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Road Cycling Academy PodcastAuthor: Ryan Thomas & Cam Nicholls
Interviews with top performing cyclists and industry experts in the fields of coaching, advanced training techniques, and human physiology. The purpose of this podcast is to learn and understand what makes high performing individuals tick, digging deep into their ingredients to success both on and off the bike. Language: en Genres: Health & Fitness, Sports Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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FTP Stuck? Follow this Simple Framework
Episode 73
Tuesday, 24 March, 2026
This episode explores a research-based strategy to boost FTP for cyclists by focusing on physiological system training and periodisation. It emphasises proper zone training, avoiding overtraining, and implementing structured blocks to achieve sustainable performance improvements RCA 12 Week Custom Plan: https://roadcyclingacademy.com/cycling-plan-custom/ Research Paper referenced: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9299127/ key topics FTP and critical power explained Importance of physiological system training Periodisation and training blocks Research insights from running studies Common mistakes in cycling training Structured training plans and recovery Training zones and their physiological basis Chapters 00:00 Introduction to the RCA Podcast 00:25 Understanding FTP and Its Importance 01:42 Common Mistakes in Training for FTP 03:14 The Role of Training Zones 04:42 Periodization in Training 05:39 Research Insights on Training Protocols 08:12 Implementing a Structured Training Plan 10:17 Blending Training Intensities 12:30 General Framework for Periodization 13:06 Conclusion and Next Steps Transcript: Cam Nicholls (00:01.804) Welcome to the RCA podcast designed for recreational and amateur road cyclists with a focus on performance. We dive into cycling training, nutrition, strength training for cyclists and even bike fitting tips all designed to help you train smarter, ride faster and hopefully tear your mates legs off. So without further ado, let's dive into today's episode. Ryan Thomas (00:25.313) you Cam Nicholls (00:26.606) So welcome back to the RCA podcast, which is also on YouTube. So for those audio listeners, please excuse any visual references. Today, we're be talking about a simple way to boost FTP. We're not talking about a specific workout as such, we're talking about an overall overarching strategy. But before we talk about this, which is research-based. Let's talk about what is FTP. For some people, particularly if you're new to cycling, you may still be trying to figure out what FTP is. So, Ryan, we don't actually use FTP at the RCA. We use critical power where you can get your FTP. But for those who want to know what FTP is, how you best describe it. Ryan Thomas (01:02.062) It's essentially the maximum effort that you can sustain without going over your limit. And that can be anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes, depending on what sort of testing you use to find it. But essentially we're trying to find a maximal steady Cam Nicholls (01:15.918) And we don't typically test for 40 to 60 minutes do we? We test for 20 minutes or there's a ramp test or there's an eight minute protocol. There's all sorts of variations to get your FTP. So we don't have to send somebody out and yeah, ride as hard as you can for an hour, but it's not the be all and end all, but it's important, particularly if you're trying to work out your training zones, which is what we're going to talk about shortly and target physiological systems to understand your FTP. And it's also, know, it's like we're You know, there's a gym setting behind us when people go to the gym. What's the thing that you want to promote the most? Well, how much can you bench? I guess MTP is very similar to that. So that's why people like to talk about it. When people are trying to increase their FTP for whatever reason, Ryan, where do you feel like they go wrong? Ryan Thomas (01:57.976) specific threshold testing to begin with. So setting your zones properly is the first. Cam Nicholls (02:02.7) They're an average off Garmin or Strava or one of these apps. Ryan Thomas (02:06.67) Yeah, and then most of the time I see people are training to either a threshold that's too high and it just burns them out. So you need to have that threshold set lower, even if it's a number that you might think is lower than what you want, it's accurate. Okay. you're doing the proper testing. So have that setting first. The other point is that people aren't training a physiological system. They're just training. They might go and do bunch rides or they might do a sporadic, the threshold effort one week and a VO2 effort the other week and then a tempo effort. And it's like, well, what are you actually targeting? There's no... You need a physiological target. You need to train that physiological system to see changes over time. So minimum sort of stimulus that you want to do is like, when the training peaks is set this, there's their chronic training load is based on a 42 day rolling period. when we did our training peaks university course, and we saw the training peaks in person when they came to Australia and the whole theory is that. any one physiological stimulus, takes about six weeks to see a change. You need to do that for six weeks. And if you're doing random stuff or bunch rides, it's no one physiological strong stimulus. It's just random little bits here and there that aren't really enough to see meaningful change. Cam Nicholls (03:14.158) And as the inquiry guy at the RCA still, you know, speak to lot of recreational and amateur road cyclists before they join the RCA. And the biggest thing is just training too hard too often. So it's like, it sounds so simple, but it's just the most common. It's like, I want to increase my fitness. So I'll ride harder and I'll ride more and they'll end