Thanks for reacting to the video brother! I could never get down to 70kgs I’m about 6’3”. Made this video more for fun. Maybe doubling my watts per kg of 1.8 to start would be more achievable! Again thanks for breaking this down. Was fun!

EJ left a great comment, letting us know that he’s considering changing is goal from “double my FTP” to “double my w/kg,” which is a much better goal. Now he’ll be motivated to get stronger AND lose weight, which means that every little bit of training, recovery, and diet will mean that much more!

Great video! A lot to learn from breaking down someone elses training. Hope to have more like this coming.

Great breakdown of his training, stress, etc. Super helpful!

Even better than a progress vlog is your commentary on the content of the vlog 👌

The exact sort of content I love on KZfaq, great breakdown and very informative

Thanks Jesse, good breakdown of his training. Too bad EJ has to figure this out on his own. I guess this is what you get with packaged training programs. Seems to me that Jeff should be posting this video breakdown of EJ's training. Glad someone did it.

I am so impressed with you Jesse. As a rider who struggles with consistency, you really opened up my eyes with how to do things the right way. Thank you!

Love this - great commentary! By the way I was expecting something like this as soon as I watched the Nero show with Chris and Jesse :-)

I pick up so much new information and more clarity when I watch your videos Jesse.

Great video JC, solid info as usual.

As a new rider I really enjoyed this video. The advice regarding sticking with the workout even if the first interval feels miserable is so relatable ! Thanks for the cool content!

my 20 minute power tests "proggression" 2017 start of my journey 2018 303w @78 3.9w/kg 2019 330w @76 4.3w/kg 2020 351w @72 4.9w/kg 2021 348w @68 5.1w/kg 2022 348w @73 4.8w/kg 2020 I had by far the most time to train for obvious reason and because of that I saw the biggest jump in fitness, other than that my fitness plateued, I simply can not put any more time into this (at least for now) my annual volume is around 15,000km

Thanks Jesse, I learned quite a lot from this video, as it relates to my journey es well.

Hey Jesse! Love the content as always - you mentioned that a key difference when looking for performance gains is all the things you do outside of just ‘completing the training’. Can you elaborate on what you mean by this? Is it nutrition, is it recovery, is it strength training etc. Would be great to see what outside of training you think has the biggest influence on performance! TIA

Very insightful Coach Coyle 🙏

I have really learnt more here today than I have in the last 2 years. Thanks very much and do this sort of videos again pls.

That was cool. I learned stuff. Thanks JC.

You are so brutally honest, i love it

You comment on all the questions that arose when I was watching Ethan’s video, like “is that even achievable?!” But also questions I didn’t know I had like “is it okay to eat lunch mid ride?”. Max value video!

Thanks a lot for mentioning that heart rate goes up the roof if intense training day is not preceded by an easier ride day! Had that issue when I first tapped into tempo rides (level 3/6), 2 weeks ago. Felt like my heat is about to give up (age 42) and had to back off a bit. After watching this video, I modified my plan to include a 60 min endurance ride the day before tempo.

Great video, so much to learn from your commenting and explanations! I was dreaming to get 300 ftp, going from 225(2.35w/kg) and with much training stuck at the 250 ftp plateau. The only thing that constantly progressed is how long and easy I could sustain the efforts and the recovery from each effort was much faster. So I still looking at people reaching 350-380 like - wow, this is so cosmic and so much work and genetics were put through the years of training 🤗

Love these videos 👊

You should do a part 2 for this video Nor Cal Cycling just put out another video and that guy's FTP is now 332! Freak of nature numbers.

Great video

Weirdly I've always been able to set personal bests on climbs two days after a very long endurance day with a complete rest day in between.

thanks jesse

when I have the time, I love driving away from home (Melbourne) to the hills for a ride alone

Being a bit cynical here, the "double the FTP" is probably partly to get a click-baity title. On the other hand when I was very new to structured training I imagined the initial gains would continue linearly and that I could have 5+w/kg pretty soon

