Who pissed in this guy’s Cheerios? I rode 10k my first 3 years and made a ton of progress, despite “not meeting minimum guidelines for _____”
No, that is not what happened. I replied to you that I didn’t think that what he was doing really qualified as training. That was after I told him (3rd reply in this thread) that by only riding 3000 miles per year, he was barely scratching the surface of his potential. You (or anyone) might choose to disagree with those opinions, but there is simply no reason to be offended by them.
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Alas, the OP hasn’t had the same experience. What do you suggest that he do?
I’m not a coach, far from it, so not going to make suggestions but can only offer personal and maybe anecdotal info. Definitely not going to say that 10k in 3 years is insufficient because I don’t know what that 10k has been like.
Riding with faster people than me has always pushed me in the right direction IMO, giving me something to chase and never becoming complacent with my own riding intensity
i may have missed someone else making this comment, but too many group rides if you really want to improve beyond where you are. hit the group ride 1x a week, and focus on your personal development the rest of the time.
Brendan
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Great pointers agingcannon.
And thanks for the link. Having only done LV base/power build plans I wrongly assumed MV/HV plans would be even harder/higher intensity, but as I look closely now see the regiments are different.
Thanks again. I’m excited to start my first MV plan. I added Traditional Base MV 1, 2 & 3 and it looks like I’ll be doing a lot less TSS than I have outside on my group rides 
Does that means I’ve been doing too much on my outside rides 
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That depends. If your goal was to improve your cycling performance, then yes. Or, maybe you could have done all those group rides and improved your fitness, but you weren’t giving sufficient priority and urgency to your nutrition, recovery, and sleep (assuming you had or could make the time).
But if your goal was to enjoy and use the fitness you’d built up, then no.
Very often, the answer to “is this good or bad” is closely related to the answer to “why am I doing this”. 
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Absolutely this.
I’m well aware that during this summer I could probably have made more progress (if you’re defining progress as FTP gains) by going on fewer outdoor rides. But this is a hobby, the weather was generally good, and I had a new bike. So I did little TR work for probably 6 weeks and went out 3-4x/week.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I’ll probably do the same again next summer.
Most of us will never compete at a high level, much less be pros, so @AgingCannon makes a very good point.
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No, i believe he said that pretty much everyone can achieve 4wkg with half decent training.
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That would kind of change everything. 
I agree with that, I got there on ~5 hours per week (dedicated LV + a little extra indoor or outdoor).
Not of the couch, but new to structure, from 3.4 to 4 in 7 months. Imagine what you can do with more time
It takes some dedication, and not everybody wants that, but the TR is way more powerfull when you stick to the plan. Skipping and just doing random workouts with limited time is not the way to go
you can look at that in different ways… much over would be difficult, but what about just 4w/kg…?
I wonder if I’m more gifted than I give myself credit for (41 y/o, 4w/kg on ~5 hours a week, 4 hours structured).
Garmin VO2Max calculations is ~62 (which is pretty high), and I might have some muscle nuclei and mitochondria from 25 years ago…
But I assume less gifted could achieve the same on a MV plan
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It sounds like you are…
I ran cross country (2 mile) when I was in high school. Most students start the sport not having ran all summer so most are ‘off the couch’. Quickly you see that there are 5 minute per mile guys, 6 minute guys, 7 minute guys, and 8 minute guys. Then the real training and improvement starts.
My point is that there is a huge natural variation between people. There is a grand canyon’s difference between the guy that can run a 5 minute mile with little training and the guy that’s at 8 minutes. HUGE. IME, the 8 minute guy never passes the 5 minute guy even with the best dedicated training.
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The funny part about this is I was the 5 minute per mile guy, and I’m an awful cyclist.
“Real improvement is seen by consistent training with the right mix of recovery and intensity.”
Easy for a superstar to say!
Interesting. That’s pretty surprising given what i see from people i see on the road.
FYI - w/kg is less important in timetrails. in TT’s w/CDA is king
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W/cDA only comes into the equation once you have enough power to compete. The elite TT’ers are pushing 400-500W during the event.