An open training log · 98 → 86.95 kg · 240 W and climbing
A real training plan, published as it is ridden. Built around FTP and power zones, fitted around rotating shift work. Climbing watts, one week at a time.
The goal: lose weight, build fitness, and ride 100 km without it hurting. Indoor trainer only, 4–5 sessions a week, fitted around rotating shift work. Every session below is the real file that goes into the trainer — watts shown at the starting FTP of 240 W and recalculated after each ramp test.
Everything on this site comes from one idea: the shift decides what fits, and only then does training decide what to do with it. Three ways in, depending on how much time you have.
Below this is my own plan, updated weekly with real numbers — the proof that the rules above survive contact with a real roster, including the weeks they do not.
Every session gets rated 1–5 afterwards — 1 very easy, 3 just right, 5 too hard. Two "too hard" ratings in a row and the plan drops the work intervals by 3% on its own. Sessions already ridden carry their rating; days still ahead don't. Each week has a Get this week button — the sessions of that week only, as Zwift files. They are written in percentages of FTP, so Zwift scales every target to your own FTP; there is nothing to convert. Sessions that have been ridden also carry the morning numbers they were ridden on — sleep, Body Battery, HRV, resting heart rate — and a line about what actually happened. New to power training? The glossary explains every term used below.
Ramp test to set FTP, then easy endurance only. A run of night shifts, so no intensity at all.
Result: 228 W (last step 320 W). Same protocol as before, so the previous 227 W was not an underestimate.
Day off until 21:00. Easy in the morning, 1–2 h nap in the afternoon before the night shift.
After a slept-through day, before leaving for work. Night shift 2.
Night shift 3. Only if daytime sleep worked out (at least 5 h) — otherwise skip it.
Night shift 4, the last one — the fifth was cancelled, so Monday is free.
The night shifts end on Monday morning, so Monday is for sleep. From Tuesday the afternoon shift frees up six mornings in a row: easy on Tuesday, the first sweet spot on Thursday, tempo on Saturday, the long ride on Sunday.
Home from the last night shift at 6:30 — today is for sleep only.
8:00, before the afternoon shift. First day after nights — very easy, cadence 90+. If sleep hasn't recovered, skip it without guilt.
Morning. Steady — the body is still switching back to a daytime rhythm.
Morning, on fresh legs — 86% FTP, the first work under threshold. Even, cadence 88–95.
Morning, easy — tempo tomorrow.
Morning, before the afternoon shift. 84% FTP — gentler than sweet spot, but longer intervals.
Day off — ride whenever. Last 15 min at 80%: work on tired legs. Electrolytes.
Four early shifts, so the weekday rides are short evening sessions. The quality goes where there is energy for it: Tuesday evening and Friday, which is a day off. Long ride on Saturday, first night shift on Sunday.
Evening, after an early shift. Eat after work, on the bike around 17:00.
Evening, 88% FTP. Short and to the point — this is the main FTP builder. If Body Battery is under 65, the plan moves it to Friday by itself.
Early shift — legs rest today.
Evening, easy. Tomorrow is a day off with a hard session.
Day off — sleep in and ride before noon. 95% FTP; the last 2 min should hurt, without the cadence falling apart.
Day off. 2 × 10 min at 85% near the end. Electrolytes, a drink every 20 min.
The day after 80 km off-road, with the first of four night shifts tonight. A spin at most, and only if Body Battery has come back — it ended yesterday at 10. Below 40 on Body Battery, skip it without guilt.
Easy endurance only during the nights, around 16:00, and only after a slept-through day. Thursday after the last night is off. Afternoon shifts from Friday mean three free mornings: openers, sweet spot 2 × 20, long ride.
Night shift inside a run: endurance only, and only if the daytime sleep happened. Only if the daytime sleep ran past 5 h and Body Battery is at least 50.
Night shift inside a run: endurance only, and only if the daytime sleep happened. Only if the daytime sleep ran past 5 h and Body Battery is at least 50.
Night shift inside a run: endurance only, and only if the daytime sleep happened. Only if the daytime sleep ran past 5 h and Body Battery is at least 50.
First day after the nights. Easy riding resets the body clock faster than lying still. Below 40 on Body Battery, skip it without guilt.
The hard session goes here: the best window of the week — slept, with a free morning. Quality needs Body Battery of at least 50, over 6 h of sleep and HRV still balanced. Miss one and you move the session by a day rather than shortening it.
Rest by design, not by accident — the week's hours are spent.
The week's longest ride. On a low-carb diet this is what moves fat, not the intervals. Below 40 on Body Battery, skip it without guilt.
The plan starts. Two quality sessions, the rest endurance. Tour of Watopia stage 2 doubles as the Sunday long ride.
Window 08:00–09:30. A robopacer or a new route, 145–170 W.
Cadence 85–90. The first quality session of the plan.
Window 17:00–18:15.
Window 17:00. Cadence 88–92.
Window 08:00–09:00.
A long endurance ride. Hold 150–175 W whatever the group does.
A recovery week forced by the roster rather than chosen. No quality at all, volume down by about a third.
Window 08:00.
Free until 21:30 — ride during the day.
Around 16:00, and only if the daytime sleep ran past 5 h.
No riding today.
Sleeping off the run of nights.
Window 08:00. Shorter than the other stages — this is a recovery week.
Back to full volume. The sweet spot intervals stretch from twelve minutes to fifteen.
Window 08:00.
Stepped up from 3 × 12.
Window 17:00.
Window 17:00.
Window 17:00.
Window 17:00–19:00, so two hours rather than two and a half.
The last Tour stage on Friday. Nights at the end of the week wind the block down before the retest.
Window 17:00.
The last stage of the Tour of Watopia.
Free until 21:30.
Block 2 opens with a test. The Tour make-up window runs to 15 November, so Saturday's long ride can be a stage still owed.
Morning. Body Battery above 70, salt and water thirty minutes before, cadence 90–95.
Window 08:00.
Window 08:00.
Window 08:00.
A Tour stage still owed, or a robopacer on a route I have not ridden.
The biggest week of block 2 — three days off in a row leave room for both the quality session and the long ride.
Window 17:00.
Window 17:00.
Free until 21:30.
The second recovery week. Endurance only, building slightly towards the weekend.
Around 16:00, depending on how the daytime sleep went.
Sleep.
Window 08:00.
Window 08:00.
Window 08:00.
Window 08:00.
Threshold work arrives after seven weeks of base. The block closes with a test on Sunday.
Window 17:00.
Window 17:00. The first threshold session of the plan. The last two minutes of each interval are supposed to hurt.
Window 17:00.
The end of block 2.
Recovery after the retest, again dictated by a run of nights. Block 3 does not really start until the following week.
Window 08:00.
Free until 21:30.
Around 16:00.
Sleep.
A whole week off work — the strongest week in the plan, and the first VO₂max session.
Cadence 95–100. Do not start too hard: the last repeat should match the first.
The lightest week of the plan. Five nights in a row plus Christmas: this one is not a fight, it is recovery.
Free until 21:30.
Only if the daytime sleep actually happened.
Back on the bike after the run of nights.
The final week. The longest threshold intervals, and a test on Sunday that closes twelve weeks.
Window 08:00.
Window 08:00. The longest threshold intervals in the plan.
Window 08:00.
Window 08:00.
The day before the test.
Closing out the twelve-week cycle.