Good luck to Jesse

Hi Jesse, thanks for your videos! I have a question that I've been thinking about often. Living in a very flat country, I sometimes wonder why I so often hear all this talk about power to weight as the be all and end all of fitness assessment. I can see the importance of focusing on watts per kg if your'e Phil Gaimon or a world class hill climber, but more often than not, I suspect that riders would benefit way more from focusing their traning other aspects of their physiology than weight. The reason being that weight makes little difference when not accelerating aggressively or climbing in excess of 7% grades. And even in the high mountains, five kgs makes less of a difference than many riders assume. I'm guessing a few minutes over an hour of climbing the Alpe for instance. And on the flats, I'm arguing, the importance of weight is decisively negligeable. I recently heard that guy from Silca say how they would experiment with loading up to five-ten kgs on a track bike in a simulated hour record attempt and that it literally made seconds of a difference. And it always seems to be the case that the speed benefits of aero gear always beat the weight penalty associated with that equipment in all other cases than perhaps extended climbing in steeper terrain. What I'm getting at is this: Shouldn't most of us focus on the relation between our power output and (something like) aerodynamics loooong before we start to think about shredding those last five kgs? I myself have been waking up to the importance of CDA and my position on the bike, and among all my riding buddies and among racers in the amateur ranks that I come across, it's not rare that I see really fit, strong folks with great power outputs and good position on the bike easily ride away from more slender riders with equally great power but a more upright position. I realize that this is anecdotal, but I heard that Fuglsang started eating way more the year he won Liege. So my own best guess would be that for newer riders, maybe focusing on position and power output would be less taxing and more achievable than adding in a strict diet, if you are a new rider having to work out everything. And my bonus guess would be that those last five kgs would not mean anything of real importance in terms of results for a guy like this unless the goal is a very climby course. So my question is: Isn't it a bit unnecessary to be so interested in power to weight unless we were all strictly climbers or had most other aspects dialed in already? Do you see any other competing assessments for fitness other than watts/kg? Thanks from Mads

I experienced this when starting out with running years ago. First 1-2 years was PB after PB and ~1:30 in a half marathon, but then you hit the ceiling with the achievable volume in your daily life. Shaving off another 5 or 10 minutes already requires a lot more training. That's how I actually got into road cycling, having a breath of fresh air. I'm not just riding along but my goals are usually smaller, like getting FTP up by 10-15% percent so that I can do a hill climb under a certain time. So, he'll probably get in the 300 watts realm but 380 are pro numbers, right? I just checked some TdF pro rides from last year and somebody like Sepp Kuss doesn't crank out 380 on a 20-30 minute climb (I know, you're not doing an FTP test within stage 9 typically, but you're probably not going easy, either ...)

I recently just got started focusing on increasing my performance on the bike and I must say when I saw that video it was hard to believe. I think chasing Watts/KG BW ratio is better rather than chasing a arbitrary number..

I would say 190 to 330 in one year is dreaming

I appreciate you mentioning the hassle and pitfalls of consistently driving to riding destinations, something that is all too common here in the US. Every weekend guys get together to ride somewhere, but often the meet point is 45min away - your day is toast after that. I'm not a fan of dedicating the entirety of a weekend day for a single ride, and as you said, that's not sustainable.

They just released a video where EJ averaged 352W on his 20 minute test..

Jesse is doing him dirty with those mid-video pauses

Crazy how these fellas are at 65kg with 420w ftps

Analysis makes sense. Thanks JC! Enjoyed watching this video! Is high training volume the only thing that will make a cyclist use more fat for fueling rather than glycogen?

Won’t get to 380 in a year? Will take 3 - 4 years? How well did this statement age?

@14:06 I've seen studies that show if you are over weight for most of your life your body takes that as the "normal" and will try yo get back to it. So if you get your body used to being at a lower weight it starts to recognize that as "normal" - SO I can understand what he is trying to say

Love this content! I'd love for you to dissect my FTP video, saying what I did/said wrong, etc.

Hii, I started training last year and my ftp peaked at 265w (4.2w/kg) would it be possible to peak at 310w (5w/kg) this year? Is this a realistic goal?

Coyle for someone around 3.5WKG how many hours a week of training to get to 4wkg should we expect?

“I just LOVE riding bikes” -“And that’s a problem!” 😂 You elaborated it well but that’s hilarious without context.

Doubling W/kg is fairly doable depending on weight loss potential. He doesn’t seem significantly overweight, however from personal experience, I more or less doubled W/kg in my first year from 170w @ 83kg to 266w @ 66kg, where I feel 4W/kg while a decently hard achievement, very doable with consistent training, once you build up to 10 hrs/week after a few months. But then took me another 4-5 years to get to 325w, and I feel i have somewhat reasonable genetics, so even then, getting to 380w for him would still take years, even with world-class genetics. Even the pro’s have 10 years+ in their legs, as they usually start young or come from a different sporting background.

