How Long for Results

hammonjj

I just recently completed six months of cycling and I'm ready to make this my first competitive season. I just love this sport! I just bought a powetap SL to aid in my training. I've tested for my 15sec, 1min, 5min and FTP and unfortunalety, my numbers are quite low. They are in the high end of "untrained" in the training/racing with a power meter, but I am not discouraged as this is only my starting point.

Question 1a:
I was wondering, given a solid training plan, how long will it take before I start seeing results in the various categories at 12 hours per week? My current plan concentrates pretty heavily on FTP for the moment. FTP is where I felt I would recieve the most immediate benefit, ie. not getting dropped.

Question 1b:
I'm trying to come up with goals for the next season and I've managed to come up with some good general riding and racing goals, but I'm struggling coming up with wattage goals because I don't know what's reasonable. Training smart about 12 hours a week, is a 10 watt a month too much/too little in regards to FTP?

Thanks
James

Roadie_scum

It is very difficult to say how much you will improve in terms of power. 10W a month for FTP is a lot, and while it might happen for the first little while, it probably won't be sustainable. Given you are relatively untrained, it is likely you will see good improvements initially. Because it is your first season, at least for the first 3-6 months, I would set goals like the following:

-Train consistently
-Avoid burnout and illness
-Improve bunch riding skills
-Improve bike handling skills
-Improve fitness
-Become more familiar with racing
-Learn tactical concepts
-Utilise tactical concepts in races

Because it is hard to know exactly how your body will respond and how you will feel in races, this is probably the best approach. Once you have a few months of data and some experience racing, you can see how your body is responding and set firmer targets.

Bikeridindude

What roadie says is right, exact power goals are difficult to come up with. Just try to improve as much as you can! I did a lot of reading on this forum and so did a friend of mine before we both got powertaps. We did our tests expecting to see Landislike numbers, disappointment/reality set in very quickly. When I was working hard at improving my threshold earlier this year, after three months it went up about 7 watts/month. You get what you get, some people respond and improve very quickly (a couple of guys that I ride with are good examples!), some of us a little slower. The powermeter doesn't lie! Good luck.