up, you know, not only overstimulated by working all their systems, as you said, but they're also just end up in a fatigue state. Ryan Thomas (03:37.984) Yeah, usually the first thing they do is rest and take the intensity up. Cam Nicholls (03:41.344) Yeah, have a week off. People are I can't do that. It's like, no, just trust us. Yeah. What happens? They freshen up. So targeting the training zones. Why would we want it? Cause I think when people think about zone training, they just think about, well I should do a zone two ride today and let's just do zone two. And cause it's, heard about it online and it's, know, zone two it's space fitness, but it's actually rather than thinking of it as like zones, it's more like you just said, physiological systems. like why have the seven training zones? Ryan Thomas (04:09.518) That's literally why they were created is to make meaningful change of what's happening physiologically. So if you go back to when the zones were first created by Andy Colgan and Joe Friel and all those people who created, started training peaks and all the specific training physiology, was like, they knew these markers, right? They knew lactate threshold. knew like there was a fat max and a steady state area. they were like, well, how can we make this deliverable to people who don't know much about it? So they needed zones and described zones and to set training in these areas around based on physiology. Cam Nicholls (04:42.86) And what we're going to talk about as an overarching strategy is, you know, periodizing through the zones. And what is periodization? It's taking blocks and increments and improving your fitness over time. And then obviously taking a step back. But when a lot of people think of that, they don't necessarily think of it as when I increase my intensity and volume, have a specific focus on a specific physiological system or a specific zone. So before we talk about the details of what that could look like, there is a bit of research in this space. that not in cycling but in running that looked at this. Ryan Thomas (05:16.002) Yeah, so they were looking at, it was a short time trial, I was a 5K running time trial, but it's still 5K still in endurance. They looked at two types of protocols. went from polarised to pyramidal, was the first training protocol they used over a 16 week period. And then the other protocol they compared it against was pyramidal to polarised. So they were doing a lot of three, zone three, four, two, and then they went into really hard stuff, polarised training. Cam Nicholls (05:39.598) And as a breakdown for those that may not be familiar with those two methods, Polarized is 80 % like Zone 2, like base training relatively easy and 20 % quite hard, sort of over threshold and above. And Pyramidal is more of a 60-20-10 split, so 60 % easy base, 20 % in the middle and 10 % hard. Ryan Thomas (06:03.31) Yeah, that's pretty close. So they looked at that protocol and the other protocol and they found that the best protocol to see a change in this particular cohort was going from pyramidal to polarize. So going from, I would call it moderately hard training in that under threshold predominantly. then you're going into polarized training, which is really hard and really easy. And they saw that's, that is the protocol that saw the biggest change in time or performance in that 5k run. Yes, we're talking about running, but it's kind of a basis for what a lot of coaches have used for forever is just using base fitness, going through the zone, zone three, four, progressing in the threshold and above threshold, the closer you get to your target or your target event. Cam Nicholls (06:46.296) This podcast is brought to you by the Road Cycling Academy. If you're a recreational or amateur road cyclist and you're stuck on a frustrating performance plateau, feeling like you need some guidance, but you're not quite ready to dive straight into one-to-one coaching, at the RCA we've created something called the 12-week custom plan, which we believe would be your perfect next step. It starts off with an upfront deep dive call with your coach who will understand your goals, your riding preferences, what your not negotiable rides are. and where you want to go, then they'll create a fully tailored 12-week custom plan that is supported over the 12-week period. We believe it's the perfect intermediate step, giving you a taste of working with a coach and experiencing a customized plan without committing to full coaching. Our writers are seeing real results too, and you can go to our Google reviews to see this. Marvin recently shaved over 30 minutes off his graft into Imburel time from doing the 12-week custom plan. Adam gained 20 watts on his FTP in 12 weeks and 40 watts on his five minute power. And we have riders completing rides that they've failed in previous attempts like Peaks Challenge, all from doing this 12 week custom plan. So if you're ready to break through, head to the roadcyclingacademy.com in the menu system, you'll see our 12 week custom plan and take the first step towards that next level performance. Now let's get back to the podcast. So this is when I actually worked with you many years ago and we started to do it. was like, I've actually, it was a new stimulus for me. So sometimes, you know, these things are just a new stimulus for people. And by no means are we saying this is the silver bullet to increase FTP, but it's a really easy way to consider a framework on how to increase your FTP. And that is when I started working with you, I like, all right, Cam, I'd done zone two training before, like a lot of it, you know, under the polarised method of 80-20. So I'm going to spend a lot of time on in zone two, but I'd never spent. a focus block on tempo work, which is zone three. So we might've spent three to four weeks on tempo and might've played around a little bit with sweet spot and some threshold, but really sort of got that zone under control. When I say under