Would love your thoughts or input on tristantakesvideo his testosterone results from a training camp , your normally brutally honest

Even with doping protocol it would be crazy to get from zero to 380w haha

I don’t think it’s far off to think that he could double his W/kg right? He was pretty big and with a 190 ftp he was probably around 2 w/kg (I think I remember him saying this at some point in a video) but going from 190 to 380 seems lofty. He has lost around a ton of weight.

How do you keep your FTP numbers when going downhill 8 always spin out

having been on a similar weight loss to semi fast cyclist, i think he means it might take a year for the brain to realize that the bmr has decreased. it took a year for me to lose a lot of the hunger i had initially

I managed to from 2.7 w/kg to 4 w/kg ftp in 1 year at age 37. I'll maybe be able to up this to 4.5 w/kg in the next year. Above that I would probably need to quit my job to get enough training in and still not sure if I would have the necessary vo2max to get there....

Took me 5 years to double my ftp, although that meant going from a 14 year old with a 170w ftp at 55kg to 65kg with a 340w ftp.

Ethan looks quite a big boned muscular guy and at 6ft3 he looks around 90kg's at least? So that would mean a 4.26w/kg @ 90kg to reach 384watts. But then being a lightweight I don't really understand the physiology of big riders or how common or achievable that is?

Hi Jesse! What about increasing power specifically for cycling is so hard? For example, if you took an average guy who could back squat 100kg, with training in a year he could easily lift 150kg and would likely land in 170-175kg territory. If you could increase your FTP by 50-75% (granted not 100%), most people would be elated. That being said, I've heard many times people talk about increasing FTP by 20-30w as being really hard and you'd want to cross off other things first ex:body position, aero suite, aero helmet, wheels, tires etc. Is the FTP on a bike hard because most cyclists don't cross train enough into a gym to really grow strength or is there something else going on that I (most likely) just don't understand. For reference, I'm pretty new to cycling so I very well might not understand :P

Nor Cal based cyclist here. Very high IQ/kg analysis 🧠👏🏻 One of our strongest local time trial riders just tested his FTP at 335w as part of a 50 min 40km ITT that he then extended to an hour. Guessing he weighs around 75 kgs. 380 is an absurd pipe dream. I doubt Jeff of Nor Cal has ever had that FTP (he is primarily a sprinter).

I guess for winning a crit sprint and anaerobic capacity should be more of a factor. Like 10w/kg for a minute is going to be more use than an extra bit of FTP so long as you have enough to sit in the wheels.

thanks for interval icu

Take a look at his newest vid with the updated FTP.

It's pretty simple Jesse... If he said increase my ftp by 30%...who's going to click on that!! Double ftp.. Now ya talking. I'm going to go for triple the subs.. I mean ftp lol

If it's possible to get at 380 watts FTP with 2 rest days in a week.What will your reaction be ?:))

Nils Van der Poel reached over 400 W ftp with 2 rest days :) :)

The only thing I’d disagree with is that driving to ride is stressful. When you live in the city, it’s actually really nice to drive out towards cool places to ride your bike. it’d probably be more stressful to ride in the city with cars and traffic.

Now we need another one video where someone will reacts on a cycling coach reaction… 😆

Ethan has done a great job shredding the weight that's my biggest problem I've got the power 300+ FTP but the weight is proving to be the problem.

Everyone wants a FTP of 400 until you find out it’s literally takes all the joy away from cycling.

Seems like the goal is clickbait more than anything; a video titled "increasing my FTP in a year" doesn't get the clicks. As I understand it, the specific FTP is not important; it's a way to quickly say, "I want to get as fit as possible in a year," with fewer words.

Losing that amount would be insane let alone gain that amount from never being there before

280 is what I think he'll get to. I wish him the best. Also, here in the US most cyclists drive to get to our rides. 1-2 hour drives are common.

Zone 2 is life

RE Your comment that you wouldn’t recommend an FTP test every 5 weeks. It’s too stressful, no point and there are better workouts. What do you prescribe for an easy week in general and what workout instead of an FTP test? Thanks! Great content as usual.

