. One athlete posted every week: missed my workout, skipped my rest day, did the group ride instead of the intervals, why am I not getting faster? The coaches stayed patient. The other athletes did not. One finally wrote "why don't you just follow the plan?" Another piled on with the f*%'ing version and dropped the Chopper HTFU video, a nod to Velominati's Rule #5. HTFU met FasCat, and FtFP was born. Seven years later it's part of the philosophy behind CoachCat, and here's the part that matters: FtFP was never about perfection. Follow 80% of your plan and you get faster. That's what the data says, and it's why we back it with our 6 Week Improvement Guarantee. In this episode, Frank Overton, the Big Cat, covers: The full origin story of FtFP, Chopper video and all The 80% rule and why consistency beats any single workout The 8 rules for following your plan: hold your zone, focus on the main work, ride easy days easy, be flexible not flaky, revise don't cram, and speak up early Rule #4: Be Flexible, not Flakey Accountability: a North Star, a strategy, and execution Review of the week from Amy Webb, CEO of Future Today Strategy Group: "Successful people tend to share one thing in common. They follow the f*%'ing plan." What's new in CoachCat: wattage ranges now right on the workout, and the FTP report in beta The FasCat Winter Training Series: three coach led Zwift rides a week starting Tuesday, Nov 17 Live Q&A: how do you FtFP? Links from the show: 👉 Read the article and the rules for following your plan: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/wtf-is-ftfp 👉 Start FtFP'ing for free in CoachCat: https://app.fascat.ai/ 👉 Join the Winter Training Series. Join the FasCat Coaching Club in Zwift and see the schedule: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/winter-training-series/ 👉 Refer a friend and earn cash back: https://fascatcoaching.com/refer-a-friend 👉 Share your story for a chance to be our next review of the week: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/customer-reviews/ Two ways to ride faster: the CoachCat app or 1x1 personal coaching with a FasCat coach. Both start with a complimentary consultation and a custom training plan. Start your free trial and save 50% with an annual subscription ($17.50 a month): https://fascatcoaching.com/app And Velominati, if you're out there: Rule #5 gave us HTFU. We'd love to add FtFP to the Rules. Work hard, ride fast, have fun and as always FtFP!

Hope is not a training plan. Most cyclists sign up for a race, ride hard and hope the fitness shows up on race day. The FasCat way is the opposite: pick your event first, then work backward from race day. In this episode, Frank Overton, the Big Cat, walks through exactly how our coaches build a season and builds four real 2027 plans live with our new Pick Your Event, See Your Plan tool: Unbound Gravel 200: the full build with weights, Sweet Spot base and the Unbound plan, with no punchy intervals for a flat, hot course GFNY New York City: what happens when you have fewer than 34 weeks, and how the phases compress The Firecracker 50: a marathon MTB race at altitude, and why climbing intervals go in before the event plan Your spring group ride: why you should treat it like a race, plus our 4 Week Group Ride Interval Training plan Plus: The four FasCat training phases (weights, Sweet Spot base, intervals and event specific), how long each one lasts and what to protect when you're short on weeks Why your age decides your plan level, and how CoachCat builds age appropriate plans A live demo of the CoachCat custom plan builder: five questions and your whole season is on your calendar The FasCat Winter Training Group grows to three rides a week: Turnt Up Tuesdays, Zone 2 Thursdays and Sweet Spot Saturdays Links from the show: 👉 Build your 2027 plan for free in CoachCat: https://app.fascat.ai/ 👉 Read the article and try the Pick Your Event tool: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/build-your-perfect-2027-training-plan/ 👉 Join the Winter Training Group (first ride Tuesday, Nov 17). Join the FasCat Coaching club in Zwift: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/winter-group-training/ 👉 Refer a friend and earn cash back: https://fascatcoaching.com/refer-a-friend 👉 Share your story for a chance to be our next review of the week: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/customer-reviews/ Two ways to ride faster: the CoachCat app or 1x1 personal coaching with a FasCat coach. Both start with a complimentary consultation and a custom training plan. Start your free trial and save 50% with an annual subscription ($17.50 a month): https://fascatcoaching.com/app Work hard, ride fast, have fun and as always FtFP!

