Indoor time and back on Zwift. I am a 69 yr old middle of pack recreational rider. 4-5000 miles a year.

Zwift tells me that my VO2 Max is 36, which charts say is Good-Excellent for my age and weight (142 lbs)
And my tested FTP is 151 (better than last time!) is listed as "Untrained" or beginner. That was discouraging!

Am I fit or out of shape?

How did you test your FTP in Zwift? A ramp test, or ramp test light, or climbing "The Grade"?
How much warmup before the test?

I wonder if more casual Zwift riders don't do competitions or do an FTP test, so they don't show up in the stats.

Your 142 pounds is 65 kg. 151/65= 2.3 watts per kilogram. That sounds good to me.

Don't feel bad. The supposed reliability of FTP numbers as indicators of cycling fitness seems to be debatable these days.

For example, I cranked out fairly good FTP results on the couple of occasions I bothered doing the test, but that's because I used to race and can still put up with a moderately high level of pain.

But non-racers who are just as fit or even fitter would likely quit their ramp tests earlier than I did and thus end up with misleadingly low numbers.

Just coming off outdoor season, so I figured this is as in-shape as I get. 15 minute warmup, then calibrated my trainer. Zwift ramp test light, which also included another 10 min or so warm up.

Probably I should ignore other people's numbers, just like comparing how much money they have or what their house is worth or how many miles they ride a year. Still....it's difficult to not look it up.

Those numbers don't really tell you anything about your actual current fitness. They are used as indicators for you to assess your fitness progress.

I don't know for certain, but I expect that many of us that have always been active most of our lives will have a quite higher VO2max. But that number is a guess by anything but a actual lab test. And it can be affected by how accurate the information is that it is based on.

When I corrected my maxHR in Garmin Connect that was 30 BPM over my actual maxHR and corrected my weight. My VO2max number it gave went down. Not sure which affected it the most or if either was actually the reason.

Your FTP will improve fast if you do intervals or attack most every hill you encounter on your rides. Also helps if you can do over 100 miles a week. Not sure how to equate that on a trainer that doesn't go anywhere! <grin>

I sort of do that already, chasing my riding mates up the hills. And certainly get over 100 miles a week, when in season.

Maybe this is as good as I get.

Good, an effective warmup.
For me, the Ramp Test Light was a long time, with a lot of intervals, to get to the final high watt minute. I did better with the regular Ramp Test, finishing a lot sooner.

I'm motivated to work very hard on two different Zwift things:

Climb portal: the climb is divided into 10 parts, each with it's own power and time numbers, and a gateway at each one. And the estimated finish time goes much longer if I slack off briefly. It's motivating. I can maintain a reasonable pace on the 700 to 1200 foot climbs. I haven't tried the 3000 foot ones.

Workouts. I've saved a dozen workouts, so they show up in my Custom workouts list. I edit the description to add why I liked the workout: "short, hard efforts" or "high cadence intervals", etc.

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I also want to have some "Zone 2" rides on Zwift. That long, moderate pace is good, along with once a week all-out efforts.

I don't know how accurate the VO2 max on Zwift is. My VO2 max on my Fitbit is considerably higher than it is on Zwift but I know the Fitbit has much better, more consistent data to work with given that I use it for all my exercises.

I find the workouts on Zwift difficult. Not so much physically, but mentally.
Same outside, I like to go on long rides with a few tough climbs, but mostly in a conversational pace.

Perhaps I am just "riding," not "training." One reason that I have resisted getting a power meter.

Try group rides with other folks in their 60s. When I was your age, I tested about 154 but could ride with pretty fast folks. I was maybe 3 lbs. heavier than you. On long distances I over-performed for my age. It's not all about FTP. A lot of it is about resilience. IME weight training gives us geezers a big leg up. Most of the fast folk I rode with did not weight train. The best training for actual rides which I used was thus: during the week, however much mostly Z2 I felt like doing. Weekend, one group ride of about 4 hours, 50'-70' of climbing per mile, mostly Z2 between the climbs, all-out on the climbs, say a total of 45' of Z4, 5'-10' of Z5, finish with a sprint. Group ride because I couldn't suffer that much without encouragement. The idea is to TT the course remembering that power required goes up by the cube of your velocity.

