The link to Cycling analytics?
This is the power people upload as their FTP. Who says all of them have fulfilled their genetic potential? Who says a single one of them has.
Again, in powerlifting it is often said that you reach your potential after 6-10
Years of dedicated training, nutrition and periodization. It might differ in endurance sports, but probably isnāt way off.
How many of us can really say they went to such lengths in cycling?
Oh youāre already going damn near 29 per on a windy course. I donāt have anything to add. Carry on Sir!
Joe
That average speed - admittedly over 40k, but on a flat-ish course and on a calm day - would have put you 10th/11th in the British championships last year. Perhaps that give you an ideaā¦ 
Undulating is probably a bit of an overstatement. Itās just not completely flat. Just over 600ft of elevation gain.
Reminds me of an article I read a while back about professional high altitude mountain guides. The article said they suffered less from the debilitating effects of altitude than the average climber.
Well of course. If they got wicked bad headaches and other adverse symptoms every time they went to altitude, theyād pretty soon change their line of work.
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People are going to need to see your data to give you advice. Just going off what youāve posted before if I had to guess Iād say itās one of a few things.
- Your trainer setup is non-optimal. wheel-on vs direct drive, cooling and fueling.
- You are skipping endurance work and spending too much time at SS, threshold or vo2max.
- You are truly limited by a below average vo2max.
But without any empirical data itās all conjecture and personal experience. I find the zero change information to be highly unsualā¦ My ftp has dropped 50 watts, and regained 50 watts in a single calendar year. If I were off the bike for 3 months when I returned my HR would be all haywire while I re-establish my aerobic fitness. Iāve had max heart rates of 220+ after taking time off (Iām 49 btw) and my ātrainedā normal is around 192 max. So a completely flat fitness to me just means you are maintaining or are limited.
No one here knows if youāve reached your peak. Weāre all highly suspicious and assume you havenāt and weāre all taking shots in the dark to try to help. 
More volume ācouldā work, but only if you honor the zones the work is prescribed in.
Good luck!
Thanks all for the comments and suggestions.
Garminās says my VO2 is 53 (stable for the last year). Iām on a kicker trainer in ego using Vector pedals.
The problem with LV is every workout is hard (apart from the last week). I definitely go hard on group rides and spend a lot of time over threshold. It usually takes me a couple days to recover (not feel really sore legs) and thatās a concern for doing more volume (not recovering/overtraining).
But all things considered Iāll start a MV base plan and see how it goes.
Thanks again for the discussion. Really helpful!
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When you do more volume, you go slower. You put in more time at Z1 and Z2.
A couple of years ago, I was like you. My 2-3 hour group ride would leave me utterly exhausted afterwards for a day or two or more.
I did an old school traditional base block of training and it did wonders. Iām talking so slow that you think youāll be falling over (at least at first). I based this block on Seilerās suggested 65-70% of HRmax which was 125bpm for me. On my first rides I was going 12mph @ 125bpm. It was so slow. I stuck to it and my speed and watts at the same low HR went up and up. My power at 125bpm went up around 30 watts and my FTP 20 watts.
Producing more watts at lower heart rates across the board also made my group rides much easier.
To me it sounds like you are classically stuck in the middle intensities. You arenāt doing low intensity training and are doing a lot of sweet spot and threshhold.
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I found this too. It wasnāt sweet spot base for me, more like every ride at threshold.
I wonder thoughā¦they must have the data to back up these plans so it must work. But I didnāt really feel like getting on the bike after ssblv 1 and 2 when I did them and Iām happily logging 10 hrs/wk now with a fair bit of indoor riding too.
Joe
Riding only 10k miles in 3 years aināt ātrainingā no matter what the intensity. Even at just 15 mph, itās only slightly more than an hour every other day - thatās barely enough to meet physical activity guidelines for general health.
Congrats. After a lot of just trying to just ignore your comments you finally reached a point where I use the ignore/hide function of your comments in this forum. It amazes me how negative some people are and practice gatekeeping and elitism at finest. Such a shame for such an amazing sport.
Not everyone has the goal to be a pro / race etc. Congrats to the OP for such a consistent training. Riding 10k miles in 3 years is an amazing achievement - and itās about 10k miles more than the average couch potato. At just 15 mph that is more than an hour every day. You are exceeding physical activity guidelines for general health and should be proud of it and feel good about it. Keep up the good work!
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Was interested to see since March 2018 how many miles I have done and whether or not this would also be classed as training with that sweeping statement.
Iāve done 15,000 miles since I started doing whatever itās classed as. Iāve lost 15kilos and ftp moved from 230ās to 330ās. If Iād reduced this by a third I would also be hitting the 10,000 miles/3yr and know if Iād done a third of the workouts Iād would also have had good improvements and would class this myself as training.
Conclusion, congrats also to the OP, 10K miles over 3 years isnāt to be dismissed, keep up the training and hope you find your answers to improving your power.
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10,000/3 = 3333 miles per year
3333/15 = 222 hours per year
222/365 = 0.6 hours per day
0.6 * 60 = 36 minutes per day
Standard recommendation is to get 150 minutes per week, or 22 minutes per day, of physical activity just to maintain general health.
So, no, the OP is not doing more than an hour per day as you stated, they are barely exceeding the minimum requirement. This is simply a fact, and likely goes a long way in explaining why they arenāt improving.
āPhysical activityā is not limited to exercise or training. Iām pretty sure the OP is not just sitting on the couch the rest of the day, doing nothing.
I really donāt see how anyone can classify his riding as not ātrainingā. Whether it meets a level that is allowing him to improve is one thing, but it is certainly training.
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You have no way of knowing how much other exercise their person gets. 3000 mile per year of JUST cycling is certainly training. Sure, not elite or high end amateur.
In any case, your posts are often not very helpful. In fact, they are often a big drag on the conversation.
(Replying to OLD)
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So you would consider somebody who commutes to and from work by bike 6 miles each way to be ātrainingā? I wouldnāt.
We arenāt talking about someone riding 6 miles to work.
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Youāre right, we donāt know what the OP does on the days he doesnāt ride. From the info provided, though, there seem to be an awful lot of such days. It therefore really isnāt surprising that they arenāt improving, which means that they probably still can.
Now if they said they were training 10,000 miles per 1 year and not getting anywhere, that would be discouraging. (Not that I can relate or anything.)
Thatās an absurd, condescending and offensive statement. 
While 3-4 hours of weekly training wonāt get people into high-end racing, it ABSOLUTELY qualifies as ātrainingā for someone with a job, a family, and who does this for a hobby. I could go on for a while, but I think EVERYONE here knows this and knows all the reasons why.
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So 3000 miles per year of cycling isnāt always training, as you first said?
What would make it training in your eyes, then?