Last fall I tested my FTP at 287 W. I spent some time off the bike to focus on training for a marathon, and now I’m training for an IM 70.3 at the end of July, in about 12 weeks. I did another FTP test and it came in 238 W. Now I’m trying to figure out how to structure my training to get my FTP as close as possible to where it was in time for the race.
I’m able to concentrate the majority of my training on cycling. My swim is already about where I want it to be, and for the run I just need to maintain the fitness I built up in marathon training. I have ~10-12 hours/week available to train.
What training should I be doing to raise my FTP, as well as my ability to hold a high percentage of FTP for 56 miles?
Hey Aiden - great question and goals!
To be brief: you can’t really go wrong with 1-2x of threshold (95-100%), 1-2x sweet spot (85-94%), and 1x VO2max (105-115%) a week, with a long ride thrown in for good health. With hitting pretty much every higher-intensity zone, with a good base that you already have, you’re going to be pushing up all the physiology that contributes to solid 70.3 performances.
A little more specifically, and just in my personal opinion, I would go for a short, 1-2 week “onboarding” period where 2x intensity sessions per week are the goal. This gets you used to spending time in the upper zones. From there, I would put in as much threshold and VO2 as you can take for 4 weeks, and then move to threshold and sweet spot til your taper (while hanging onto1-2x VO2 every two weeks for maintenance). If this was a season being planned, a more traditional base → build → speciality would work well.
I had a whole thing written out going into the physiology of it all, but frankly the best way to raise your FTP and hold a high percentage of it for ~2.5 hours is to do threshold/VO2 work, and sweet spot work, respectively!
I can get into more specifics if you like, but best of luck with the training!
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Guess I would go for something like:
Phase 1 (Weeks 1–4): Rebuild FTP Base
- 2x/week threshold sessions: e.g. 2x20 min @ 90–95% FTP, or 3x12–15 min @ 95–100%. Build to ~60 min total work.
- 1 long aerobic ride: 2.5–4 hrs Z2, optional tempo finish (80–85%).
- Optional VO2max session (if fresh): 4–6x3 min @ 110–120%, full recovery.
Phase 2 (Weeks 5–8): Raise ceiling + start race specificity
- Continue threshold/over-unders: e.g. 3x12 min (2 min @ 105%, 10 min @ 90%).
- Add 70.3 efforts: 2–3x20–30 min @ 80–85% FTP (race pace), ideally in aero position.
- Long rides: 3–4 hrs with 1–2 hrs race pace mixed in.
Phase 3 (Weeks 9–12): Sharpening & Specificity
- Race simulation bricks: 2.5–3 hrs ride @ 80–85% FTP + 30–60 min easy run.
- Midweek race pace intervals: 2x30 min or 3x20 min @ 85%
- Taper final 10 days, drop volume, keep intensity.
Notes
- Fuel all quality sessions well.
- Strength training 1–2x/week (especially for injury prevention).
- Monitor recovery: HRV, sleep, RPE – push when fresh, back off when needed.
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If I wanted to complete something similar, based on your theory, would I simply create these workouts in the garmin workout editor? That sounds straight forward but I usually find proper workouts do a good job of warming up and cool down, plus whatever other best practices they sprinkle into them.
I guess what I’m asking is, Do these workouts exist somewhere to download / Import or do you all know this craft so well to build your own workoutjs?
Seems like everyone likes to create/use ‘fancy’ workouts. The simple truth is that the best workouts are fairly simple. Pick a goal, endurance/tempo/threshold/VO2, adapt the intensity of the warm-up (some short higher intensity bursts for the higher intensity zones), and do the time in zone. All the rest is just complicating matters.
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I’ve heard some refer to these “fancy” workouts as a solution for boredom or monotony.
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Some folks fine-tune their fitness/workouts, others polish their chainrings to perfection. 
In the end, it’s all training — just for different muscles (or egos)! 
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That’s a perfectly good reason for them!
Some folks are also just not good at (or really hate) steady state intervals. Using a more stochastic workout can help them get to their goal.
Turns out there’s not better. Just different.
Or in the words of Phillip J Fry from Futurama, the best TV show ever, “it’s better than good, it’s better!”
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A “limiter” of someone unable to ride steady state intervals is due to them not training this sufficiently, or as you say… they just aren’t good at it. So it’s a catch-22 scenario… they aren’t good at it, or hate it, because they don’t practice it. But practicing is it hard, or not liked, so they don’t train it.
I see I had a partial response in “my posts”, so I had initially wanted to respond, then probably got distracted. So here is the completed response.
More often than not, from the people I have either engaged with, or coach, their FTP is overestimated, as the incentive of FTP is that higher is better. This results in them having power levels set too high, and then unable to hold power for a duration that should be doable, eg. upper tempo becomes threshold, and upper threshold is more VO2. This is one of a number of reasons that could contribute to them no liking it, or feel they aren’t good at it.
The solution is progression, even a slow, aka “boring”, progression is good enough. Start at 3x8m, as it’s 4-minutes longer (TiZ) than the 20-min test, but with recovery in between each interval; it’s also without the 5-min all-out effort prior. So 3x8m should be doable by anyone that’s complete the 20-min test. Even at 90-100% of 95% of the 20-min average power should be doable, providing the 20-min test was done with the 5-min all out effort before. Once the 3x8m effort becomes easy, the progression to longer durations and/or more intervals and/or a combination of both is the next step.
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I currently use Join.cc program in Zwift… Join tends to give me 2 hr long workouts with some additional work in the middle. What I do to make this more interesting and useful in Zwift - I replace long steady state Z2 with intervals, example:
Instead of:
- 30m 65%
I edit imported Join workouts to replace this with:
15x
- 1m 66%
- 1m 64%
It has several benefits (in my eyes):
- Makes ride less monotonous - I now have an ark every minute with annoying audio tones
- I earn 20% more XP because this is now interval
- I can skip portion of that set without loosing much of the XP earned
This isn’t really directly on the topic of the thread, but maybe it will help someone reading this in the future
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I love this. It’s a mindset that never occurred to me until it was put in this very way in something I heard recently . We are practicing, not just training. Doing things a certain way has other outcomes than just “time in zone.”
I’m great at steady state efforts. I almost never do time trials so it’s barely a useful skill in most of the racing I do. I’m pretty good at the more on/off stuff, but I don’t do it very much.
Glad you came back to your response @Gerald I’ve been thinking about what I should do differently in the training, and this works in with the other things I’ve been thinking about - how to best work in sprint/super high intensity stuff balanced against how many days with intensity. So sort of “combining” workouts into only 2 hard days a week, rather than more specific dedicated ones. So can I work in a bit more intensity into my already programmed days and will that work out better because I have more recovery time.
But this was the kick I needed! Feedback also appreciated!
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This is a great idea! Particularly for indoors. With only that slight power change you’re not really doing an over/under, but you are adding some variability so you get some subtle cadence changes and micro power changes. Mentally this will feel closer to a broken up interval while working on doing that consistent power.
Good starting point for others - 1 on/1 off might be a lot for me for 30 minutes, but I definitely can get a bit bored doing something in that more sweet spot range, so working in different “intervals” like this is something I think I might try for a 20 minute interval, for the mental side.
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