Easiest way to increase FTP legally?

[HarryTheDog]

None of the above. It's a wind-up.

Oh well 5 minutes of my life wasted but nobody died, I need to switch on my humour detector.

 

[fossyant]

None of the above. It's a wind-up.

That's it, you've cracked it. Put your cooling fans 'behind you' when on the turbo and you'll be wind assisted ! Wind up from behind !

The simple answer is ride the bike more and harder. This FTP stuff is really not needed unless racing at a high level and you have a coach who knows what to do with it all. People stress over a load of numbers and there is no shortcut, it's just called training harder.

 

[Drago]

Your "?" key appears to be sticking rather badly. Perhaps too much drool on the keyboard?

Like Wiggo's intra muscular contisol injections for muscle problems that always seemed to flair up just before a race, according the the leaked Team Sky medical records.

Whether these wheezes do improve performance is open to question, but amount of top cyclists with World class aerobic function, yet who suffer asthma which requires medicating with unusual steroid medicines just prior to big money races, is conveniently high.

As for the OP, as Foss says, train harder. A proper diet and a solid 8 hours rest will assist you to do that.

 

[Milzy]

I am no authority on training at all so when I decided to train properly for racing this year I bought powermeters and as I didn't have much of a clue I hired a coach to tell me what to do and where I was going wrong. So after sifting through my previous rides data and a ftp test he determined that my Sprint was above average , my endurance was fine but slowish. My race pace was not up to scratch for a 1-1.5 hrs race ie true FTP of effort over a hour.
So my training to improve race pace and FTP was mostly done on the turbo at powers and BPM just below or just above FTP complete turbo session including warm up and warm down around the 1 hr mark. For me no need for long endurance rides. When I go for a road ride try to keep them around the 2hr mark but at around FTP power but with a bit of a structure to them ie last 3 miles at a bit higher BPM . ( as I am xc racing I also do skills sessions, hill work, chaingangs etc which is not FTP training)
Also looking at my data it showed that I had been slacking on my training rides and doing to much coasting also it showed I am no endurance athelete and cant do day after day of training , I usually only do 2 hard days in a row. I have many more rest days than I ever did before, also I actually do less miles and in 2 months I improved my FTP by 20 watts. Since I seem to have plateaued but I was fairly fit before I started and I am 55 so I am not going to make big gains.
I like having a coach as I can just get my plan for the week and just go and do it, theres plenty of stuff online but I thought I would treat myself for this year and see how it goes.
Are you trying to improve FTP for TT, racing or just you've done a test and want to get better?

Sounds good. Mostly to finish higher up in sportives and impress peers but to enjoy the thrill of been more powerful.

 

[screenman]

Sounds good. Mostly to finish higher up in sportives and impress peers but to enjoy the thrill of been more powerful.

Want to properly improve them do some time trials, a number on your back is better than one in your bike.

 

[stephen.rooke]

Do some intervals then move on to more intervals and when you've finished with that even more intervals

Chuck in some sweetspot for 10-20 mins at time regularly in your solo rides, probably 3 rides a week, mix that up with some 10 min intervals at ftp but not ass regularly as it'l start to fatigue you.

I had a bad winter due to work and laziness, ftp dropped from 260 to just over 200, doing a solid 2 months of intervals got me up to 270 and continuing the training and also racing has got me upto 290 currently.

You also want to determine what your goals and events are as although FTP is very important you can get away with having a lot less power if you know how to sit in a group out of the wind and pace climbs etc

 

[Milzy]

Do some intervals then move on to more intervals and when you've finished with that even more intervals

Chuck in some sweetspot for 10-20 mins at time regularly in your solo rides, probably 3 rides a week, mix that up with some 10 min intervals at ftp but not ass regularly as it'l start to fatigue you.

I had a bad winter due to work and laziness, ftp dropped from 260 to just over 200, doing a solid 2 months of intervals got me up to 270 and continuing the training and also racing has got me upto 290 currently.

You also want to determine what your goals and events are as although FTP is very important you can get away with having a lot less power if you know how to sit in a group out of the wind and pace climbs etc

Will chucking in racing your PR's on Strava upset the balance in intervals or stick to pure intervals?

 

[Vegan1]

Do a 3 minute MMP test on a wattbike and then go from there.

 

[Tin Pot]

Sounds good. Mostly to finish higher up in sportives and impress peers but to enjoy the thrill of been more powerful.

I highly recommend reading this article posted on slowtwitch:

https://www.outsideonline.com/1924306/drug-test

From 2003 a doctor took PEDs and published his experience and performance gains.

Very interesting IMO.

Personally I don't mind people using PEDs unless they are competing - in which case I despise them as I do any kind of cheat.