Sometimes I put words in my coaches mouth, and if I did right now, that is one thing I think he would say.
Depends on what you consider a success. Iām not winning races, or genetically gifted like some of the riders around here (mid 45-ish vo2max versus 58-60 of the podium guys my age).
However I consider myself successful in this senseā¦ started road cycling in 2016.
Self-coached I trained hard using basic principles and got to 275-280W ftp at fifty five, about 15 months after getting a road bike. Averaged 6 hours/week with a lot of commuting double days. Then about 2 years dropping to 5.5 hours/week and doing more structure, fitness dropped 10% and was absolutely slower on group rides/races. Reviewed the science, and came to the conclusion my issue was more about training consistency and frequency, and that I needed to slowly drive up hours. So I hired a coach in 2020 to help me figure it out. And this past year nearly returned to my fitness of 2017 on 7.4 hours/week average for the season.
Below is a visualization of the training of the 16-17 season, my āCogganā inspired season of 2016-2017 (mid August start/end), where I pushed FTP up to 275-280W:
That season averaged 6 hours/week.
The season that just ended (a week ago), I also pushed FTP up to 275-280W using very different training:
On 7.4 hours/week and from the vertical lines in the graph you can see a bit more consistency and frequency.
At sixty-one, Iām going to claim that is both a success and age defying 
ok, ok, forget the age defying clearly with a training age of 8 there is still some low hanging fitness fruit (but not too low).
There are some dramatic differences to what I was doing back then versus the season that just ended. Look at the sheer number of red IF >= 0.9 rides from that earlier season. The morning rides were āride around FTPā and at least one ~60-sec full gas effort. But even when I did a longer ~75-90 commute home (plus Wed group ride), those were mostly a high/red IF and included lot of long hard pushes around FTP.
This past year was built on more consistency of rides with 100-150 TSS (yellow lines), mostly pushing steady-ish 0.7 IF (orange triangles). And sprinkling intensity into 2-3 rides/week. Lower CTL and how long I could reliably push ftp. But my overall health and quality of life improved significantly (lower RHR, lower HRV, not falling asleep at 8pm, etc.).
Regarding āhow low should I go on endurance ridesā this is what worked for me (not you, me)ā¦ The endurance rides were generally 2 hours and took focus to do a negative split and the last third of the ride Iād be pushing 75% FTP for an overall IF around 0.7. Two hours doing that, consistently during the week, was hard enough to put real demands on my recovery. All credit to my coach for pushing me to figure it out, and find that tipping point where I could mostly do 2+ hour rides during the week (66-79% target range for my endurance workouts). Iād only drop below 65% ftp at the end of the ride to get some bonus volume, or on the weekends if I was tired from the mid-week training.
Again I consider that a personal success, and to summarize Iāll borrow words posted by @oldandfast and adding my own:
- consistency and frequency are first order of business, donāt do anything that prevents you from consistently training over the next week or two, riding 4-5 days/week, and keep that rolling
- progressively push up overall capacity to do work
- creatively sprinkle in intensity on 2-3 rides/week
- for performance really work on challenging āthe floorā of the endurance rides (and negative splitting them)
- full recovery weeks are only needed after an intense build cycle, and generally avoided throughout the year
Thats what Iāve learned from working with my coach. Hope that helps someone.
Pushing ftp up almost 100w takes a lot of work, for me. Thats one personal definition of success.
