FasCat Cycling Training Tips Podcast

Your FTP is the most useful number in cycling. Set it right and every zone, every interval and every workout for the next three months is dialed in. Set it wrong and you train too hard or too easy for weeks without knowing it. And most cyclists set it wrong, because every FTP test depends on the one thing you cannot produce on demand: a truly all out effort.
For 20 years, Coach Frank Overton, the Big Cat, monitored his athletes' FTP the old school way: by hand. Pulling best efforts from different days to build a critical power curve, checking heart rate to see how hard they were really going, and weighing how much they had been training lately. It's tedious work that takes a coach all day. This week Frank shows you how CoachCat's new FTP Tracker does that same analysis on your rides instantly, and how to set your FTP without dreading a test ever again.
But first, a big announcement: FasCat is now the AI Research and Development Partner of CANYON//SRAM, the Women's WorldTour team. Frank shares how CoachCat's AI predicted the power it would take on Mont Ventoux and the Col d'Èze at the Tour de France Femmes, how the race data validated those predictions, and the season in review reports he's building for the team: Analyze, Predict, Prescribe. And the punchline for this episode: there isn't a single FTP test in the team's data. Not one. Their FTP comes from their racing and training, using the same engine that now runs in CoachCat.
Frank also answers the question listeners keep asking about Zwift's new coaching feature, and the five things a game can't do that a coach can: your long ride outside, real power data analysis, recovery, nutrition, and a human coach in the loop. Ride Zwift, and let FasCat be your coach.
Then the three old school principles behind the new school FTP Tracker:
Tip 1: FTP is CP60, so build your critical power curve from every ride. FTP has always meant the best power you can hold for an hour, and the critical power curve finds it from your best efforts at every duration, from any ride, not a single test on a single day. Saturday's climb is your best 5 minutes. Sunday's race is your best 20. Plot them all and the hour takes care of itself. Frank explains why 95 percent of a 20 minute test cannot be right for everyone: two riders can hold 280 watts for 20 minutes and the diesel holds 272 for the hour while the punchy rider holds 260.
Tip 2: Heart rate is the honesty check. The curve is only as good as the efforts that build it, and on its own it cannot tell a hard effort from a maximal one. Heart rate can. An effort at threshold heart rate is maximal and builds the curve. An hour at 240 watts at 90 percent of threshold is sub maximal, so your FTP is above 240 and the curve does not get dragged down to meet it. Even a steady sweet spot ride at a known heart rate tells us almost as much as a test. Wear the strap.
Tip 3: Level brings the number to today. A curve built from July efforts still says July in November. Your FTP goes up with training and down without it, and your Level, CoachCat's daily measure of how much you have been training, is the one signal that knows what you have done since your last hard effort. Frank shows how one athlete took his Level from 33 to 64 on 16 Weeks of Sweet Spot and his FTP from 260 to 284 watts, why a rest week is not a layoff, and why the relationship breaks once intervals start, which is exactly why a new maximal effort always wins.
And the new school part: we built all three into CoachCat. Sync your rides and the FTP Tracker runs the whole analysis instantly. You see two numbers side by side, the FTP we determined from your data and the FTP set in your profile, with a degree of confidence behind the number and what would raise it. If they don't match, update it in one tap and every workout on your calendar recalculates to your new zones. No test required.
Plus: the FasCat Winter Training Series starts Tuesday, November 17. Three coach led rides a week on Zwift: Turnt Up Tuesdays, Zone 2 Thursdays and Sweet Spot Saturdays, pace groups A through E, free to join.
Next week, Friday, November 13 at 2pm ET: Episode 49, AI Power Data Analysis and the Next Frontier. Frank goes behind the scenes of the CANYON//SRAM season in review reports and what the data says separates a good season from a great one.
Read the articles:
Find Your FTP Without a Test: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/find-your-ftp-without-a-test/
FTP versus Critical Power: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/ftp-versus-critical-power/
Level and FTP: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/training-load-and-ftp/
FasCat Named AI R&D Partner of CANYON//SRAM: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/fascat-ai-rd-partner-canyon-sram/
Ride with us this winter: https://fascatcoaching.com/ride-with-us/
Start your free trial of CoachCat, sync your rides, and see your FTP: https://app.fascat.ai/intro
Work hard, ride fast, have fun and as always FtFP!