Want to climb faster without adding a single watt? Improve your power to weight ratio. This week on the FasCat Podcast, Frank Overton, the Big Cat, explains how cyclists can lose weight the right way: without losing power, wrecking recovery or bonking on the bike. Here's the truth: 80% of weight loss happens in the kitchen and 20% happens on the bike. Ride more and eat less is old school thinking, and it stops working once you've lost the first few pounds. Frank shows you how to win in the kitchen. In this episode: Go Fast vs Go Slow foods: the simple framework our athletes use at the grocery store, because what comes home goes in your mouth Diet by math: why a 250 to 500 calorie daily deficit adds up to about 1 lb a week, or 10 lbs in 10 weeks, without hurting your training How to use your power meter to fuel: 1 kilojoule on the bike is about 1 calorie of food Protein targets for cyclists (1.2 to 2 g per kg of body weight), plus 3 meals and 4 snacks a day and how much water to drink When to diet and when NOT to: why the off season and base phase are the time, and why you should never cut calories during intensity, weight training or race season Zone 2 endurance rides and teaching your body to burn fat  How to use CoachCat to fuel your workouts and stay on track We're live every Friday at 2pm ET. Two ways to ride faster: the CoachCat app or expert 1x1 personal coaching. Both start with a complimentary consultation and a custom training plan. 👉 Start your free trial or schedule your consultation: https://fascatcoaching.com/ 📖 Read the training tips: Weight Loss for Cyclists: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/weight-loss-for-cyclists/ Performance Nutrition: Winning in the Kitchen: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/performance-nutrition/ Winning in the Kitchen Weight  Loss Meal Plan: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/weight-loss-meal-plan/ ⭐ Share your FasCat story, and you might be next week's review of the week: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/customer-reviews/ Work hard, ride fast, have fun and as always FtFP!

Over 40 and wondering why the same workouts, rides and races hit harder than they used to? On this episode of the FasCat Podcast Coach Frank answered that question and gave you a simple way to train for it: the Masters Diamond. The biggest change isn't intensity, it's recovery. A hard workout that took one night to bounce back from at 30 can take two nights at 55. After 20+ years of coaching Masters athletes at FasCat, here's how we train athlete's over 40/50/60/ & 70: ⚾ The Masters Diamond Picture a baseball diamond with four bases: 1️⃣ First base is Time: how many hours a week you actually have to train 2️⃣ Second base is Dose: your intervals, sets and reps 3️⃣ Third base is Recovery: the rest you need to absorb that dose 🏠 Home plate is Life: staying flexible when life happens Touch all four bases and you score a run, and that run is consistency. The bases are connected. Change one and you change the others. Skip a base and you're out. In this episode: 🔹 The four age bands we coach by (40+, 50+, 60+ and 70+) and what changes in each 🔹 VO2 max intervals by age: why 50+ athletes do 2 sets of 2 x 5 minutes instead of 3 x 5 🔹 The new Rønnestad VO2 workouts in CoachCat 🔹 Sweet Spot for Masters: shorter sessions (45 to 90 minutes), done more often 🔹 Sprint work at 40, 50 and 60+ and why you shouldn't give up Zone 6 🔹 The golden rule: cut sets and reps before you cut intensity, and pull the plug before you're fully cooked 🔹 How many hours a week you really need (even retired, more isn't better) 🔹 Recovery weeks, comebacks and why your plan's rest is the floor, not the ceiling 🔹 Year round strength training for Masters cyclists 🔹 How CoachCat adjusts your training for your age, from morning recovery scores to 8 to 12 week adaptation blocks 🔹 Live Q&A with your Masters training questions Whether you're 42 and chasing a PR or 68 and hanging with the fast group on Saturdays, this one's for you. Run the bases, stay consistent and you'll keep getting faster. 📖 Read the full article: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/masters-coaching/ Want help? We provide two types of coaching to help you ride faster: 🚴 CoachCat, your AI cycling coach built on 20 years of FasCat coaching: free trial at https://fascatcoaching.com/app 🤝 1x1 Coaching with a FasCat coach: book a complimentary consultation Join us LIVE every Friday at 2pm ET and bring your questions.

The rainbow jersey 🌈 will be decided on Mount Royal. Coach Frank breaks down exactly how many watts it will to win the 2026 World Championship road race in Montréal, built from race data, and which riders can make those watts/kg. What we'll cover: • The course: three climbs, twelve times. Mount Royal (1.6 km at 7.7%), the Polytechnique (370 m at 9%), the Pagnuelo (470 m at 7.8%) and the uphill drag to the line on Avenue du Parc • Our prediction: 8.0 W/kg (about 515 watts) for 3:40 on Mount Royal to win the men's race, 6.6 W/kg for the women, and about 9 W/kg on each of the two kickers • What the race files show: Pogačar's 3:27 up Mount Royal in 2024, and last week's GP Montréal where Seixas and Del Toro rode it at 7.5 W/kg twice on the exact Worlds lap • Why time above threshold decides this race: 45 to 60 minutes over threshold in short, repeated efforts, not one big number  • No Pogačar, so who wins? Evenepoel, Del Toro, Seixas, McNulty and Quinn Simmons for the men. Niewiadoma-Phinney, Vollering, Reusser, Longo Borghini and Vallières for the women • The Montréal Worlds workout: 5 laps of Mount Royal in 70 minutes, waiting for you in the CoachCat workout library • Your questions, live 📊 Full power predictions, charts and race data: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/montreal-worlds-road-race-power-predictions/ 🐱 Ride the Montreal Worlds workout in CoachCat described in this podcast, first week free: https://fascatcoaching.com/app 🚴 Work with a FasCat coach: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/hire...

