I’m sure most people run into a plateau, but mine has been for 1.5 years. So maybe this is just it, hit my limit?
I started TR at maybe 248 ftp, then it increased that year to ~260 over like 2-3 months.
I went from maybe 100 miles per week in winter, to 150 most summers, and yeah i get more endurance, but ftp stays pretty similar. This year I said hey lets do more, 200+ a week. 2ish months of this and FTP…the same. Weight…about the same as well. I nearly double my miles, eat a bit more, weight stays the same, ftp stays the same. Same with lifting, added kettlebell work 2 days a week except for the last few weeks, little gains. I had been doing it for over a year as well.
Not sure what angers me more, the fact that I keep like 10+ lbs of flub on me, or my FTP sticks. Weight has always been like this, id lose 5-10, need to lose 10 more and it just stops, even if tracking calories blahblahblah. And yeah, I have tried eating more when upping miles, weight stays the same. When I cut and was doing 2k per day on average with 100-150 miles a week, still no real change. Meanwhile I ride with cat 3s who ride less, do whatever they want, and are solid 3s that sure I can keep up with them, but barely. Seems very odd to me to hover around 3.2-3.4 w/kg with no increase despite changes to volume and specificity.
What am I not getting here? Id think at least 1 of these things(weight, FTP, muscle mass) would budge with all this, but nothing it seems.
Maybe its the ride intensity that is lacking? If you doing the same rides every week your body will get adapted to that riding and will not result in much improvement.
Intensity and/or recovery. You may have simply added too much too quickly and can’t do the intensity needed to drive things up. Otherwise, shake things up - frequency, intensity, duration. Do something you haven’t done before rather than more of the same.
Gaining endurance is still gaining fitness overall – so nice work with that progress!
I like the suggestions from other athletes here already. If you’ve been doing the same routine for a while, it could be time to change things up. Focus on a different aspect of your fitness or try following a different training plan that might target your limiters as a rider.
It’s also key to keep a pulse on your recovery, as @kurt.braeckel said. It’s often overlooked as part of an athlete’s training. There’s frequently a focus on doing more, when more might actually be counterproductive if an athlete can’t recover well between key workouts each week.
Speaking about recovery… Have you had a break from training in a while? Many athletes take a mid-season break during the summer as they’ve usually been training since the fall or winter of last year. Some time off of the bike can help you refresh physically and mentally, which could help you break through a plateau.
Not much to add to @kurt.braeckel’s post. Part of recovery is getting enough sleep. Personally, not getting 7–7.5 hours of sleep puts constraints on how fast I can recover/how much I can train long-term.
The endurance is something, so thats nice, but its always what comes fastest for me. I used to do my saturday group ride that ends with 40 miles and call it, now I add at least 10-25 more, usually trying to get it to 65+. I have pretty good intensity from the group rides, ill take pulls about 3 minutes in my V02 max range, then it becomes closer to threshold work for the last 10 miles of the ride keeping up with guys with FTPs in the 300s. Wednesday is not as hard, but I try to do 3-4 pulls like I do on saturday, plus 2 little sprints.
I had a full week off at the end of June with no riding at all, just had an easier week last week as well. Mentally its more crushing to see little results and look the same though, which is wild to me with this much exercise.
Maybe I will do what another commenter suggested, indoor structured intensity on tuesday or thursday. So maybe I am lacking the right intensity?
The only lifting I can do is with kettlebells, so I cant really max out on squats. I guess I could grab the 50lb and try to max on single leg squats? Never seem to build muscle, and I would like to set quad goals lol
Squats and lifting aren’t likely to lift your FTP. It’s the intensity on the bike you’re missing, perhaps caused by inadequate recovery. This isn’t an uncommon thing in terms of why many athletes hit plateaus, and your prior approach of adding more is often the answer they go to when reality might be needing the exact opposite: rest, shed long term fatigue, and then look at the intensity you’re doing.
When was the last time you took a break? Are you taking proper recovery weeks (what do your recovery weeks look like)?
Start there, and then let’s talk about the type of intensity you’re doing.
To @kurt.braeckel response, and to feed back I had received from my previous coach after 7 months with him, is that taking a break that was a couple of weeks of either unstructured riding, or off the bike completely would benefit me before I started another multi-month plan.
This was because I was riding consistently for almost 18 months, and usually had a plan that I was following. My coach looked at my chart on training peaks and was like, your curve hasn’t really dipped at all in a long time…you’d be good to let it go down quite a bit to really rest up and work on building it back up.
I basically took 3-ish weeks off and now after a month of my first build I’m already close to where I was previously in terms of FTP, not TTE, and I have way more motivation to continue. It doesn’t mean I’ll break through any plateaus, but it sure gives me some hope, and this is all an experiment anyway.
