Age in regards genetic limitation really means nothing unless someone has actually previously met (or even been close) to their potential at an earlier age.
I’m 38 y/o now. I started running as a hobby around 2018/2019 and averaged around 600ish miles per year. After some injuries I started cycling 2.5 years ago. My FTP has jumped from 222>313 (70kg). Although 38 is still technically “past” prime, I have no doubt that even on my 400ish hrs/yr I’ve got a good few years before I peak at this volume, and if I decide to open the lid on the volume, I could see myself progressing another 8-10.
If it makes you feel better, I’m older than you and I’ve been using TR for over two years. My FTP is unchanged. My durability’s much better, but it’s surprising how my FTP is unchanged.
About getting stronger, my recommendation is to get heavier weights or go to the gym. I got a gym membership to lift heavy weights and it has been tremendously helpful for putting on muscle mass.
I’d echo the gym comments, I mainly do sessions at home with a set of adjustable dumbbells, it really helps with maintaining strength, particularly now in my 50s.
I’ve been with TR for ~6 years now, mostly doing low vol Masters plans. I hadn’t seen any ‘FTP’ gains for several years, then last fall I found myself off work for 6 months.
I went rogue, substituted my Tues hard workout for a Zwift race, and added a bunch of z2, since I had time to recover. FTP is up ~10%
The point, as others have pointed out, is added stimulus can be effective in moving the needle, particularly if you’re doing a low vol plan.
Not taking as criticism, I wouldn’t say loosely it’s pretty closely followed but rlgl does often go yellow and I take the easy way out. Only a few totally missed in the plan for the last couple of months. I have really reduced my fun hard group rides for external reasons that aren’t valid anymore, these probably would “move the needle” as it were
As for the weight work, that’s definitely a shortfall thinking about it. The majority of sessions don’t make me ache and only raise my HR briefly, occasionally I do go ham and am then ruined for days . I definitely can, and should, go a bit harder but not so hard I am unable to do anything for a while.
I feel like I’m in a very similar position to the poster. I feel like I’m stuck in a rut.
I think I’m following the plan reasonably closely. I haven’t looked at intervals.icu for a long time, I imagine that would show me that I’m not in the ‘progress zone’ often enough and long enough.
But, I don’t consider myself an athlete, and we’re all comparing ourselves to some very serious athletes. The kind of people with a lot more genetic potential and a lot more time to train. In a height comparison, I’m never going to be 6 foot 2 but I can make sure that I’m not slouching and sitting up straight etc.
Don’t forget that we are not comparing ourselves with the rest of the population that don’t train at all. Of course there’s other sportspeople who could jump on a bike and transfer their fitness to cycling but there’s a lot more ‘non sporty’ people that I’d be much fitter than.
Where I try and console myself is that I’ve got a great marriage and family, I’m in good health etc. That’s something that AI can’t (yet) measure.
That’s a very valid point and one I’ve told myself and I know I’ll never be exceptional but I would like to be a better me.
I do follow TR pretty closely with only holidays scheduled in so I’d like to see more improvement but I guess 3 hours plus outside generally with a slower friend probably doesn’t provide much stimulus over where I am.
How many hours do you put in? Even when one follows a plan, there is no guarantee of ever improving beyond a certain point if the volume and CTL stays low.
The sad fact is that the fast people on the group ride or in the bike club, even with some possibly superior genetics, are still putting in a shite ton of hours on the bike. The fast people in my club put in 10-15 and up to 20 hours a week. And the really fast people do those 5 hour rides. These people also ride all year and don’t disappear for an off season.
The people that put in 3-4-6 hours per week usually don’t get that fast unless they happen to have elite genetics.
The fair weather cyclists don’t get fast because they get in shape in the spring and then slack off in the fall and winter and start from zero again in the spring. They just kind of hit the same level every year.
(I’ve been all these types of cyclists in my cycling career. And I’m currently in the just staying in ok shape camp. I don’t want to be on a bike 12 hours a week. I don’t want to do the 5 hour rides anymore. It is what it is.)
3 to 4 hours on the turbo during the week and a couple hours on Sat. So nothing like I used to when I’d do the club Sat ride on top of the turbo sessions and some commuting.
That’s a big drop in volume. It’s hard to optimize out of low volume despite what the marketing might say.
I did an easy high volume experiment once. I ramped up from 6 hours a week to 15 hours a week - adding an hour a week for a couple of months. I was breaking Strava segment PRs left and right at week 7 and then stalled out and got no further gains on that high volume.
The other option is to go full time crunched high intensity and see if that works for you.
Good discussion. For all the complains we have about CTL, it pretty much tells the story. If one can progressively get to a CTL of 110-125 on 14-16h per week, that’s a very solid foundation of fitness.
Last year I managed to get to 115, but got sick and then injured. After the forced rest I was absolutely flying. This year I got to 95 and then 2 bouts of illness knocked me down + vacation. I’m climbing my way up, 91 at the moment.
I’m the same, I do approx 3 hours a week + 3 hour MTB Sundays. I also do gymnastics and climbing once a week each. I’ve been around the same FTP for about 5 years. Because time/volume.
I’m in really good shape compared to most but still also “soft around the very edges”. This is down to “I eat mostly well (no one is perfect)”.
The only way to now go the extra percent is to be super disciplined and potentially begin to knock some of the fun out of it
I think you could probably bump up your volume a bit.
You typically have 3 hours and 45 minutes of riding planned each week, which is on the lower side. We’re currently recommending that you bump up your endurance ride with the Dynamic Endurance feature.
Also, I’d recommend ensuring that you’re filling in RPE surveys for your unstructured rides. That helps us ensure that we’re getting you the best workouts possible.
How are you picking your workouts? It looks like a good handful are prescribed by us, but some others look like they might be alternates or something else. I’m mostly curious, is all.
When I pick something else it’s normally from the library at the time range and level I’m replacing. Thinking about it the majority of those swaps are z2 where it’s a pan flat power for 60 or 45 mins, I can’t face those at the best of times and right now in summer they’re worse.
There will also be some train nows, again in the same zone as whatever I’m replacing.
That I didn’t know! I’ll start doing that from now on.
A thought on this - better to add a whole extra 45 mins before work once or twice a week or try to fit an extra 15 mins to the scheduled edurance rides? Before work might be easier as I don’t then push time with partner too much which will cause friction! But if 45 mins don’t really do much by themselves I’d see what I can add on.
I think utilizing a plan is your best option here. I’d build one that fits your goals and is structured in a way that you won’t have to change it too much on the fly if you can. Using Workout Levels isn’t the best way to go anymore. We’ve actually scrapped using them in our workout recommender.
TrainNow is a good tool, but if you’re able to train consistently (it looks like you are), I think a plan is the way to go.
If you can’t push out one endurance ride a week to be longer, then adding it in where you can works too.
Thanks, will try and add an extra 45 into the plan instead of ad-hoc ones.
If not using levels what’s the best method to swap out the single power level Z2 workouts? Alternatives always seem to offer easier options - mostly why I selected by hand using levels.
