FasCat Cycling Training Tips Podcast

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!

Over 40 and wondering why the same workouts, rides and races hit harder than they used to? On this episode of the FasCat Podcast Coach Frank answered that question and gave you a simple way to train for it: the Masters Diamond.
The biggest change isn't intensity, it's recovery. A hard workout that took one night to bounce back from at 30 can take two nights at 55. After 20+ years of coaching Masters athletes at FasCat, here's how we train athlete's over 40/50/60/ & 70:
⚾ The Masters Diamond
Picture a baseball diamond with four bases:
1️⃣ First base is Time: how many hours a week you actually have to train
2️⃣ Second base is Dose: your intervals, sets and reps
3️⃣ Third base is Recovery: the rest you need to absorb that dose
🏠 Home plate is Life: staying flexible when life happens
Touch all four bases and you score a run, and that run is consistency. The bases are connected. Change one and you change the others. Skip a base and you're out.
In this episode:
🔹 The four age bands we coach by (40+, 50+, 60+ and 70+) and what changes in each
🔹 VO2 max intervals by age: why 50+ athletes do 2 sets of 2 x 5 minutes instead of 3 x 5
🔹 The new Rønnestad VO2 workouts in CoachCat
🔹 Sweet Spot for Masters: shorter sessions (45 to 90 minutes), done more often
🔹 Sprint work at 40, 50 and 60+ and why you shouldn't give up Zone 6
🔹 The golden rule: cut sets and reps before you cut intensity, and pull the plug before you're fully cooked
🔹 How many hours a week you really need (even retired, more isn't better)
🔹 Recovery weeks, comebacks and why your plan's rest is the floor, not the ceiling
🔹 Year round strength training for Masters cyclists
🔹 How CoachCat adjusts your training for your age, from morning recovery scores to 8 to 12 week adaptation blocks
🔹 Live Q&A with your Masters training questions
Whether you're 42 and chasing a PR or 68 and hanging with the fast group on Saturdays, this one's for you. Run the bases, stay consistent and you'll keep getting faster.
📖 Read the full article: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/masters-coaching/
Want help? We provide two types of coaching to help you ride faster:

🚴 CoachCat, your AI cycling coach built on 20 years of FasCat coaching: free trial at https://fascatcoaching.com/app
🤝 1x1 Coaching with a FasCat coach: book a complimentary consultation
Join us LIVE every Friday at 2pm ET and bring your questions.