Most cyclists call the next five months the off season. We call it the ON season, because this is the time of year where you can add 10 to 50 watts or more by spring. Join Coach Frank Overton live Friday at 2pm ET for a walk through the training that makes that happen, straight out of our all-new 30 Week Off Season Weight and Sweet Spot Plan for 2026/2027. What we're covering: Why every month off costs you two, and how a two month break turns into a four month swing Winning in the gym: the 10 week, four phase cycling specific weight program covering hypertrophy, strength, and power Muscle tension intervals, and why they turn new strength into watts Sweet Spot base training between 84 and 97% of FTP, and why it beats zone 2 when your time is limited Zwift as your atomic habit, plus the Saturday Sweet Spot group rides with Coach Jake and Frank What's new in the 2026/2027 plan: refined periodization, rewritten workout descriptions, Coach's Tips from 20 years of FasCat coaching, demo videos, masters appropriate volume and intervals, and FuelTrix fueling on every workout Plus announcements, our reviews of the week, a live CoachCat onboarding walkthrough for new athletes, and your questions answered live in the comments. Drop what you're training for and Frank will give you his best coaching advice on air. Ready to start your on-season? Two ways to ride faster: 1. the CoachCat app or 2. expert 1x1 personal coaching. https://fascatcoaching.com/ Both begin with a complimentary phone consultation and a custom training plan. Start a free trial and follow the 30 Week On Season Plan. Work hard, ride fast, have fun, and as always, FTFP. What did you think about this episode? What do you want to learn about next? Drop a comment 👇

Last week Coach Frank Overton walked through FasCat's 10 week, 4 phase weight lifting program: the lifts, the sets, the reps, and the 10 watts or more our athletes gain from it. This week is the part nobody writes down: how to actually do it when you have a job, a family, a long ride on Saturday, and a gym that closes at 9. Follow the 10 week weight lifting plan FREE for 1 week referenced in this podcast: https://app.fascat.ai/ What you'll learn: ▶ The pro's & con's of lifting at home or going to a gym ▶ How to find your 1 rep max safely, and know how much to lift each set & rep ▶ The warm-up: on the bike vs. in the gym, and how long it should take  ▶ Riding and lifting on the same day: which comes first and what to skip  ▶ What to do when you miss a session, get sick, or travel ▶ Soreness that's normal in the Hypertrophy phase vs. soreness that means back off ▶ Gym substitutions when your gym doesn't have a leg press or hamstring curl machine Whether you have a full gym membership, a squat rack in the garage, or 40 minutes on a Tuesday, there's a version of this program that fits. 📖 Read the complete guide: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/weight-lifting-for-cycling/ Do you goto the gym or lift at home? Let us know in the comments plus anything else about this episode. Work hard, ride fast, have fun and as always FtFP!

Ten weeks for 10 watts or more. That is the typical FTP gain our athletes see from FasCat's cycling specific weight lifting program, and by spring, once base training is done, they routinely show up to their first races 15 to 50 watts stronger than the year before. Join Coach Frank Overton live this Friday at 2pm ET as he walks through the entire 10 week, 4 phase program we have been coaching cyclists through for more than 20 years. Bring your questions and Frank will answer them live from the comments.  What you'll learn: ▶ Why lifting raises your FTP and what makes this program cycling specific ▶ The 4 phases: Adaptation, Hypertrophy, Strength, and Power, with sets, reps, and percentages of your 1 rep max for each ▶ The only lifts you need: the squat, the leg press, and the hamstring curl (plus the optional hip thrust) ▶ When to start lifting in your off season and how the 10 weeks fit into your Annual Training Plan ▶ How to transfer gym strength to the bike with neuromuscular sprints and standing starts ▶ How many watts you can realistically gain and how to keep them with one session a week Whether you are a road racer, time trialist, mountain biker, cyclocrosser, triathlete, or masters athlete, this is the strength work that puts more power into the pedals. 📖 Read the complete guide https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/weight-lifting-for-cycling/ 💪 Get the full 10 week plan scheduled for you in CoachCat, sets, reps, and weights computed by the resistance training calculator, plus the on the bike workouts timed to the right phases. Start your free month: https://app.fascat.ai/intro More strength training resources: Proper Squat Form for Cyclists: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/proper-squat-form-for-cyclists/ At Home Weight Lifting for Cyclists: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/at-home-weight-lifting/ How to Maintain Your Weight Lifting Gains: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/at-home-weight-lifting/ Subscribe for a new live show every Friday and free training tips every Tuesday.  #WeightLiftingForCycling #FTP #CyclingTraining #StrengthTraining #OffSeason #CoachCat #FasCat