Ancient Man Wants to increase FTP

[maxroadrash]

I've been reading this particular forum for a few weeks now and I have a boatload of questions.
Let's get all of the basics out of the way:
Age-64
Height- 5'10" (178cm)
Weight-152 lb/ 69 kilos. This seems to be more or less my natural (race) weight and about where I find myself as long as I keep riding.
FTP- last time I checked a pathetic 185w
General conditions: I have pulmonary problems. Borderline COPD or asthma, the docs really can't decide. Lots of enviromental damage but mostly from tobacco addiction. I've not smoked for 8-9 years but the damage has been done.
Some days it's not a problem, some days I'm f**ked.
History: Raced when I was young in So. Cal. and did well.Almost always podiumed unless I crashed out. Quit racing at age 16 when I was diagnosed with extreme Ozgood-Shlauter. Started riding again 5 years ago. I have had a difficult time in that every year except this one I've managed a bone breaking crash. As you might imagine, this has slowed me down a bit. I had an incident that kept me off the bike for 18 months and started riding again 3/12. Did about 10,000k since. I feel like I'm just back to the point where I can start to train. I spent 2.5 weeks in the Swiss mountains in October and was relatively pleased with the fact that I was able to climb an alp or Jura almost every day. I have pretty good endurance I guess. I've ridden several times this summer around 200k. Mostly, I'm limited by what my butt can take.
Equipment- 2 really good road bikes. Main bike is a '07 BMC SLC01.
Have a trainer and a PT300 that I just got. I have one PT wheel and a Garmin 500.
Goals: I want to be able to do a TRUE 3w/kg for hours on end. Once I've gotten there, I want to be able to deal with accelerations in group rides.
So here's the question/s: I feel like I've got enough base now to start intervals. In fact, I've done some 20's already but even with all my reading here , I'm not really sure where I should start.
What say ye?
And thank you for your your input.

 

[Conan]

Max, Welcome aboard! A couple of questions: What is your current weekly schedule? Do you have goal races, tours etc you are aiming for? Considering your medical issues, have you been given the OK by your Doc?

 

[maxroadrash]

Originally Posted by Conan .

Max, Welcome aboard! A couple of questions: What is your current weekly schedule? Do you have goal races, tours etc you are aiming for? Considering your medical issues, have you been given the OK by your Doc?

Thanks for the welcome Conan!
Weekly schedule as far as hours I can devote to training? In winter 10-12 a week. In summer I often do 12-15. I don't really have any racing goals. IF I were going to race it would be TT's. Mostly I just want to be faster and see how far I can get. The Doc is supportive, enthusiastic and I think a bit amazed so that's not a problem.

 

[RapDaddyo]

Welcome back to cycling. There's a pretty good thread about a guy of a similar age who started from an FTP of ~150W. He worked his way up to ~250W in about 4 months with very reasonable hours on the bike. I think the thread is still a sticky on the Cycling Training forum here: http://www.cyclingforums.com/t/314849/its-killing-me-but. It's now a long thread, but the heart of it is in the first 25 pages or so.

 

[maxroadrash]

Originally Posted by RapDaddyo .

Welcome back to cycling. There's a pretty good thread about a guy of a similar age who started from an FTP of ~150W. He worked his way up to ~250W in about 4 months with very reasonable hours on the bike. I think the thread is still a sticky on the Cycling Training forum here: http://www.cyclingforums.com/t/314849/its-killing-me-but. It's now a long thread, but the heart of it is in the first 25 pages or so.

Thanks RD! Actually I'm up to about page 15 of "Tyson's Tale." A really good read./img/vbsmilies/smilies/cool.gif

 

[An old Guy]

Originally Posted by maxroadrash .

I've been reading this particular forum for a few weeks now and I have a boatload of questions.
Let's get all of the basics out of the way:
Age-64

Goals: I want to be able to do a TRUE 3w/kg for hours on end. Once I've gotten there, I want to be able to deal with accelerations in group rides.

I'm not really sure where I should start.
What say ye?

If you want to ride for hours on end, you need to ride for hours on end. You are old so you have lots of time.

You have a power meter, but you don't say anything about your power output on rides.

You have hills.

I would go out and ride the hills everyday. 1 hour repeats. Climb for an hour at whatever power output - 75% seems like a good starting point, I could do repeats at. Take a 5 minute break to eat and drink. Repeat.

Since you fall down a lot, avoid the high speed stuff.

 

[maxroadrash]

Originally Posted by An old Guy .


If you want to ride for hours on end, you need to ride for hours on end. You are old so you have lots of time.

You have a power meter, but you don't say anything about your power output on rides.

You have hills.

I would go out and ride the hills everyday. 1 hour repeats. Climb for an hour at whatever power output - 75% seems like a good starting point, I could do repeats at. Take a 5 minute break to eat and drink. Repeat.

Since you fall down a lot, avoid the high speed stuff.

I am fully employed so I don't have all the time in the world.
I took all my Garmin files and brought them into Golden Cheetah and that's telling me my CP is 172.
I don't fall down a lot. I CRASH! Actually, I grew up and rode in the desert outside of San Diego. When I started riding again, it was a big jump to riding in NYC. It took longer to adjust than I would've thought. Two weeks ago, I was hit by a car. I didn't get a scratch but I destroyed his door. I will ALWAYS go as fast as I can.

 

[maxroadrash]

The moderators tell me that it will no longer take 10 days for my posts to appear here so lets test that.

In the interim I've gotten reasonably comfortable with the new used PT300 I got and this being the first of the year,
I thought it a good moment to do a real FTP test. It probably WASN'T the perfect time as I'm carrying lots of fatigue
from days of 2X20's but what the hell,right? As it turned out, I averaged 169w which, if I understand it correctly,
comes to an FTP of 160.5w. For the last week I've been doing my 20's on the basis of a 161 FTP. However, when I looked at
the file in WKO (since everyone here seems to speak WKO I figured I better get with the program), I realized that I had
probably gone out too slow as the last 2/3's of the ride I was going at around 175 and the trend was upward.
I've been doing my 20's around 145w and the last couple days that was beginning to feel easy and in fact, after a day off,
I'd done 3X20 at that rate. So the question is do I raise the bar and how much?
Max
PS: Happy and safe New Year to You All!