@Jonty Congrats! I have a few questions:
- Confirming you are doing 100 mile rides/races every month?
- Is this your 1st 4DP test and if so where did you get your previous FTP metric?
- How much organized training have you done in the past?
If you are new to organized training it isn’t unusual to see faster gains. Also 4DP is a hard test so you can probably improve there just with some additional strategy coming into the test. This thread is helpful:
Doing events each month is great but you need to be sure that you are periodizing your training so that you are not going into the red and potentially setting yourself back. If you haven’t already, I would suggest categorizing each race as an A, B or C race - A is the primary focus and C is for testing out nutrition, pacing and working on technique with B being somewhere in the middle. I add my other races to the calendar - you can use something like 4 hour endurance as a placeholder.
Leading up to each race I would make sure that you are tapering properly - more important for your A race, less important for B and not important for C especially if you are just treating it as one of the long rides in your training plan.
SYSTM does have a plan selector but it is really geared toward 12 weeks to prepare for one race with perhaps a practice race midway through the plan. So you can select something like Road Century to help you train for the distance but you need to go through the plan and alter it based on the other races that you are putting on the calendar. Ideally you will want a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio with respect to training volume. With that many events 2:1 probably is better. Don’t worry if you have to go to a 3:1 now and then or even a 1:1 based on specific dates. The calendar allows you to move stuff around. It is confusing at 1st but if you read through the plans you will see lots of roadmaps on how to best balance the work - lots of trial and error in the process.
You do have a weakness in MAP. You can do a MAP block but I would be careful with that. However, as @CPT_A notes, you are going to get a lot of MAP and FTP improvement just by riding a general plan and also have less risk of getting into the red especially with the number of events that you have as the plans take your 4DP numbers into account.
Also depending on the timing of your events, be careful with the Tour of Wahoo. As an example, I have a race in late March - 85 mile gravel event. I will do the tour but I plan to do a combination of scaling down some days and also doubling up some rides using the Sufferlandrian 52 hour day calendar to its full extent so that I get more rest days. You might want to think about a similar approach. Each workout has a “cost” and you want to make sure that the cost is worth the benefit. Yes you improve from working out but you also improve from recovery so it is important to keep that balance.
For distance events I try to concentrate on roughly 80% of my efforts below FTP and 20% at or above. I also regularly work in cadence drills, yoga, mobility and some strength as well - especially core but I also do some of my own weight work (squats, deadlifts, push and pull stuff). While the weights don’t really improve cycling power they are important when you on the bike a lot as you are not getting much load on your bones. Note that any weight program needs to start slow and it will affect your on bike stuff until you acclimate and overall take it slow.
Finally don’t discount a consistent good nights sleep and healthy eating and hydration. It can really help you drive those gains.
Hope that helps!