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Training zones and FTP

Cycling / Popular

Test FTP and train by zones.

What coaches agree on

  • FTP is usually estimated with a 20-minute all-out effort, taking about 95% of that average power, or with an easier ramp test, since a true one-hour all-out test is rarely practical.
  • A large volume of easy, zone-2 riding is what builds the durable, long-term gains in FTP, even though harder intervals raise it faster in the short term.
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Common mistakes

  • Ending up at a moderate, grey-zone effort, often tempo, when the session called for genuinely easy or genuinely hard riding, which blunts the benefit of both. This often happens because the FTP number behind the zones was never properly tested or has gone stale.
  • Doing hard, above-threshold sessions too often or back-to-back without recovery between them, which builds fatigue instead of fitness and stalls progress.