In terms of the one rest day a week, I'm currently doing 4 days per week on the trainer, new cyclist, just started structured training last April. Was planning to increase my volume of structured training this year to 6h/wk or greater but I get the impression that is still not enough volume. My concern is moving to only 2 days or 1 day off per week would lead me less recovered for intensity sessions as even with Z2 it is building some fatigue. Should the volume be prioritized over intensity and I should reach for getting 8+ hours a week even if it means I have less capacity for SS, Threshold, VO2 sessions?

Look at his wildly fluctuating weekly mileage/time. In January he hit 25 hours for the week then the next week only 4:30 hours. Then he built back up to 17:30 hours then back to 12 and this week had 2 consecutive days off. He is just not very consistent. Work/life making videos. He’s going to find out very quick this is not sustainable. His motivation may drop just from burnout making the videos and editing them.

Sorry but what is Cat 1 level fitness ? (Cool video btw)

What is your toughts about lactate measuring devices? Are they worth the money?

"Its not achievable" 😂

10:09 this pause cracked me up

Look at EJ training camp. Thats him now 1-2 years after. He def in that 1%.

This is again exactly those kinds of videos that I'm looking for and that are lacking. Actual applicable analysis and not just theory that isn't put in the practice of actually riding. Like at 6:00 you can get to 240W by just intensity but beyond it you need volume. Simple statement of applying theory into practice so I get a picture of what it is.

What is the likelihood he’ll be demotivated once he sees slow progress or plateaus? Definitely needs to be more realistic

Nice constructive criticism. Good analysis. Just wish old mate didn't eat someone else's ribs to improve his own 😊

turns out he actually recently achieved 2x his FTP goal. 411watts on the 20 minute test.

How long does it take from 260FTP to 300FTP？ 38Y 80KG😘

That wierd mentality only cycling attracts. If I just train, I too can be an olympic cyclist... If he had the potential for 380, he would already be an athlete. He would have been noticed in school, been on a track team or football or swimming or like Jesse rowing. It's very rare to get through life with those genetics and not notice you can beat your mates untrained in a sprint to the shops. 380 is no dice. Even over 300 is a big goal. Go for small steps in a big journey. Aim to finish with the fast bunch in a year, forget ftp.

Update: He now has an FTP of 334w and won his first Crit (Cat5), 2nd in the Cat4 race on the same day and can pop a 1500w sprint. How cool is that.

There are a lot of people in that area that are pretty good cyclists, there are also a lot of pretty funny attitudes and sly thinkers, don't put it past someone who wasn't well known to sandbag a goal like this to get more attention than they every would have otherwise; he could have been well trained, gained a bunch of weight on purpose for said goal, sandbagged an ftp test, and seem like he has increased his fitness an impossible level by not sandbagging and returning to his original physique in the end. My guess is he sandbagged from the performances he put out at said ftp, he averaged almost 20mph for 3 hours with a sub 200w ftp the day after a 4.5 hour ride at near the same clip, lol.

He almost did double his FTP! 377 if I'm not mistaking... (after a year)

nice

I disagree with the notion that unrealistic goals aren't useful. Sure, some people respond poorly, but many people respond well. I never reach my end goal but I get so much further striving for it than I otherwise would. You obviously still need micro step goals to pave the way there. I used to have the goal of getting a medal at world's in swimming. It got me to a few national finals. I broke my neck last year, and set myself a goal of completing an Iron man 8 months later to get me back in shape. It wasn't pretty, (12 hours) but I did it.

IF he went full for those 190watts, gaining 100watts to 290 is a nice goal, double is just not happening for anyone, unless you didnt go all out

Sounds like excellent coaching. A less excellent coach would call Ethan a knucklehead 👍

I have spent the last five years trying to get to like 300 at 75... (though I started at like 124 kg...)

damn dude you're gonna have to eat this whole video

Apparently the guy got from 185 to 320 in 7 months. It looks to be possible to literally double it in like 15 months

His ftp is actually 334 😮

The mullet game is strong!

I want to do the same and I have already started bulking and boozing in order to get my FTP down to ~120 Watts.

Jesse watch the latest video, ftp 354w!! Wtf, he has to be doping!

i think his ftp is 340 now

Training is all about quality over quantity. Get the quality wrong an you can ride until the cows come home and it makes no difference. With top tier genetics, training, nutrition, and drive it takes 3-4 years to reach pro level watts. 12 months, just ain't happening. And dude, zone 2 is the magic. You figure out how on your own as it differs by genetics. I'm at 4.6 watts/kg 13 months in and gains are reducing, peak goal is 5.5watts/kg