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80 posts in Training science
Your FTP went down. Six reasons, and only one of them is fitness
Same trainer, same test, twelve watts lower. Before you rewrite the plan: a lower test result usually is not lost fitness. The six causes in order of how often they turn out to be the answer, and the five-minute check that tells you which.
Ramp rate: how fast you can add training load without breaking
Every rider who discovers load tracking tries to make the number go up as fast as possible, and a few weeks later is ill. The conventional bands, what actually sets your own limit, and why a build that never comes down is not a build.
Block periodisation: one signal at a time
Five hard sessions in a week, then two weeks of quiet. A sharper tool with a narrower handle than the standard mixed week — genuinely better for some riders, genuinely worse for others. Which one you are, and the week-two mistake that wastes the whole block.
Sprint work for riders who are not sprinters
Most amateur plans have a hole at the top end, usually because the rider decided they are not a sprinter. Four sessions, why the rests are far longer than feels reasonable, and the one setting you must turn off to do these indoors.
Reverse periodisation: intensity in winter, miles in summer
The traditional cycling year came from professionals in mild climates with unlimited time. For an amateur in a northern winter with a job, it can be exactly backwards — and there is a coherent alternative that says so.
Durability: why your power at hour four is the number that matters
Two riders with identical FTPs can be 55 watts apart four hours into a sportive. That gap has a name — durability — and no fresh test will ever show it to you. How to measure your own, and the training that actually builds it.
Over-unders: the interval that teaches you to ride through lactate
The session that turns "I blew on the third climb" into "I was there at the top" — and one of the most frequently botched workouts in cycling. Four versions in order of difficulty, and the four ways riders ruin them.
30/30s: the shortest intervals that still build your ceiling
Thirty seconds hard, thirty seconds easy, twenty times. Microintervals chase the same adaptation as five-minute VO2max efforts by a route most riders can actually finish — provided you get the first three reps right.
Aerobic decoupling: what the Pw:HR number on your ride actually means
The closest thing you have to a free aerobic test, taken on every long ride at no extra cost. How to read it, what counts as a clean measurement, and the five things that make it lie to you.
Three zones, five or seven? Which model to actually use
Open three training books and you get three zone systems. They are not competing discoveries about the body — they are filing systems, and you want more than one. Which to use for the week, the session and the top end.
How to build a cycling training plan around a full-time job
You don't need 12-hour weeks to get properly fast — you need the right 6–8 hours, placed where your life can actually hold them. Here's how to anchor a working week around two quality sessions and one long ride, what to cut first when work explodes, and why a plan that adapts beats a plan that's perfect.
How many TSS per week do you actually need?
TSS puts one number on how much training you've done — but how much is enough, and when does more stop helping? Realistic weekly ranges by rider level, the ramp-rate rule that keeps you improving without breaking, and why chasing the number corrupts the training it's meant to measure.
Zone 2 training on a smart trainer: how to actually stay in zone
Everyone agrees Zone 2 builds the engine — and almost nobody actually rides it, because outdoors every junction, hill and ego bump pulls you out of zone. On a smart trainer with ERG mode the discipline problem disappears. How to set the right watts, manage drift, and make 90 steady minutes genuinely bearable.
What your power curve says about you: sprinter, puncheur or diesel?
Your best 5 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes and 20 minutes tell a story your FTP alone can't: what kind of rider you actually are. How to read your own power-duration curve, the signature shapes of sprinters, puncheurs, diesels and climbers — and when to train your weakness versus doubling down on your strength.
Indoor training with heart rate only (no power meter, no problem)
No power meter, no smart trainer — just a heart-rate strap? You can still train properly. How to find your threshold heart rate with one honest 30-minute test, set five zones from it, structure a week around what HR measures well, and work around what it doesn't (lag, drift and hot rooms).
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