Trainer season is here, and so is the FTP Tracker. This week Coach Frank Overton, the Big Cat, splits the show in two.
Part one: how to make indoor cycling suck less. Why the trainer is a tool and not a plan, the sunny day rule, how to avoid Indoor Training App Syndrome (too hard to be base, too short to build durability), the pain cave setup that fixes heat, friction and boredom, three workouts that make the hour fly by (Sweet Spot Bursts, Criss Cross and Over Unders), the survival week that keeps you from ever going to zero, and why you should never do the long Saturday ride alone. Everything in this half comes from our new free Indoor Cycling Guide.
Part two: the brand new CoachCat FTP Tracker, released this week. Frank was one of the original power nerds, helping develop TSS and the Performance Management Chart with Dr. Andy Coggan and pioneering sweet spot training.
The FTP Tracker is the analysis he would do on your FTP by hand if he had all day, that's now done instantly & in rela time in CoachCat. He walks through the science: critical power modeling, why CP60 is FTP by definition, how heart rate answers the one question every coach asks ("how hard were you going?"), and how your Level brings your number to today whether you've been riding more or less. No all out test required.
Review of the week from Dr. Saswata Roy.
Links:
Free Indoor Cycling Guide: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/indoor-cycling-guide/
Find Your FTP Without a Test (the science behind the FTP Tracker): https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/find-your-ftp-without-a-test/
Winter Training Series schedule and Zwift club: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/winter-training-series/
Start your free CoachCat trial, no credit card required: https://app.fascat.ai/intro
Hire a FasCat Coach: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/hire-a-coach/
Share your story for review of the week: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/customer-reviews/
The FasCat Winter Training Series starts Tuesday, November 17: three coach led group rides a week, live in game on Zwift, free with CoachCat and 1x1 coaching. Turnt Up Tuesdays, Zone 2 Thursdays and Sweet Spot Saturdays. Join the FasCat Coaching club in Zwift Companion and RSVP.
Two ways to ride faster: the CoachCat app or 1x1 coaching with a FasCat Coach. Both start with a complimentary consultation and a custom training plan.
Work hard, ride fast, have fun and as always FtFP!
Two notes: fill in the timestamps after the stream from the recording, and if the schedule actually lives at fascatcoaching.com/pages/winter-training-series/ rather than Ride With Us,

FtFP. Follow the F*%'ing Plan. You've heard us say it at the end of every episode, it's on the shirts, it's in the app, and this week we finally tell you where it came from.
FtFP was not born in a coaching meeting. It was born in a comment thread. Back in 2019, FasCat sold static training plans and ran a private Facebook Group. One athlete posted every week: missed my workout, skipped my rest day, did the group ride instead of the intervals, why am I not getting faster? The coaches stayed patient. The other athletes did not. One finally wrote "why don't you just follow the plan?" Another piled on with the f*%'ing version and dropped the Chopper HTFU video, a nod to Velominati's Rule #5. HTFU met FasCat, and FtFP was born.
Seven years later it's part of the philosophy behind CoachCat, and here's the part that matters: FtFP was never about perfection. Follow 80% of your plan and you get faster. That's what the data says, and it's why we back it with our 6 Week Improvement Guarantee.
In this episode, Frank Overton, the Big Cat, covers:
The full origin story of FtFP, Chopper video and all
The 80% rule and why consistency beats any single workout
The 8 rules for following your plan: hold your zone, focus on the main work, ride easy days easy, be flexible not flaky, revise don't cram, and speak up early
Rule #4: Be Flexible, not Flakey
Accountability: a North Star, a strategy, and execution
Review of the week from Amy Webb, CEO of Future Today Strategy Group: "Successful people tend to share one thing in common. They follow the f*%'ing plan."
What's new in CoachCat: wattage ranges now right on the workout, and the FTP report in beta
The FasCat Winter Training Series: three coach led Zwift rides a week starting Tuesday, Nov 17
Live Q&A: how do you FtFP?
Links from the show:
👉 Read the article and the rules for following your plan: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/wtf-is-ftfp
👉 Start FtFP'ing for free in CoachCat: https://app.fascat.ai/
👉 Join the Winter Training Series. Join the FasCat Coaching Club in Zwift and see the schedule: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/winter-training-series/
👉 Refer a friend and earn cash back: https://fascatcoaching.com/refer-a-friend
👉 Share your story for a chance to be our next review of the week: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/customer-reviews/
Two ways to ride faster: the CoachCat app or 1x1 personal coaching with a FasCat coach. Both start with a complimentary consultation and a custom training plan. Start your free trial and save 50% with an annual subscription ($17.50 a month): https://fascatcoaching.com/app
And Velominati, if you're out there: Rule #5 gave us HTFU. We'd love to add FtFP to the Rules.
Work hard, ride fast, have fun and as always FtFP!

