When can I be a PRO rider?

I would define a PRO rider as world class on this topic in the likes of kuntador, alkanselara, ebans, etc <-nandito sila rio&stanley
for there are other levels of PRO like continental PRO & national PRO which are much lesser.

In the advent of power meters, I would measure of performance is the FTP (60min best power) in units of watts.

By right I can quickly say that a World PRO is around 420w, conti PRO around 380w and national PRO around 340w as estimates.
Then you can compare you numbers to where you belong or how far are you from them.

But this article will deal on when can an executive rider (cyclist training but working full time at the same time)
achieve his PRO level goal. I would believe everybody has dreams of becoming PRO (not prostitute ha).

On Joe Friel's training bible case studies, he once stated that 10% FTP increase in 10 months is possible but hard work.
JF is more on coaching on cyclists working at the same time (executive) so his data would correlate mostly on working cyclists.

So it would generally and conservatively be 10% per year including your off season.
Off-season is parts of the year that you refrain or lessen your cycling in order to rest and gain enthusiasm in cycling again.

To proceed on the article, I took the liberty of getting a 200w rider this 2011 and increasing the theorethical FTP of 10%/year.

YEAR - FTP(watt)
2011 - 200w <-PBB pro
2012 - 220w
2013 - 242w <-fafi pro
2014 - 266w
2015 - 292w <-look bomba pro
2016 - 321w
2017 - 353w <-national pro
2018 - 388w <-continental pro
2019 - 426w <-world PRO

In the table, it is projected that a 200w rider now can become world PRO by 2019.

Is the projection distrubing? Don't worry for the human body response is not generally like that.
Some can get 20% improvement and some as low as 1% due to improper training or largely untalented.
The increase is higher when you are younger too for the amount of the natural HGH in your body is still abundant.

In my experience for the last two years having a powermeter and watching my FTP,
I noticed a 4%-6% increase per season in my FTP which correlates to the 10%/year we conservatively stated above.
BTW, I only 2 seasons per year.

Maybe I could get a 10% per season like LookB's.

I could do some blood doping, increase training time, increase training quality and/or two magnets in my PM to cheat the meter with a higher reading. Don't laugh for I personally know a guy cheating his power meter to read a huge number on the downhill by using the magnet trick.

But time is limited for an executive racer. If you want to improve in cycling then you will have to set up priorities.

Yung pro level eh para lang yan sa mga "TALENTADO"...

Di ako kasama doon...

Makoy wrote:Yung pro level eh para lang yan sa mga "TALENTADO"...

Di ako kasama doon...

kahit di ka talentado eh pwede ka parin magimprove

Pero di kasing la-lakas ng mga "TALENTADONG" yan....

Makoy wrote:Pero di kasing la-lakas ng mga "TALENTADONG" yan....

di rin naman sa talent yan sa training rin.

yung mga araw na tinatamad ka magride at skip training ka
eh yung mga prostitutes eh nasa kalye and doing their craft

prosti ba kamo? or frosti?

masarap yan lalo na ung kay Wendy's...

pero kidding aside...

sabi nga naman ni lance armstrong (from nike commercial - youtube)...

"people ask me, what am i on... what am i on? - i'm on my bike 6 hours a day busting my ass.. what are you on?!"

Makoy wrote:Pero di kasing la-lakas ng mga "TALENTADONG" yan....

seriously and honestly Gabby.... i have seen a lot of cyclist in my lifetime...

and i can say you are talented physically as a cyclist.

and mentally

oo nga makoy, you have what it takes. kaya mag upgrade ka na!

kaya wag ka muna mag aasawa, nobya lang muna.

seriously Makoy! ako living testament sa sobrang paglakas at pag improve ni ryan. so kaya mo din mag improve

nasabi naman nya sa brief history ng PBB sa isang topic eh. sina Randy , Johnny at Kiko pa nun ang nagpapahirap sa kanya
(at sken)hehehe. yung mga unang criterium nga na sinalihan nya na lap-an pa sya. but he was never discouraged.
he continue to train. now nakaka podium na sya. sayang nga yung mix TTT podium na yun nagka semplangan pa, anyway
its part of the game.

FAFI ryan takes it to a different level. he do it systematically and scientific ang approach nya.to the point nakaka nosebleed
una using cadence, using heart rate and now using power meter.in short madami pera si ryan pang upgrade(joke! )

focus sya sa training and have the discipline.! hindi na ko magtataka sa una pagsabak ni Ryan sa Tour of Friendship madami sya
makakaaway este madami sya tutuhugin.

Fafi galingan mo sa TOF, tsaka try mo mag breakaway! hehehe

Happy Bedey! Fafi Ryan!

ayan ah, ganda ng testi ko (parang friendster lang)