FTP — Functional Threshold Power — is the single number that tells you where you stand as a cyclist. It's the maximum power you can sustain for roughly an hour, and it's the foundation every serious training metric gets built on.

If you want to get faster, climbing that number is how you do it.

The good news: FTP is highly trainable. Eight weeks of focused indoor training, done right, can produce meaningful gains even for cyclists who've been riding for years. Here's how to approach it.

First: Establish Your Baseline

Before you can improve your FTP, you need to know what it is.

The standard protocol is a 20-minute all-out effort on the trainer. Warm up properly — at least 15 minutes with a few short hard accelerations — then ride as hard as you can sustain for 20 minutes. Take 95% of that average power as your FTP estimate.

It sounds brutal because it is. But it gives you a number you can actually work with.

Log it in VeloWorkout before you start your 8-week block. You'll want that baseline when you retest at the end.

The Core Training Zones

All the workouts below are based on percentages of your FTP. You don't need a power meter if you're using perceived effort, but power data makes this far more precise.

  • Z2 – Endurance (56–75% FTP): Conversational, sustainable for hours
  • Z3 – Tempo (76–90% FTP): Comfortably hard, breathing elevated
  • Z4 – Threshold (91–105% FTP): Hard, focused, sustainable for 20–60 min
  • Z5 – VO2max (106–120% FTP): Very hard, 3–8 minute efforts

Most FTP gains come from Z3–Z4 work. VO2max intervals (Z5) build the ceiling that makes threshold work easier.

Weeks 1–2: Aerobic Base

Before hammering threshold work, you need to make sure your aerobic engine is firing properly. Skipping this phase is why a lot of cyclists plateau.

Session structure (4x per week): 2 × 60-minute Z2 rides — steady, controlled, never gasping. 1 × 45-minute ride with 3 × 10 minutes at Z3 (Tempo), 5 min easy between efforts. 1 × 30-minute easy recovery spin.

Keep the easy rides genuinely easy. The temptation to push harder "just a little" kills the adaptation.

Weeks 3–5: Threshold Development

This is the meat of the plan. Threshold intervals are uncomfortable but not destroying. You should feel like you could go harder, but going harder would mean falling apart before the interval ends.

Session structure (4–5x per week): 1 × 60–75 min Z2. 2 × threshold sessions — rotate between: 2 × 20 min at 95% FTP (10 min easy between), 4 × 10 min at 100–105% FTP (5 min easy between), or sweet spot: 3 × 15 min at 88–93% FTP. 1 × VO2max session: 5 × 3 min at 115–120% FTP, 3 min easy between. Optional: 1 × recovery ride (30 min easy).

Weeks 6–7: VO2max Emphasis

Now that your threshold is elevated, you're going to push the ceiling higher with more VO2max work. This makes your Z4 feel more sustainable by raising your aerobic capacity.

Session structure (4x per week): 1 × 60 min Z2. 2 × VO2max sessions: 6 × 3 min at 115–120% FTP (3 min rest), or 8 × 2 min at 120–125% FTP (2 min rest). 1 × Sweet spot: 2 × 20 min at 88–92% FTP.

These sessions hurt. That's the point. Keep the recovery intervals honest — don't soft-pedal them, but don't make them efforts either.

Week 8: Taper and Retest

Back off the volume, let the adaptation set in, then retest.

  • Days 1–3: Short, easy rides (30–40 min Z2)
  • Day 4: One short sharpener — 4 × 1 min hard with full recovery
  • Day 5: Full rest
  • Day 6: FTP retest using the same 20-minute protocol as Week 1

Most cyclists who follow this plan see improvements in the range of 5–10%. Some see more, especially if they were undertrained coming in.

Tracking Your Progress

This is where VeloWorkout earns its keep. Log every session — duration, any power data you have, how the effort felt. Over 8 weeks, your training history becomes a real picture of the work you've put in.

When you retest your FTP, update it in the app. That number shifting upward is one of the most satisfying things in cycling, and it's worth documenting properly.

A Few Things That Will Ruin This Plan

Skipping recovery. Your fitness doesn't improve during hard sessions — it improves during the recovery from them. Cut sleep or pile on junk miles and you'll stall.

Making easy rides too hard. If your Z2 sessions drift into Z3, you're accumulating fatigue without the adaptation. Keep easy days easy.

Skipping the retest. The retest at Week 8 is not optional. You need that data. It closes the loop and gives you a new baseline for the next training block.

Eight weeks is a short amount of time. Stick to the plan, keep the sessions consistent, and you'll finish it a meaningfully faster cyclist than when you started. Then you retest. Then you build the next block. That's how this works.