WTF is FtFP? How to Follow Your Training Plan

FtFP stands for Follow the F***ing Plan.

It's been a FasCat saying for years. Frank dug into where it came from on the podcast back in 2020, along with the 8 habits of successful cyclists. The idea is simple: the best training plan in the world won't do a thing if you don't follow it.

The origin story

How FtFP was born

Let me take you back to 2019. CoachCat didn’t exist yet. FasCat was selling static training plans, the kind you bought, loaded onto your calendar, and then it was on you to do the work. And to help with that, we had a private Facebook Group. A few thousand athletes, the FasCat coaches, all in one place, talking training every day.

And like every group on the internet, it had a few squeaky wheels.

There was one athlete in particular. I’m not going to name names, and honestly it doesn’t matter who it was, because every coach listening knows this athlete. Every Monday, a post. “I missed my workout this weekend.” Every Wednesday, a post. “I wasn’t motivated to do the Sweet Spot so I did a group ride instead and my numbers weren’t as good. What should I do?” Every Friday, “I skipped the rest day and now my legs are heavy. Thoughts?”

Different words every week. Same post. And if you read the posts back to back, which the whole group was doing, you didn’t see a training problem. You saw a habits problem. The plan was fine. The athlete just wasn’t following it, and then wanted to know why it wasn’t working.

Now, in a private group, there’s an unwritten rule: the coaches stay patient. So I stayed patient. We answered. “Just do the workout as written and let’s see.” “The plan has you resting Wednesday for a reason.” Over and over.

But a Facebook Group isn’t just the coaches. It’s the other athletes. And the other athletes had been reading those posts for weeks. They were doing the plan. They were getting faster. And they had run out of patience long before we had.

So one day, another athlete finally wrote what everyone was thinking. No coaching degree. No softening. Just:

“Why don’t you just follow the plan?”

And you could feel the whole group exhale. That was it. That was the whole answer. Then, because this is the internet and the internet only goes one direction, a third athlete piled on:

“Why don’t you follow the f*%’ing plan.”

And he dropped the Ronnie Johns Chopper video in the thread. If you’ve been around cycling long enough, you know the one. Chopper, the Australian comedy character, looking straight into the camera and telling the whole world to harden the f*%k up. It had already become a cycling thing because of Velominati’s Rule #5, HTFU. Harden The F*%k Up. It’s the rule every cyclist knows by number.

So now you’ve got Rule #5 sitting right there in our Facebook Group next to “follow the f*%’ing plan,” and it took about 4 seconds for somebody to connect the dots. HTFU has a cousin. FtFP.

That was it. That was the moment. FtFP wasn’t born in a coaching meeting or a marketing brainstorm. It was born in a comment thread, from athletes who were tired of watching another athlete get in his own way, and it came with a video of Chopper yelling.

And here’s why it stuck. It wasn’t a coach telling you what to do. It was your peers. The athletes who were putting in the work and seeing the results looked at the one who wasn’t and said, we’ve all got the same plan, the difference is we’re following it. That’s a thousand times more powerful than anything I could post.

Within a few weeks it had a hashtag. #FtFP, lowercase t, because “the” doesn’t deserve a capital letter. Then the shirts. Then it showed up in the reviews: “I committed to FtFP’ing and here’s what happened.” Then it closed every podcast. Work hard, ride fast, have fun, and as always, FtFP.

And what about the original squeaky wheel? The best part of the story is that it worked. I’d like to tell you he’s still in the group with a 500 day streak. I’d like to tell you that.

Now, here’s the serious part under the joke, and it’s why we built a whole episode around it in 2020 and why it’s the whole point of the show today. FtFP was never about executing a plan perfectly. Nobody does. I don’t. FtFP is about good training habits. It’s about not being the athlete who posts every Monday about the workout he missed. The plan is the easy part. We’ve written over 100 of them. The habits around the plan are what make the plan work. And when you build those habits, the streak takes care of itself. That’s what 555 days looks like. Not 555 perfect workouts. 555 days of showing up.

One more thing. Velominati, if you’re out there listening: Rule #5 gave us HTFU. We’d love to officially add FtFP to the Rules. Follow the F*%’ing Plan. Call me.

Ask a FasCat episode 46: WTF is FtFP? How to follow your training plan

Live this Friday Join us live: WTF is FtFP? Friday, October 23 at 2:00 PM ET. How FtFP was born, how to follow your training plan, and questions from the chat. Watch live on YouTube →

The 3 ways riders drift

At FasCat we've watched athletes stray from their plans in the same 3 ways: overdoing it, underdoing it, or not doing it at all.

Overdoing it: The Zone 2 ride becomes a tempo ride. A group ride shows up and you add intervals on top of it.
Underdoing it: You cut the last interval short, or swap the hard day for something comfortable.
Not doing it: The week gets busy, one missed ride becomes 3, and the plan quietly dies on the calendar.

None of these feels like a decision. Together, they turn training into riding whatever you feel like.

Athlete story

“FtFP means consistency, proper fueling, and disciplined habits, rather than forcing maximum effort every day.”