control, like my rate of perceived exertion all of a sudden was lower for the same output. My heart rate stopped drifting as much in a tempo effort and started to reduce in terms of my average heart rate for that particular workout. And then we moved up to the next zone and we mastered that. And then we moved up to the next zone. Cam Nicholls (09:11.116) and mastered that. And obviously when I say moved up to the next side, VO2 max, you're not doing VO2 max all the time, are you? No, every session. So how would you, for somebody listening at home that might think, okay, this makes a lot of sense spending, you know, two to three week or maybe four week blocks going through the zones. Once you start bringing in a bit of tempo work and then you may be moved to a bit of subthreshold work and VO2, how do you blend it in so you're not like fatiguing yourself? Ryan Thomas (09:37.772) Yeah, so I guess this whole, this protocol is good for when I start coaching someone. This is the first process we go through because when you start with someone as a coach, don't, I can see what you've done before, but I don't know you've done the proper training to get there. So this is the first thing and then you can do other areas after, but if you're beginning in training and you don't know where to start, this is the exact way you should start. Cam Nicholls (09:59.566) Yeah, and keeping in mind 95 % of people that come to you in that basket of training too hard too often, so they're fatigued. even if they're not fatigued, they're one of the, know, one out of a hundred, it's just a robot and they just keep going. But even if they are in that category, it's still always good just to back it off a little bit. Ryan Thomas (10:17.294) That is, yeah. So it's a great strategy and what we, what I try to use and what we try to use within our off the shelf programs and try to develop within the RCA coaches is we look at, think of our three to four week block. So generally we use a step ladder approach of every three to four weeks we have an easier week. So in that three to four weeks over 12, 16 week period, what are you actually working on? So that first, let's say for the example, you've just had a week off the bike. You've just had rest, you've reset, getting into the new season. I've got four weeks of training. The first four weeks is going to be predominantly zone two work. You if you're riding five days a week, you're probably doing zone two three times a week. Okay. Or endurance three times a week. And then the other two days you're doing some short tempo work, slowly progressing and maybe doing some strength efforts or something neuromuscular to try and work that energy system. Just keep it you're at it, low fatiguing. Yeah. Cam Nicholls (11:05.358) I know a lot of our members have what we call the not negotiable rides, so you can still have a ride during the week where you can just go out and rip it and do whatever. Have some fun. Ryan Thomas (11:13.39) Yeah, so bunch rides are always included. We always want to keep it fun and sensible. So that's the first week, four weeks. And then the next four weeks, you're probably looking at doing three intensity sessions in that week. And one of those can be a bunch ride. The other two sessions, you're looking at tempo or sweet spot or low threshold area, trying to work on that energy system for three or four weeks. And you've been working on it a little bit in that first four weeks as well. there's like, there's six to eight weeks there where you're working that energy system. And then after that block, you're probably looking at scattering in a bit of sweet spot, VO2 and threshold. So we're not going to do VO2 three times a week for four weeks because that's going to hurt for someone who hasn't done much VO2 yet. So you've sprinkled in a bit of VO2 once a week and do threshold the other session and you're bunch ride. So you're trying to look at if you're riding five times a week. Once you've got that bass under control for six weeks, whatever that bass period looks like or foundation period looks like, you're doing three rides where you're focusing on quality intensity and then two endurance zone two specific work. Yeah. Cam Nicholls (12:12.172) Okay, and if you, as a general blanket, if you put a timeframe on, if someone wanted to periodize through the zones and start with zone two and work their way through, how long would you be spending? 12 weeks, 14 weeks, 16 weeks, 20 weeks? no, it depends on the individual, but everyone wants a tangible takeaway. Ryan Thomas (12:30.198) If you're starting from scratch, I'd say 16 weeks is a good mark and then you probably should have a rest. Like have a week where you reset. Yeah, around 16 weeks is usually a good mark. You can peak pretty good in 12 weeks and then you maintain for that four weeks and sharpen or you're coming into an event for example that's 16 weeks away. then you have rest. Yeah, and rest for a week and then do the same thing. Another 16 weeks is usually what I like to do. And if we're getting past that 16 week mark, we kind of flag it with the member and say, All right, we're weeks into a training block. How are you feeling? Do you feel like you need a rest? Do feel like you can keep going? So it's talking and communicating there as well. Cam Nicholls (13:06.37) Yeah, okay. And of course, this is a general framework. There are nuances. So people are training for a specific event. Obviously there's specificity that comes into play and a whole bunch of other nuances. So as a general framework, I think it's just easy for people to go, okay, there are my seven or six or five, whatever you're looking at. We use seven at the RCA training zones. I'm going to spend three weeks on here and then I'm going to move up here. and then I'm gonna move up here. And what the workouts look like specifically, that's a rabbit hole for another day. Yeah, exactly. So thanks for your time, Ryan. Much appreciated. We'll catch everyone in the next podcast.