I had to lay my bike down at the finish as I couldn't dismount safely, that hard of a ride. No need for a PM. If I felt strong, I'd do a moderate group ride the day before the hard one, the hard one being aways on Sunday. You could go by HR, but going by breathing works just fine. Nice to have a record of HR and/or power though, so one can detect progress or the reverse.

There's nothing like a group ride with folks who are faster than you to get your numbers up. I'd tell riders new to the group to "hold their wheel until the blood started from their eye sockets." You want to ride with folks fast enough to drop you and then finish the route solo, which would mean a known route or having it loaded in your Garmin. I was a cruel SOB, but cruelest to myself. Needless to say, this is not everyone's cuppa. The rewards however were substantial.

"IME weight training gives us geezers a big leg up. "

Working on that this year. More upper body stuff than lower, 'cause I don't want to be sore the next day for cycling and I don't have the machinery to do leg presses or weighted squats. I can ride 70 hilly miles, no problem. But 10 unweighted squats and I am sore the next morning.

So, if I really work at it, how much can I reasonably expect to raise my FTP? When I read accounts of folks who went from 120 to 350 in a couple of weeks, I don't believe them.

There's a lot of individual variability but for a 69 yo male at 2.2 w/kg (if you tested properly)? Maybe 25%, give or take. You won't know until you try. Note that because of the cubic relationship between power and speed, a 25% increase in power means only about a 8% increase in speed.

That is a lot of work to go from 15 to 16.2 mph. Maybe I can just buy some cool aero stuff instead.

There are three ways to go faster on a bike: more power, less drag, smarter tactics. The finish line and stopwatch don't care which you use, and you can do all three. That's allowed.

In Zwift settings, switch power zones to "% of FTP" instead of categories. You'll see your efforts in the right context. Keep riding!

You could join a gym or do other things at home using dumbbells. For instance: 30 Best Leg Exercises For Strength & Performance | Muscle & Fitness
Yes, you would be sore the next morning, so ride some Z2 in the afternoon or evening. After my open heart surgery in April, I started all over again at the end of August. Yesterday my 3rd squat set of 12 was 105 lbs. Long way to go, should be squatting my body weight by spring. Doesn't have to be squats, everything you do that's hard helps. Upper body: can't beat pushups for cycling.

For us wattage challenged folks - free speed is king. Well, not so much free in terms of money!

Along with aero stuff - biggest free speed I saw while upgrading my bike was wheels and tires. Stock wheels (crap on my bike), same for tires - upgraded to GP5000’s on 40mm deep CF wheels = +\- 1 mph at 200w.


As far as performance increases FTP/VO2 - my opinion, at our age range - once we are at that 5000 per year mark - any real gains from structured training will be minimal. An entire winter of intervals did little to raise my FTP or W/kg - but it did allow me to operate at higher % of my FTP for longer periods and with less blowing up during the ride. This allowed for better average speeds, but not much in terms of top speed.

And since we can’t handle much more in terms of intensity, adding mass amounts of volume and time at low intensity would be the next step. And in the end, after all that extra work - results may not be worth it. (Nor do I have the time and energy for it).

The body can get used to a specifc movement very quickly. I weight train and when I swap out one exercise for another, that muscle group lets me know.

I'd wondered what you meant by "crap wheels" in a previous thread where you said that a young racer's bike would cost a minimum of $6,000 (IIRC) and that that number included replacing the stock crap wheels. You weren't referring to, e.g., the quality of the hubs or rims but to somewhat improved aerodynamics (I guess) and somewhat lighter weight. In that case, "crap" seems a little strong.

I wasn’t talking about wheels on the 6k bike. I was saying that is the price point where decent wheels started to show up…

The wheels on many of the lower/lower mid spec road and MTB’s are flat out crap.

My Emonda ALR 5 came with wheels that were not only heavy - but smoked bearings and hubs every few thousand miles. Bike was always in the shop.