Hope is not a training plan. Most cyclists sign up for a race, ride hard and hope the fitness shows up on race day. The FasCat way is the opposite: pick your event first, then work backward from race day.
In this episode, Frank Overton, the Big Cat, walks through exactly how our coaches build a season and builds four real 2027 plans live with our new Pick Your Event, See Your Plan tool:
Unbound Gravel 200: the full build with weights, Sweet Spot base and the Unbound plan, with no punchy intervals for a flat, hot course
GFNY New York City: what happens when you have fewer than 34 weeks, and how the phases compress
The Firecracker 50: a marathon MTB race at altitude, and why climbing intervals go in before the event plan
Your spring group ride: why you should treat it like a race, plus our 4 Week Group Ride Interval Training plan
Plus:
The four FasCat training phases (weights, Sweet Spot base, intervals and event specific), how long each one lasts and what to protect when you're short on weeks
Why your age decides your plan level, and how CoachCat builds age appropriate plans
A live demo of the CoachCat custom plan builder: five questions and your whole season is on your calendar
The FasCat Winter Training Group grows to three rides a week: Turnt Up Tuesdays, Zone 2 Thursdays and Sweet Spot Saturdays
Links from the show:
👉 Build your 2027 plan for free in CoachCat: https://app.fascat.ai/
👉 Read the article and try the Pick Your Event tool: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/build-your-perfect-2027-training-plan/
👉 Join the Winter Training Group (first ride Tuesday, Nov 17). Join the FasCat Coaching club in Zwift: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/winter-group-training/
👉 Refer a friend and earn cash back: https://fascatcoaching.com/refer-a-friend
👉 Share your story for a chance to be our next review of the week: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/customer-reviews/
Two ways to ride faster: the CoachCat app or 1x1 personal coaching with a FasCat coach. Both start with a complimentary consultation and a custom training plan. Start your free trial and save 50% with an annual subscription ($17.50 a month): https://fascatcoaching.com/app
Work hard, ride fast, have fun and as always FtFP!

Want to climb faster without adding a single watt? Improve your power to weight ratio. This week on the FasCat Podcast, Frank Overton, the Big Cat, explains how cyclists can lose weight the right way: without losing power, wrecking recovery or bonking on the bike.
Here's the truth: 80% of weight loss happens in the kitchen and 20% happens on the bike. Ride more and eat less is old school thinking, and it stops working once you've lost the first few pounds. Frank shows you how to win in the kitchen.
In this episode:
Go Fast vs Go Slow foods: the simple framework our athletes use at the grocery store, because what comes home goes in your mouth
Diet by math: why a 250 to 500 calorie daily deficit adds up to about 1 lb a week, or 10 lbs in 10 weeks, without hurting your training
How to use your power meter to fuel: 1 kilojoule on the bike is about 1 calorie of food
Protein targets for cyclists (1.2 to 2 g per kg of body weight), plus 3 meals and 4 snacks a day and how much water to drink
When to diet and when NOT to: why the off season and base phase are the time, and why you should never cut calories during intensity, weight training or race season Zone 2 endurance rides and teaching your body to burn fat 
How to use CoachCat to fuel your workouts and stay on track We're live every Friday at 2pm ET.
Two ways to ride faster: the CoachCat app or expert 1x1 personal coaching. Both start with a complimentary consultation and a custom training plan.
👉 Start your free trial or schedule your consultation: https://fascatcoaching.com/
📖 Read the training tips:
Weight Loss for Cyclists: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/weight-loss-for-cyclists/ Performance Nutrition:
Winning in the Kitchen: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/performance-nutrition/ Winning in the Kitchen Weight 
Loss Meal Plan: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/weight-loss-meal-plan/
⭐ Share your FasCat story, and you might be next week's review of the week: https://fascatcoaching.com/pages/customer-reviews/
Work hard, ride fast, have fun and as always FtFP!