I would definitely consider doing some structured and focused workouts 1-2 times a week. Hard group rides are great for…going hard. But after your first year or so of riding that probably won’t be enough to improve massively. Unless you’re crazy gifted genetically then you’ll need something more focused.
I have pretty good intensity from the group rides, ill take pulls about 3 minutes in my V02 max range, then it becomes closer to threshold work for the last 10 miles of the ride keeping up with guys with FTPs in the 300s.
How do you feel after these pulls? The classic “VO2 range” may get you nowhere near actual VO2max depending on your physiology.
For example, that range usually tops out at 120% of FTP. But for my VO2 workouts, I’m doing at minimum 130% and up to 150% for 3min intervals.
Once you get out of the ‘noob gains’ phase, just going hard on group rides won’t provide the right kind of stimulus for major fitness gains. Focused work mixed with intentional recovery is the way forward.
Generally I’m doing at least 100% FTP to 125% range. So 275-325, probably right at 300 average for the pulls. Leaves me with enough steam to start catching my breath as I move to the back of the back and then get back on a wheel. But I see where you are going with this, as I seem to go a bit harder with the indoor V02 max workouts. Being outside it probably varies and isnt as consistent output as inside either.
Took a full week off at the beach in the end of june.
Also just took an easier week, unfortunately that did have a crit race on wednesday. May skip that this week but thats due to heat and crashes keep happening in front of me on the last lap keeping me out of the sprint. But that also means maybe I toss in V02 max today, wednesday group ride just hang in the group instead of pushing it, see how I feel thursday either easy or intervals and the usual saturday.
This is all really good to consider though.
-Potentially not enough rest
-Or not enough of the right intensity
-Or both
If that’s your plan, I would definitely take Thursday easy. Like endurance at most. Even just ‘hanging in’ on a group ride is typically a decently intense day that will add to your cumulative fatigue. Unless the group ride is super steady and chill (which they almost never are).
True, although our wednesday ride is kind of a mix where if a handful of us go hard then its hard, otherwise it will just be steady. We regroup at 2 points for that one as well, more friendly with some spicy bits if you want. But yeah thursday would definitely be a feel it out kinda day based on wednesdays intensity.
This week might be goofy though as theres a race today I’m 50/50 on due to the heat. Or I do the group ride and we go more chill. But i am 10th in the series with only doing 2/3 races so far, so a 4th could move me up and ill win…like a t shirt, for driving to a crit 40 mins away in 95 degree heat.
Maybe half the mileage, most of the days z2 only indoor or outdoor. Granted outside I have a lot of hills but generally still keep the hr below Z4 range.
As for more than a week. Probably not in a while, vacation was maybe 8 days. Same with the last few years. Then another week around new year. I will have a 2 week off for a vasectomy this year though…
I’m no coach but that doesn’t sound like an easy week to me. For outdoors rides I’d be going off HR Z2 regardless of the hills and if I couldn’t stay in HR Z2, Id consider my gearing. I keep power zones for the HIIT stuff.
I don’t know your overall structure and what not, but what I tend to favor for myself and my athletes is true rest/recovery. Typical recovery week structure includes at least two full days off, and then two days of 60-90 minutes at like 50-55%. Then some short openers. For really intense blocks like VO2max, I’ll go longer than 5 days, and do some short leg check testing before getting back to work. For a lot of my athletes, it ends up being a 40-50% reduction in overall ride time in addition to all of it being really easy, and those full rest days.
So that might be:
M - Off
T - 60 min at 45%
W - Off
R - 60-90min at 50-55%
F - 60-90 min at 55% with 5x30s openers around 120% or so
Sa - sometimes a short power test but a shorter ride
Su - a short “long” ride, so if someone does 4-5 hours, maybe they do 3 at 60%
I also have my athletes take one day off the bike every week. I think you’re already doing at least one, maybe 2 or 3, so you’re probably fine there.
But the point is, recovery weeks aren’t just doing a little less of the same stuff, which it kind of sounds like. “Zone 4” whether HR or power shouldn’t be in your vernacular that week at all, really. But what you describe is really common for a lot of athletes; they just do a little less one week and that’s recovery.
My recovery ride workout says “Beach cruiser speed”, and I’ve had one athlete actually send me a video of him getting passed by a dude on a beach cruiser on a recovery ride.
So again, I don’t know your whole background. I don’t see all your training, obviously, but I think first and foremost you are under recovered, and that is probably hindering your ability to do the real intensity you need to do to get through this plateau. Adding more of the same just deepens that hole. Again, not picking on you here. You are absolutely not alone in doing what I think you’re doing.
Thanks!
This is good info and really making me think a lot of it is lack of proper rest.
I may just stick to indoor for the easy weeks so I can really make sure to keep the wattage down and go easy. (plus if i go 50-60% indoor it will limit my time since it seems to hurt my sit bones when going slow but thats another issue with getting the correct front wheel height due to my new rocker plate I think)