Amy Webb · CEO, Future Today Strategy Group · coached by Justin Bowes

Read her post on LinkedIn

What following the plan looks like

1. Hold your zone.

Every workout is built from time in power zones. If you're below the range, pedal a little harder. If you're above it, ease off. When the interval ends, spin easy in Zone 1 or 2, then go again.

Say today is 3 x 10 minutes of Sweet Spot at 240 to 276 watts. Warm up in Zone 2. Start the first interval at an easy time to track, like the 30 minute mark. Round your target to 250 to 275 so you can remember it mid effort, and hold it until minute 40. Spin until minute 45, then repeat twice. That's the whole workout.

2. Sweat the intervals, not the details.

Following the plan doesn't mean perfection. Warm-ups that run 16 minutes instead of 21 don't matter. A few minutes over or under on a Zone 2 ride is fine. Plus or minus 5 to 10% of your target is right on target.

What does matter: don't split one workout into 2 shorter rides, and don't stack extra work on top. One great workout beats 2 rides stitched together to chase a number.

3. Ride easy days easy, and count rest days.

You get faster while you recover, not while you ride. Taking your planned rest day is following the plan. So is the 12 minute Foundations routine on a recovery day.

4. Be flexible, not flaky.

This is the part most people miss, and it's Frank's addition to FtFP. Developing good training habits creates consistency, and flexibility protects it.

Two examples from his coaching:

Pouring rain and cold on Saturday's 4 hour ride, but sunny on Sunday's 1.5 hour workout? Swap them. Do the structured intervals indoors Saturday and the long ride Sunday. That's a win for the plan.
Wake up not recovered from yesterday's work? Don't skip the day, and don't force your way through what's prescribed. Ride easier. You still rode, and that's the consistency part.

Flexible means you changed the plan on purpose. Flaky means the plan changed itself.

5. Missed one? Revise, don't cram.

Life gets in the way. When it does, rebuild the rest of the week instead of piling missed work onto tired legs. Skipping a session isn't a crisis. Doubling up to "catch up" usually costs you more than the missed workout was worth.

6. When something feels off, say so early.

The worst move is pretending nothing happened and pushing through. Frank's process for sickness and injury comes down to 5 moves: speak up right away, pause before you push, decide by symptoms and not ego, revise the plan, and rebuild one day at a time. A sore knee handled on day 1 is a 2 day issue. Ignored, it can become a 6 week layoff.

Consistency is the whole game

Frank defines consistency as riding 3 to 6 times per week, week after week, year after year. It's independent of duration and intensity, so a 45 minute ride and a 3 hour ride both count. Some seasons that means riding for fun, and some seasons it means a structured plan.

It's also why FasCat measures improvement the way it does. A one-day spike in power isn't fitness, it's a good day. Real improvement is durable and repeatable, and consistency is the first thing we look at because it predicts improvement better than any single workout.

Joe P., FasCat member, racing cyclocross

How to hold yourself accountable

Willpower fades. Systems don't. Here are the accountability moves we recommend:

Pick something specific. "Get faster" is vague. An event, a target power, or a number of hours on the bike is a goal.
Tell someone. A friend, a group ride, a coach, even your calendar. It's much harder to back out of a plan other people know about.
Measure where you are. Test at the start and again as you go, so you can see the change.
Follow the plan. Enjoy checking off each workout, rest days included.
Take feedback and learn. When the block ends, look at what worked and what didn't, then pick the next goal.

Follow it to a “T” and you will TT better than you ever have. … Don’t do more, don’t do less. FTFP.

Christian V. · 45 year old Masters athlete · 40K Time Trial plan

Turn the calendar green

In CoachCat, when you follow the plan for the day, that day turns green. Green days stack into weeks, and green weeks stack into the improvement you signed up for. Your streak counts every day you follow the plan, rest days included, so the number rewards the whole job and not just the hard days.

Tell the app what changed and it rebuilds your week. Try:

"I missed yesterday's workout. Revise my week."
"I only have 1 hour today. Shorten my workout."
"I'm traveling Tuesday through Thursday with no bike."

You can make as many revisions as you need. Ending a message with "Remember this" keeps your goals, injuries, and preferences in every future conversation.

CoachCat calendar with 2 straight weeks of green days and a 555 day streak

Gordon F., FasCat member, on the podium at a UCI Gravel World Series race

The 80% rule

You don't have to be perfect. Frank has said that in all his years of professional coaching, he's never had an athlete who followed 80% or more of the plan and wasn't happy with their improvement.

That belief is why we back it with the 6-Week Improvement Guarantee. Follow 80% or more of your plan for 6 weeks, and if you haven't improved, you get a full refund and a call with a FasCat coach to figure out why.

I could #FTFP to the max (well 92% FTFP) … and I got a 2% FTP bump without feeling completely on my game.

Andy L. · 16 Weeks of Sweet Spot plan

Your FtFP checklist

Do the hard days as written, and hold your zone.
Keep easy days easy.
Treat rest days as part of the plan.
Change the plan on purpose when life changes. Don't let it change by accident.
Skip, don't cram, when you miss one.
Speak up early when something feels off.
Look at your green days at the end of each week.

The plan only works if you do. Start your 7 day free trial, no credit card required.

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