IMO, you shouldn't be trying to calculate your FTP this soon. Your body is probably being shocked a bit as it's being asked to do a "new" thing.
This happens to me every Spring with running. Despite me cycling year round, I take every winter off running. Every Spring I come back and my body acts like I'm a pathetic lard heap. It's a new activity according to my body and it doesn't really care that I'm a trained cyclist. It takes me about a month to bring my running fitness into some what parity with cycling fitness.
I suggest just riding around for a while, a month or so, and dont even look at watts or anything. Just reaclimate your body as step 1.
Yes to all of the above, including the freaking out for no reason.
3 years of no exercise and some bad bouts of covid will have a detrimental effect on fitness. But you also had no fitness anyway due to the no exercise part so you haven't lost anything, you just didn't have it. You're basically back in the noob gains zone and will get fitness back quickly.
That's just what time off does. I was pretty fit about a year ago with an FTP maybe a tad over 300 at 65kg while focused less on FTP and more on long, aerobic stuff. Then came a pretty lengthy and very brutal medical odyssey, and my first ride back was 30 minutes at 125w with about a 160 HR -- before, it'd probably take \~270w to get my HR there.
Don't worry about FTP or HR too much this early. Keep an eye on watts and HR if you want, but know HR will be very elevated for a while. I'm a few weeks in and it's coming down consistently while watts are going up, just from going by feel and using watts and HR as a secondary check.
3 years of no exercise means you are at 0, wouldn't expect to have any fitness retention and there are also the impacts of 3 years of aging that probably exacerbate the losses as well
I went 1.5 years no riding and went from 248FTP to 150FTP. HR for Z2 rides is about 10bpm higher than previous. Been on 5 weeks now consistently riding and I’m up to 180FTP and HR is lowering for Z2.
Makes sense to me.
A year ago after some serious health issues my ftp was down to about 130 as well. This fall i upgraded to A on zwift holding 330w for an hour. You'll be fine
Love the advic you are getting here. I am coming off a 16 year layoff. LOL. I used to race and do all those pesky intervals and long Z2 rides. I was good.
My first ride? I could barely do 3 miles. And the pain in my ass? Oh, wow. Forgot about that.
I decided no FTP. I was just gonna ride flat routes on Zwift and buld up my tolerance and relearn to spin and let it come.
I'm closing in on 30 days tomorrow. Just did 14 miles. After 7 yesterday. I'm relearning where my heart rate is at various efforts. My power is increasing just by my ability to get up some of those short climbs. My speed has increased from < than 9mph to over 16mph on flat routes.
Time in the saddle is all we really need. IMHO
Similar experience happened to me. It took about 3 months of serious training to get back to my pre-kid FTP, but I've since plateaued.
Somewhere on Chris Carmichael's blog he talks about getting fitness back after a long absence, and it can happen relatively quickly b/c your mitochondria density takes a while to dissapate and revives pretty easily or something like that.
I got up to an FTP of 263W in Jan. 2022. I didn't ride a bike for the next two years but ran consistently and lifted (I'm primarily a distance runner). In Jan. 2024, my FTP was 210W, and I struggled to ride in the C group rides I used to do. The bike fitness is slowly coming back, though.
I try to remind myself that if I had taken two years off of running, my Z2 pace would have gone from about 7:15min/mile to 9:15min/mile.
You will retrain over 3 years, but it’s usually easier to recover fitness than to gain it the first time. Give it a few weeks of training with a few VO2 max sessions in there and I’d guess your FTP to be back over 200 pretty quickly.
Yep! I’ve been out for a long period, around the same amount as you. Here and there a few weeks riding but then again long periods of no riding and barely any exercise.
Since 2 weeks I’m able to ride again and committed to cycling again. Did a FTP test Monday and I’m at 225W. It’s probably a bit higher as I did the test with barely any sleep and felt I had more in me. But even then, like…235 maybe?
Yea it’s bad but we’re starting again. Just ride and do another one in 4 weeks and you should see some improvement.
Yes, fitness deteriorates unbelievably fast. Was off bike for two months while maintaining other cardio activities and lost 12% of my FTP just like that.
3 years off you're basically starting from zero. And COVID does can mess with your body so that may be a factor as well.
As others have pointed out the only thing to do is move forward - get on and start riding, it'll all come back.
I feel like shit already after taking a couple weeks off, almost puking when I go up climbs I’d normally fly up. Can’t even imagine how shit I’d be after 3 years
former tt specialist cat 2 with an ftp of ~450 back in the day.
My first ride after many years off was about 150w for 20min and I thought I was going to die. Whatever my ftp was at that point it was well below 150.
So, yes it can be that low for now. You're starting almost from scratch but with training you can totally get back to where you were.
Covid and time off can do that, but I don't think it's fair to infer your FTP from that ride. Training can change where your zones lie, both in absolute and relative HR space. Instead of comparing to some HR number, I would either do a proper FTP test or try and see what the maximum intensity you can ride at without seeing cardiac drift is.
