Hi everyone, just looking for a little input. I just completed the 12 week All-Around Plan and did FF yesterday. Here are my numbers. NP 984, AC 386, MAP 245, FTP 182. I’m 54 and don’t race, so my goal is simply to be a better rider outside. I do try to do an organized charity ride at least monthly during the summer (May-Sep in Minnesota) with an intent of making at least two of them century rides.
I am classified as an Attacker with sustained efforts as my weakness. So I need to work my FTP. I am leaning toward doing the FTP block next, which will lead into the outdoor riding season here. I also know there is benefit to doing the MAP block and letting MAP improvement pull my FTP up with it.
@RickinMSP I’m kind of in a similar boat - though as sprinter, not attacker. Focusing on aerobic base and FTP with back-to-back 3-week base and then FTP blocks, concluding with FF prep and test before heading outside for the spring/summer season.
Other people are more qualified than me to comment overall, but some personal experience; I did the FTP building block in December to fill a month before starting a longer 12 week plan in January.
I really enjoyed it and felt I got some good gains (4DP results at the end of the month were up across the board but from a previous test at the end of Sept so I can’t put it all down to the FTP block). For me personally it was a nice collection of sessions, good videos and the FTP Progression no-vids were great work outs. I trawled through some cycling bits on Amazon Prime to watch with those.
The 4 week block only does progressions 1, 2 & 3, as 5x6, 5x7 and 5x8. I added my own 5x9 (1min rests) on to the end I’m sure I wouldn’t have managed that at the start of the month but I did so at the end.
Hey @RickinMSP ,
Lots of good suggestions already mentioned here. A good option is do an FTP block plan then go with an all purpose road plan with outdoor rides on the weekends. Choosing a general plan will have your sustained efforts weakness built into the plan and give you the variety of workouts for all around fitness. If you want more volume for your charity events you might want to look at the metric century and century plans. Best of Luck!
Thank you for your input and suggestions. It’s funny, when I see others pose similar questions, the answers seem fairly simple and straight forward and easy. Then, it’s my turn to figure out what to do next, and all the what ifs, maybe I shoulds, and how about this, pop into my head. It’s nice to have a forum like this to help clear up the thinking.
