Before Intervals.icu I basically just rode and looked at my average speed and watts. This year I want to try a more structured approach and I read up on some suggested training plans. I try to match the suggested intervals of the training plan (three days of interval, two ride days) with the supplied Rouvy workouts.
Now comes the question, when I do the Rouvy training I would expect, that the calculated eFTP (by intervals.icu) for the workout would be somewhere around my FTP or higher. Instead its much lower (like 10% to 20%), though I am actually putting in a bit more, not less Watts in than what is requested by the Rouvy workout. After the workout, the feeling is “i could have done more”.
So I am wondering, do I need to adjust something (like the Rouvy FTP) or is it working as intended and “less is more”.
There are way more competent people here to answer this than me. But as I am doing the same thing I try at answering.
What I do not know is whether your FTP in Rouvy is set correctly. If so the calculated eftp of individual trainings will still be lower, because individual training sessions are not done “at ftp power output” but below that.
For instance I did “ROUVY - Tempo Endurance | Climber’s plan”
My FTP in Rouvy is 190
My eftp in intervals is 188
My ride eftp of that training session is 130
The way I understand it is that doing a one hour session at ftp should burn you out completely (thats what FTP is basically). Thus training session in training plans are lower than that, otherwise you could not do a couple of them per week without destroying yourself.
Also because you wrote you feel like you can do more … not sure where you are in your fitness journey. I had the same feeling in the beginning. Not so much after 4weeks of training plan. So I would say even if you do feel like you could do more in the beginning, try not to burn yourself out medium term.
For training rides/workouts that should always be the case…
You need to look at it from another viewpoint. After the workout, honestly answer te question if you were able to perform the complete workout as expected. If so, keep going with the plan. If the answer is 'No, I felt fatigued/sluggish/unmotivated…, it means that you were not enough recovered from the former workout and you need to adjust things down. Every training has a purpose on its own AND in the big picture. You want to build-up consistently. If consistency is compromised because of too much fatigue, the plan will not work in the longer term. You will get overtrained/injured/demotivated. The key is to do just the amount of work that allows you to keep going with the intended plan. And that means that every workout must be done as intended which requires sufficient recovery. Some workouts are less taxing and allow you to get in enough recovery for the next harder one.
A workout that has you going to your limit might need multiple recovery days before the next one can be done. If you do that too often, the number of active days and the total volume wil decrease, resulting in less fitness. if you ignore the need for recovery, performance will drop and you are on your way to a disaster…
I don’t know where I am in my fitness journey either. When I came off the outdoor season, I hit the indoor trainer and my eFTP was 280 in a Rouvy race. I felt good, but wanted to get better, my target was 300. This should be possible, since I didn’t really train cycling seriously before. I was just doing it to keep fit for soccer.
Then came Christmas and some colds and instead of going up, I went down. Though I am doing it more by the book now with Zone2 rides, intervals and I always keep an eye on the green zone in intervals.icu 
I am actually investing much more time into cycling. But i don’t see really much of payoff: I measure this by doing rouvy races. The eFTP from those rides hovers around 270 for the last two months.
Maybe I will dial it down next week and check if I am not overtraining already, though it sure doesn’t feel like it.
I think it was Udo Bölts, who said “Form kommt langsam, geht schnell” (form comes slowly, goes quickly). After doing it easy for while, with Z2 rides only, my eFTP tanked to 255 W now 
. I am going back to my old ways, less structure and more feel.
Why would you do only Z2 though? Even with all the talk recently of the benefits of Z2, I’ve never seen or heard a coach prescribe a program of only Z2. Of course your FTP is going to tank if you never ride above your aerobic threshold
Besides, FTP isn’t the be all and end all. Has your aerobic threshold increased any? That’s the foundation to build your FTP on. Sometimes we have gotta take a step or two back in order to progress. Play the long game
I am not sure if I understand correctly, but it seems to me like you are packing too many things on top of each other.
You are training and you are doing “multiple races” at the same time? If I would do that my FTP would go down for sure as the constant strain from training AND racing has to be too much. If not you are either not training or not racing.
I usually do training blocks, then taper towards races, then perform in races or tests (higher FTP).
Since I am not inside a science project, I can’t really tell what and why. But it seems that my body seems to respond better to getting hit “hard” than doing stuff, thats just cruising around the status quo. I don’t do it every day, but when I attempt something out of the ordinary, I really feel the improvement the next days. This could be an extraordinary long ride, more steep hills or some such.
So to conclude this, i finally hit my goal of 300W eFTP (well 298W, close enough).
Looking at my year activity, I have no idea why though. I have really no idea. I trained a lot more, with much more structure in 2024. But it didn’t pay off in Watts (checkout the eFTP chart) . Now I thought, I was in a general winter decline and suddenly I get this big peak on a 1h Rouvy Race (@10m).
It’s peculiar that my last best effort is almost exactly a year ago. Maybe just getting fatter in the winter and doing less, is better for the FTP ?? 
So my next target is 320W. I have this idea, that doing some weight training might get me there. Even an old guy is allowed to dream…
