Thats what im trying to fathom. doing 4 sessions a week with no benefit may just be making me tired…BUT what if just did a VO2 max, a tempo, and a long ride each week, and kept my FTP where it is.
Is the extra session worth it if my age is capping my FTP
Most likely you are more limited by time to train and recover, as well as nutrition, than age. 6 rides a week plus weights, totaling 15-20 hours is doable and will still have benefits into your 50s and sometimes 60s. You’re still young enough to do this with good results.
Maybe thats the key, ride more, but as a triathlete im trying to fit my 3 runs and 3 or 4 swims in. Plus a teaching job, which everyone knows is the hardest job in the world because we complain about it so much 
I love this.. the FAFO Plan. Some one hardcode this into Trainer Road, please.
I hit my peak fitness at 42 years old last year with 10 years of cycling experience @ 4.23w/kg.
If you’re at 5.5w/kg and struggling to make gains, maybe that’s a different boat I’m not familiar with. But I trained with a coach for 1.5 years and when I asked him if it’s realistic for me to hit my PR’s that I had when I was 35, he said absolutely and proceeded to help me achieve it.
Unless you’ve been training seriously since your teens and have done hundreds of blocks of training, you have not achieved your full potential, according to the coach. You just put your head down, do the work and results will come. At a different rate than others but it will come.
For the first time in my life I took a break from riding for 3 months last year. I started it up again in February of this year. I have no doubt that I’ll beat my PR’s again, the way it’s all coming back up. I think for amateurs like us, we can keep improving into our later years no problem.