So, did you meet your Winter Goals? I did, and I have to pat myself on the back. My Winter goal was to ride 3 times per week and to improve my Functional Threshold Power (FTP) by 25 watts. I rode through the Winter getting out at least 2x during the week, one night ride during the mid-week on my Mountain Bike that was 1.5 hrs. long (in all kinds of weather: snow, rain, sleet, extreme cold, etc.) and a day ride on my Road Bike on the weekend that was 2-3 hrs. The other ride was an indoor trainer ride (on my other road bike) in my pain cave using Zwift Virtual trainer. Not to mention that I didn't gain any weight over the Winter (which is tough to do), so my power to weight ratio improved as well. I'm still btwn 160-165 lbs. Therefore, my power to weight ratio is now at an even 3.0 w/kg, which is analogous to Cat 5 power. My Summer goal is to get that number up as close to 3.5 w/kg as possible, which is near Cat 4 power. At almost 60 yrs. old, I'm ok with that.
My FTP in October was 195w and it's approximately 220w now (March). Actually, I think my FTP is closer to 225w because my latest test was indoors and I know for a fact that your indoor FTP is about 10% lower than your outdoor measured FTP- for many reasons.
I hope you met your Winter goal. If so, great job! If not, make a goal for the Summer. My next goal is to increase my FTP another 25 watts so that my FTP is 250w by July/August timeframe. Good Luck.
Power ON! Coach Rob
