The 5w/kg thread

According to my Trainerroad power curve for this season (so since I got back off holiday in middle of Jan), I’m at 1 minute 3 seconds for max duration of 5x my weight today.

My all time record at that power is 2 minutes 29 seconds. So yeah, 5w/kg is never going to happen!

Looking with the same mindset but with 4x, my current season best is 3:12 and my all time best is 8:35. Which shows how much of a stretch 4w/kg on an FTP basis really is for me.

Which is an approximate thing anyway

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Yes, true. But I’d already used the word once which I thought was sufficient caveating!

The best predictor of performance is performance itself! Any ramp test or CP20 I used to estimate FTP I’d want to back up with a CP60 or 25 mile TT anyway. The former(s) just give an idea of what to ‘aim’ for in the latter

Obviously nowhere near 5W/kg, but didn’t want to hijack the 4W/kg thread either.
FTP test tonight. Not sure what’s more sickening about it:
The 18W PB on the day my A race was cancelled.
The fact I actually had motivation to do a 20 minute test after that and after a shite afternoon at work being told the measures that are coming in - suspension of training programme, loss of study budget (several thousand £ lost opportunity) and likely restriction of annual leave amo gst many other things.
Or forgetting to restart the Garmin so didn’t record :joy:

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5w/kg isn’t going to cut it when racing restarts looking at those thousands of folks WFH hammering themselves on Zwift…

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With it looking like all races cancelled now probably until the end of the summer, targets and motivations might need re-assessed. I did 330 watts for 20 minutes at 65kg a few years ago and swore I’d never do it again because it was horrendous. I’d rather sit on a turbo at Ironman pace for 6 hours. But I’ll try to do 330+ for <65kg by the summer… my new A race maybe…?!

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Yes but how will the 55kg zwift featherweights cope when we’re back outside in winter?

FTP 5W/KG is actually possible for someone on here! Major respect, no wonder you said course like UK suited you. I’m touching towards 4.5 (if lose 2kg) and amazed at that, will never reach 5W. Held 347W for the 20 minutes, and feel Alright this morning. Didn’t sleep that well, can only assume caffeine and pre-post sugar!

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I wouldn’t go that far. Maybe the big IMs but local races in late Spring/Summer could still well go ahead.

I don’t cope inside in winter! Ski hat and thermals again last night in bed…!

347 is big power. Do you go well on the flat?! Also. Any tips for how to swim fast?!

Was hoping to target Irish sprint champs in June, Scottish sprint in July and world sprint in August. Right now I’d be surprised if any of them go ahead so I should probably just target my running goals for autumn races. But I can’t let triathlon go when there’s a chance the target races could still happen… wait and see I guess…

Don’t know, never done a TT, only 3 proper triathlons in 2019 and was much weaker cyclist then. Started tri last year from a lifetime of swimming and so first goal was just surviving, second was feeling like I’d done myself justice with training and see what an honest effort would do round IMUK. Expected to lead out from the swim and then spend whole day going backwards so spent the day and weeks afterwards in shock that I finished competitive. Was looking at TT bikes to try compete more this year but that’s now on hold.

See above, a lifetime of swimming I’m afraid. Suspect you’d say that’s not worth it just for a 50 min IM swim! :wink:

My most recent was 313 watts at 68.1kg at 167 bpm in mid January. Up from 304 watts at 174bpm at probably 70kg in early December (probably one of my first proper sessions back after Kona and shingles…)
Plan to try again tonight, I’m about 65-66kg now. My legs feel like bags of worms after it, such a tough 20minutes. What warm-up and cool down do you do?

Very impressive performance, you’ve got s good future ahead! Did you use a road bike? I did my first IMUK on an £800 road bike in 2011. 5:55 on the bike. Didn’t do tri in 2012. Got the trek tt bike in 2013. Probably a similar level of fitness. It was the same bike course at IMUK13. 5:30. Possibly overbiked slightly but not by 25 minutes so it does give you time… did wonder about 2019 on a road bike though given the twisty and very hilly course, but went with the tt.
Haha, 3 minutes in the swim isn’t worth 4 swims per week for me. But any free tips on drills, technique, etc that I can apply immediately are always welcome…!

I don’t do a big pre-effort, so test numbers will be inflated compared to others who do. I just do whatever warm up I feel to do the best 20 mins. Roughly 20 minutes of cycling building through Z1-3, with a few minutes around Z4/5 and establishing target pace, plus a few 5s spins.
Others might say that’s not a valid “FTP” test but it’s comparable for me, and last test I did 60 min power and results were in line.

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Yep, roughly the same for me. As long as it’s repeatable and comparable for me, then it’s ok with me!

Yep just an old roadie with stick on aerobars, didn’t want to invest while I was only doing to enjoy myself. A good roadie might not have been that much slower 2019, but as minimum I’d have benefited from race wheels/tyres, aero ways to store nutrition, helmet, shoes etc.

Invested in a power meter at Christmas, and last three months have been way better training. Was ready to start investing in gear until this happened.

@jaylen84
As for swim, difficult to say generics.
My basic take home is:
Body position - need to learn to engage core, think about spaghetti moving through water uncooked vs floppy
Next is staying streamline, some people spend thousands on bike aero testing but don’t think about staying within that small tunnel of water. For propulsion I’m a big advocate of high vertical forearm and very early catch straight after hand entry, palm always facing back. Think its one of the things adult onset swimmers do worst is they drift down and across midlines rather than keeping stiff wrist.
Swim thread has some brilliant advice, but has become very very long, should summarise it at some point.

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You just described my swim technique. Biggest improvement in last 3 months has been trying to address this