How to Improve Your FTP

What FTP actually is

Functional Threshold Power is the highest power you can hold for roughly an hour. It is a field estimate, not a lab value, but it is the number that sets your training zones, so getting it right and moving it up is the backbone of most cycling training.

FTP rises in two ways. You can raise the ceiling, your VO2 max, so there is more room above threshold. Or you can raise how much of that ceiling you can sustain, which comes from aerobic volume and threshold work. Most riders need both, in that order: base first, then the sharp work.

Test it first

You cannot improve what you have not measured. The simplest field test is 20 minutes all out after a proper warm up: FTP = 20 minute average power × 0.95 (use 0.93 if you are new to testing). Pace it evenly, start a touch conservative, and test fresh. The full protocol is in the training plan guide.

The five levers that raise FTP

1. Consistency. Four solid weeks in a row beats one heroic week and a blow-up. Momentum is the real asset.
2. Aerobic volume. Most of your week easy, in Zone 2 (56 to 75% FTP). This builds the engine: more mitochondria, more capillaries, better fat use. It is the room underneath the intervals.
3. Threshold and sweet spot. Long intervals just under or at FTP teach you to hold more power for longer.
4. VO2 max work. Short, very hard efforts raise the ceiling that threshold sits under.
5. Recovery and fuel. Sleep, an easier week every third or fourth week, and carbohydrate on the hard days. Adaptation happens here, not in the session.

A sample FTP week

Short on time? Protect the two key sessions and the long ride first, and cut the recovery rides.

Five sessions that move FTP

• Sweet spot 3 × 15 minutes at 88 to 93% FTP, 5 minutes easy between. Lots of useful time near threshold for a manageable cost.
• Threshold 2 × 20 minutes at 95 to 100% FTP, 10 minutes easy between. The classic. Build towards 2 × 25 or 3 × 20 over a block.
• Over-unders: 3 sets of 10 minutes alternating 2 minutes at 95% and 1 minute at 105 to 110% FTP. Teaches you to clear lactate while still working.
• VO2 5 × 4 minutes at 106 to 120% FTP, 4 minutes easy between. Hard enough that the last rep is a fight.
• 30/15s: 3 sets of 13 × 30 seconds hard, 15 seconds easy. Rønnestad and colleagues (2015) found this short interval format beat longer VO2 intervals for well-trained cyclists.

All of these, and 145 more, are in the workout library as Zwift and TrainingPeaks files.

Mistakes that stall FTP

• Every ride medium-hard. Too hard to recover from, too easy to adapt to. Make easy days easy so hard days can be hard.
• Only doing intervals. Sharp work on a thin base is a roof with no walls.
• Testing every fortnight. Tests are tiring and the number will not have moved. Every 6 to 8 weeks is enough.
• Under-fuelling. Hard sessions on an empty tank feel awful and adapt less. Eat before and carbohydrate during anything over an hour.
• No recovery weeks. Fatigue piles up quietly until the numbers drop.

Want it planned for you?

The FTP Booster plan runs 8 weeks on 6 to 8 hours a week, with sweet spot, threshold and over-unders and a retest in week 8, for $24.99. Training on Zwift? See the Zwift training plans. If you would rather have a coach reading your files and adjusting the plan around your life, 1:1 online cycling coaching starts at £75 a month: see how much a cycling coach costs and how to choose an online cycling coach.

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