Training With Power: FTP Made Simple for Women
“Everyone in my tri club talks about FTP and watts and zones, and I nod along with no idea what they mean.” If that is you, this one is for you.
Power meters have gone from pro-only kit to something a lot of age-group cyclists and triathletes now train with. Trained with well, power is the most honest, precise way to pace your riding and measure your progress. Trained with badly, it becomes one more number to feel anxious about. Let me demystify it.
Here is what FTP actually is, how to find yours, how the zones work, and how to use power to train and race smarter, without it taking over your life.
A power meter measures exactly how much force you are putting through the pedals, in watts. Unlike heart rate, it does not lag, and it is not thrown off by heat, caffeine, sleep or stress.
FTP, or functional threshold power, is roughly the highest average power you can hold for about an hour. It is the anchor number. Once you know it, all your training zones are set as percentages of it, so your sessions become precise instead of guesswork.
How to Find Your FTP
You do not need a lab. There are simple field tests you can do on a turbo trainer or a quiet stretch of road.
- The 20-minute test. Warm up well, then ride as hard as you can sustain for 20 minutes. Take your average power for those 20 minutes and multiply by about 0.95. That is your estimated FTP.
- Ramp tests. Many apps use a ramp test that gets progressively harder until you cannot continue, then estimate your FTP from that. Easier to pace for beginners.
- Either way, retest every so often, perhaps every couple of months, so your zones stay accurate as you get fitter.
- Test in a repeatable way, same setup, so you are comparing like with like over time.
A quick, reassuring note. Your FTP is a personal benchmark, not a scoreboard against anyone else. Comparing your raw watts to a heavier or taller training partner is meaningless. What matters is your number improving over time, and how it feels relative to your own zones.
Your zones worked out from your FTP, what each one is for, and a few go-to sessions for each. The cheat sheet I give my cyclists and triathletes. PDF, straight to your inbox.
Send it →The Zones, Without the Jargon
Once you have your FTP, your training zones are simply bands of power set as percentages of it. You do not need to memorise the science. You need to know what each is broadly for.
- Easy and endurance (well below FTP). The bulk of your riding. Builds your aerobic engine with low stress. Should feel genuinely comfortable and chatty.
- Tempo and threshold (around and just below FTP). Harder, sustained efforts that lift your ceiling. This is where a lot of race-relevant fitness is made.
- Above threshold (well over FTP). Short, hard intervals for top-end power and punch. Used sparingly.
The magic of power is that it stops you doing what most self-coached riders do, which is ride everything at a vague medium effort. Power lets you keep easy rides truly easy and hard efforts truly hard, which is exactly how you get fitter.
Using Power to Race Smart
This is where power earns its keep, especially in triathlon. On the bike leg, it is dangerously easy to ride too hard early, feel great, and then have nothing left for the run. Power stops that.
- You set a target power for the bike leg based on your FTP and the race distance, and you hold it, even when adrenaline says go harder.
- For a long-course triathlon, that target is a controlled percentage of your FTP that leaves your legs able to run.
- It takes the guesswork and the ego out of pacing. The number keeps you honest on the hills and the flats.
- Ride to your number and you get off the bike with legs that can actually run. This is the difference between a good race and a death march.
Do You Actually Need a Power Meter?
Honestly? No, not to start. Plenty of women build excellent cycling fitness using heart rate and perceived effort. A power meter is a precision tool, not a requirement for getting fit or enjoying your riding.
It becomes genuinely worth it when you are training seriously for a specific goal, especially a long-course triathlon where bike pacing makes or breaks your run, or when a lot of your training is indoors on a smart trainer where the numbers are right there. If most of your riding is on the road for the love of it, do not feel you have to buy one to be a proper cyclist. You do not.
Do Not Let the Numbers Run You
A gentle warning, because I see this in driven women a lot. Power is a brilliant servant and a terrible master. If a lower-than-expected number on a bad day sends you into a spiral, or you cannot enjoy a ride without staring at watts, the tool has stopped helping. Your data does not know you slept badly, you are premenstrual, or work has been brutal. Use power to guide your training, not to judge your worth. The number is information. You are the athlete.
Power and Heart Rate: Use Both
Power and heart rate are not rivals, they are partners, and reading them together tells you more than either alone.
- Power is the work you are doing, right now, with no lag. It is your pacing tool.
- Heart rate is how your body is responding to that work. It is your cost tool.
- Watch them together. If your usual power suddenly costs a much higher heart rate than normal, that is a useful flag: fatigue, heat, dehydration, illness brewing, or your cycle.
- Over time, the same power costing a lower heart rate is a lovely sign of improving fitness.
A Sample Power Week
To make it real, here is roughly how a week of power-guided riding might look for a time-crunched triathlete. Three rides, each with a clear purpose.