Those wheels came on some of CF bikes as well.

Wheels that came on my son’s entry level racing MTB ($1700 bike) - complete crap that he proceeded to break ASAP. In fact, the other tab on my browser has a search for replacement wheels.

And not to derail too far - we just got back from regionals. The kids that won (top 10) were on S-Works, Project One’s or other similar 8k+ rigs.
Even the kids on “charity” type teams were riding SuperCalibers, 4-5k or so. I’m talking 14-15 year old kids… my point then was - kids can race on basic bikes - but compete/win?

So when 115# kids are racing - 10#’s of bike weight is a huge advantage…

Your 'fit' for what you do and how you ride...that's it
FTP is a magical number like 'eleventeen'...it only works for you when comparing power changes over time and training/riding.
I'm 70 weigh 138lbs and stand at 5'3"...my zwift ftp is 188 and zwift racing score is 293...while my ftp is low compared to many other riders I am able to beat them in races on zwift...why is that you ask...because fitness is not just ftp which is related to just power not overall fitness.
I think it also depends on how the algorithm works for the events you participate in...I'm not sure but looking at my power numbers, in zwift power, for the races I've recently done and won I'd expected my ftp to go up a bit, same as my zrs but not a change, not even by one point so I'm suspect at how the system's algorithm works and is used by zwift events in general.

If you want to increase your overall power/numbers use the ftp as your baseline and do workouts that are dedicated to increasing your ftp then you will see a change...but you have to put in the effort...no effort, no reward...

We are similar in age and size, and I don't think that I can increase my FTP score from 151 up to yours. I have done a few Zwift races, but usually get dropped within the first 30 sec. Time trials go better, 'cause it's just me and the clock. Still finish way back, but not as humiliating.

Possibly you can equal my ftp or surpass it...depends on a few things...genetics play some role but mostly it is training and hard work...
It really depends on what you want...I am a racer, have been for near forty years so there is a lot of durability in my body...but I work very hard to be the best I can be...I train every day, whether it is a recovery ride, hiit, etc. Currently I'm trying out Trainer Road. Last year I used a 'real life' coach, it worked fairly well but was expensive.
So what do you want out of the 'riding experience' and if the answer is 'performance', 'racing', etc are you willing to pay the price...hard work and dedication.
If you just want to ride fast but don't want the commitment of a 'racer' then your effort will be a little less.

Participating in races on Zwift and getting dropped quickly is a matter of preparation, training, understanding of what is coming, proper warmup, etc. It also depends on the race you have entered. If it is a short race, under ten miles or so, then it is going to be near full gas and very intense from GO because the effort is going to be less than thirty minutes and many Zwift racers can ride at that pace for that amount of time...However if the race is longer, 25 miles or more, the pace is usually not as bad at the start but it can be depending on the course and racers and you may be able to hold on longer. It also depends on the race you are participating in...if it is an 'open' event we are at a disadvantage, in general, because we may be racing against riders that are perhaps 50 years younger than we are and though it really sucks to say it, it is hard to compete against people that are reasonably fit or better and so much younger...It also depends on the category race you enter. Are you entering Zwift Racing Score events and joining the race that is 'recommended' for your racing score? If so the field is somewhat more level and you may have a better chance.

All in all, don't get discouraged...figure out what you want then do that and if it racing, awesome, but it is hard work though worth it imo.
Remember this "it doesn't get any easier, you just go faster"...Quote by my hero Greg LeMond...

Good luck and keep us informed...whew this was a lot of typing lol

I don't see where you give any hint as to how much time you spend on a bicycle or indoor trainer. One or two rides a week aren't going to get you anywhere to increase your FTP. That won't even maintain your cycling fitness unless you are very structured in what you do.

Outside, typically 4-5000 miles a year, so 3-4 rides a week. Maybe twice a weight with some type of resistance stuff, like weights and elastic bands.

November in Ohio, so weather is variable. Starting to do some Zwift and when that gets to be full time, then probably 2 or 3 times a week.

I "ride" a pretty good amount, but admittedly, I don't really "train."