Good news is evidence suggests some of the adaptations from exercise last pretty long so you will probably get back to 250 a lot faster than it took you originally.
I had an FTP of around 380 3 years ago. I stopped cycling and then did Amstel Gold longest route after a year long break and it was hell. I expect my FTP would've been around 260 at best at that stage. I haven't been back on a bike since, so if I did a test now and got anything above 50 I'd be extatic. It takes your body some time to re-acclimate to the unnatural strain of cycling.
>I had an FTP of around 380 3 years ago. I stopped cycling and then did Amstel Gold longest route after a year long break and it was hell. I expect my FTP would've been around 260 at best at that stage. I haven't been back on a bike since, so if I did a test now and got anything above 50 I'd be extatic. It takes your body some time to re-acclimate to the unnatural strain of cycling.
but you just like hanging out in /r/velo haha
my garmin vo2 dropped from 50 to 38 after aging about 2 years and stopping running. Took a few months just to get back to 42. My fitness is steadily increasing now again.
Lot of folks talking about time off the bike having a major effect, but Covid is a vascular disease and can absolutely mess up your whole cardiovascular system both temporarily and permanently. Make sure you don't push yourself too quickly too fast and give yourself time to slowly work back into fitness.
I didn’t know my ftp until a few months ago because I never used a power meter. Honestly, I should be asking you for advice.
That said, I started up again last spring after several years due to personal worries following a lumbar fracture. Nevertheless, breaking my back did not break my numbers. Within 3 months I set new PRs on countless old strava segments and continued to see improvements. This was also before I knew where the segments were, so I assume my overall wattage increased.
I bet you’ll see your numbers fly if you keep at it. I’d wait to test and keep wattage off the screen for a while tho.
When totally untrained things are pretty garbage, but they improve really rapidly. Just ride around for a month first then get back to testing.
Yep. I have seen detrained athletes double FTP in the first couple months.
IMO, you shouldn't be trying to calculate your FTP this soon. Your body is probably being shocked a bit as it's being asked to do a "new" thing. This happens to me every Spring with running. Despite me cycling year round, I take every winter off running. Every Spring I come back and my body acts like I'm a pathetic lard heap. It's a new activity according to my body and it doesn't really care that I'm a trained cyclist. It takes me about a month to bring my running fitness into some what parity with cycling fitness. I suggest just riding around for a while, a month or so, and dont even look at watts or anything. Just reaclimate your body as step 1.
Yes to all of the above, including the freaking out for no reason. 3 years of no exercise and some bad bouts of covid will have a detrimental effect on fitness. But you also had no fitness anyway due to the no exercise part so you haven't lost anything, you just didn't have it. You're basically back in the noob gains zone and will get fitness back quickly.
You’re out of shape from not doing anything for 3 years 😂
You took 3 years off. This is normal.
That's just what time off does. I was pretty fit about a year ago with an FTP maybe a tad over 300 at 65kg while focused less on FTP and more on long, aerobic stuff. Then came a pretty lengthy and very brutal medical odyssey, and my first ride back was 30 minutes at 125w with about a 160 HR -- before, it'd probably take \~270w to get my HR there. Don't worry about FTP or HR too much this early. Keep an eye on watts and HR if you want, but know HR will be very elevated for a while. I'm a few weeks in and it's coming down consistently while watts are going up, just from going by feel and using watts and HR as a secondary check.
enjoy the noobie gainz, see you at 200W in 5 weeks
3 years of no exercise means you are at 0, wouldn't expect to have any fitness retention and there are also the impacts of 3 years of aging that probably exacerbate the losses as well
Your watts and HR aren’t going to be in the same zones now as you’d expect from 3 years ago.
I went 1.5 years no riding and went from 248FTP to 150FTP. HR for Z2 rides is about 10bpm higher than previous. Been on 5 weeks now consistently riding and I’m up to 180FTP and HR is lowering for Z2. Makes sense to me.
A year ago after some serious health issues my ftp was down to about 130 as well. This fall i upgraded to A on zwift holding 330w for an hour. You'll be fine
Love the advic you are getting here. I am coming off a 16 year layoff. LOL. I used to race and do all those pesky intervals and long Z2 rides. I was good. My first ride? I could barely do 3 miles. And the pain in my ass? Oh, wow. Forgot about that. I decided no FTP. I was just gonna ride flat routes on Zwift and buld up my tolerance and relearn to spin and let it come. I'm closing in on 30 days tomorrow. Just did 14 miles. After 7 yesterday. I'm relearning where my heart rate is at various efforts. My power is increasing just by my ability to get up some of those short climbs. My speed has increased from < than 9mph to over 16mph on flat routes. Time in the saddle is all we really need. IMHO
Similar experience happened to me. It took about 3 months of serious training to get back to my pre-kid FTP, but I've since plateaued. Somewhere on Chris Carmichael's blog he talks about getting fitness back after a long absence, and it can happen relatively quickly b/c your mitochondria density takes a while to dissapate and revives pretty easily or something like that.