- One easy endurance ride: the longest of the week, spent comfortably below threshold. Builds the engine. Should feel chatty.
- One threshold session: intervals around your FTP, for example a few blocks of several minutes at threshold with recovery between. This is where race fitness is built.
- One shorter mixed ride: either some short, sharp efforts above FTP, or an easy spin, depending on how the rest of your week looks.
Notice the shape. Most of the riding is easy, with a clear hard session in the middle. Power is what stops the easy ride creeping into medium and the hard session being not quite hard enough. That discipline is the whole point.
How to Actually Improve Your FTP
Raising your FTP is what makes you faster, and it comes from consistent, well-structured training rather than any single magic session. The reliable levers: plenty of easy aerobic volume to build the base, regular threshold work to lift the ceiling, a sensible sprinkle of higher-intensity efforts, and enough recovery and fuelling for it all to stick. Strength training helps too, by improving the force you can put through the pedals. It is not quick, but it is dependable. Build consistently for a few months, retest, and watch the number climb. That climb, more than any single ride, is the proof your training is working.
Getting Started Without Overspending
If you are curious about power but wary of the cost, here is the honest lay of the land so you can spend sensibly, or not at all.
- Smart trainer estimates. If you already ride indoors on a smart trainer, it likely gives a power figure. Great for structured indoor sessions with no extra spend.
- A single-sided power meter. Measures one leg and doubles it. Less precise than a dual system but much cheaper, and perfectly good for training zones and tracking trends.
- A dual-sided or hub-based meter. The most accurate and the most expensive. Worth it if you are racing seriously and want precision, overkill if you are just starting.
- Whatever you use, consistency matters more than absolute accuracy. Train and test with the same device so your numbers are comparable over time.
Indoor Versus Outdoor Power
One practical thing that trips people up. Your power indoors on a turbo and your power outdoors on the road can read a little differently, and can feel very different too. Indoors there is no freewheeling, no descents, and often more heat, so holding a given power can feel harder. This is normal. If most of your training is indoors, it is worth setting your zones from an indoor test, and if you race outdoors, do at least some key sessions outside so the effort feels familiar. Do not panic if your outdoor numbers look a touch different. You are comparing two slightly different environments, not failing.
Reading Your Numbers Across a Season
The real gift of training with power is the long view. Day to day, numbers bounce around with sleep, stress, heat and your cycle, and chasing a big number every single ride is a fast route to burnout and disappointment. Zoom out instead. Over months, you want to see your FTP trending up, the same efforts costing a lower heart rate, and your ability to hold power late in long rides improving. Those season-long trends are what tell you the training is working. One flat Tuesday tells you nothing except that Tuesday was flat. Judge the training by the trend, never by a single ride.
A Word on Comparing Yourself
One last thing, because it matters and it is where a lot of women tie themselves in knots. Raw watts are not a leaderboard. A taller, heavier rider will almost always push more absolute watts than a smaller one, and it tells you nothing about who is the better athlete or who is fitter for their own body. If you must compare, power relative to body weight is a fairer measure, but honestly, the only comparison that helps you is you versus your past self. Is your number climbing? Do your zones feel more comfortable than they did? Are you holding power later into long rides? That is the scoreboard that matters. Your training partner’s watts are their business. Yours, trending up over a season, are the story worth watching. Keep your eyes on your own bike computer, and let the number be a tool that serves you rather than a stick to beat yourself with.
The Short Version
A power meter measures your effort in watts, instantly and honestly, unlike heart rate which lags.
FTP is roughly the highest power you can hold for about an hour, and it anchors all your training zones.
Find it with a 20-minute test (average power times 0.95) or a ramp test, and retest every couple of months.
Zones let you keep easy rides easy and hard efforts hard, which is how you actually get fitter.
On race day, holding a target power stops you trashing your legs on the bike before the run.
You do not need a power meter to start. And when you have one, let it guide you, not rule you.
Train by the numbers that matter, ignore the ones that do not, and never let a watt figure decide how you feel about yourself. Ride strong.
- Everyone talks FTP and watts and you have been quietly bluffing
- You have a power meter or smart trainer and are not using it properly
- You keep trashing your legs on the bike and having nothing left for the run
- You want a coach who sets your zones and sessions around your real data
If you ticked two or more, this is exactly what my coaching sorts out.
Apply to work with me →If you want your training built around your numbers, with sessions and race pacing that actually make sense, that is what I do.
Female-specific triathlon and cycling coaching, structured around your data and your life. Delivered through the platforms you already use.
The application takes two minutes. I read every one myself. I will WhatsApp you within 24 hours on weekdays.
Apply to work with me →Frankie x