Ironman Bike CTL and FTP (Part 2)

In my last post I discussed a CTL range for athletes to achieve based on their bike FTP in watts. One of the flaws with the chart, (or perhaps one of the variables I need to have athletes cross-reference), is the FTP of the athlete.

The higher the FTP of the athlete, the faster they are in general. I had an athlete who got 2nd in their age group at Kona recently email me, and his CTL only reached 18% of his FTP, which was 330 watts.

This athlete was obviously able to get more speed from their aerobic endurance efforts than the typical rider, because riding at zone 2 during a race will obviously be a higher speed for them than an athlete at an FTP of 280 or lower, since their general aerodynamic differences are minimal.

So were my guidelines off? No, I had people on the other side of the spectrum too, at over 40%, who were quite successful.

Bottom line, there are many different approaches, because of the many different skill sets, training time availability, and personal training/performance histories of individual athletes. My hope is you'll look at your past CTL/FTP ratio in your training and racing, and use it as a benchmark to make better training decisions in the future, whether that is to raise or lower your bike CTL.

Coach Vance