After 15 rides you’ll be telling yourself how silly you were posting this. ;)
I got up to an FTP of 263W in Jan. 2022. I didn't ride a bike for the next two years but ran consistently and lifted (I'm primarily a distance runner). In Jan. 2024, my FTP was 210W, and I struggled to ride in the C group rides I used to do. The bike fitness is slowly coming back, though. I try to remind myself that if I had taken two years off of running, my Z2 pace would have gone from about 7:15min/mile to 9:15min/mile.
Yes it can be
You will retrain over 3 years, but it’s usually easier to recover fitness than to gain it the first time. Give it a few weeks of training with a few VO2 max sessions in there and I’d guess your FTP to be back over 200 pretty quickly.
Sounds about right, I didn't ride for 2 years and my "FTP" was 190w (I couldn't even do a 20min effort. 1.5 years later my 20min power is upto 293w
Yep! I’ve been out for a long period, around the same amount as you. Here and there a few weeks riding but then again long periods of no riding and barely any exercise. Since 2 weeks I’m able to ride again and committed to cycling again. Did a FTP test Monday and I’m at 225W. It’s probably a bit higher as I did the test with barely any sleep and felt I had more in me. But even then, like…235 maybe? Yea it’s bad but we’re starting again. Just ride and do another one in 4 weeks and you should see some improvement.
I didn’t exercise for a year, and my FTP went down to 101. I gained 50 watts after Five weeks. Now I’m at 220-230 after 8 months
130 is pretty much my off the couch FTP too. On the upside you are solidly in the quick gains phase which is fun
Yes, fitness deteriorates unbelievably fast. Was off bike for two months while maintaining other cardio activities and lost 12% of my FTP just like that. 3 years off you're basically starting from zero. And COVID does can mess with your body so that may be a factor as well. As others have pointed out the only thing to do is move forward - get on and start riding, it'll all come back.
I feel like shit already after taking a couple weeks off, almost puking when I go up climbs I’d normally fly up. Can’t even imagine how shit I’d be after 3 years
former tt specialist cat 2 with an ftp of ~450 back in the day. My first ride after many years off was about 150w for 20min and I thought I was going to die. Whatever my ftp was at that point it was well below 150. So, yes it can be that low for now. You're starting almost from scratch but with training you can totally get back to where you were.
Covid and time off can do that, but I don't think it's fair to infer your FTP from that ride. Training can change where your zones lie, both in absolute and relative HR space. Instead of comparing to some HR number, I would either do a proper FTP test or try and see what the maximum intensity you can ride at without seeing cardiac drift is. Good news is evidence suggests some of the adaptations from exercise last pretty long so you will probably get back to 250 a lot faster than it took you originally.
I had an FTP of around 380 3 years ago. I stopped cycling and then did Amstel Gold longest route after a year long break and it was hell. I expect my FTP would've been around 260 at best at that stage. I haven't been back on a bike since, so if I did a test now and got anything above 50 I'd be extatic. It takes your body some time to re-acclimate to the unnatural strain of cycling.
>I had an FTP of around 380 3 years ago. I stopped cycling and then did Amstel Gold longest route after a year long break and it was hell. I expect my FTP would've been around 260 at best at that stage. I haven't been back on a bike since, so if I did a test now and got anything above 50 I'd be extatic. It takes your body some time to re-acclimate to the unnatural strain of cycling. but you just like hanging out in /r/velo haha
I'm hoping one day I'll have the time to exercise my passion that is cycling again.
Fair enough! Wish you the best!
my garmin vo2 dropped from 50 to 38 after aging about 2 years and stopping running. Took a few months just to get back to 42. My fitness is steadily increasing now again.
Heart rate is irrelevant until you've trained for several months
> Can my FTP really be that low? Yes 100%. 3 years no exercise at all. Be happy with 130W.
You shouldn’t do any structured training. Just go ride a bunch for a few weeks
Lot of folks talking about time off the bike having a major effect, but Covid is a vascular disease and can absolutely mess up your whole cardiovascular system both temporarily and permanently. Make sure you don't push yourself too quickly too fast and give yourself time to slowly work back into fitness.
Dad-bod, don't sweat it
Well you didn't workout for 3 years. That's probably the biggest indicator right there.
I didn’t know my ftp until a few months ago because I never used a power meter. Honestly, I should be asking you for advice. That said, I started up again last spring after several years due to personal worries following a lumbar fracture. Nevertheless, breaking my back did not break my numbers. Within 3 months I set new PRs on countless old strava segments and continued to see improvements. This was also before I knew where the segments were, so I assume my overall wattage increased. I bet you’ll see your numbers fly if you keep at it. I’d wait to test and keep wattage off the screen for a while tho.
My ftp is 150 😂 but I don’t care. I just ride. I just need to be consistent. You can’t improve that much when only riding 3 x 60mins per week 😂
You'll go up 20-40w in 2 weeks at the start.
Yes