Going to copy-pasta a similar answer from another thread:
At 36 years of age, I faced a similar plateau:
- Initially, my FTP settled around 4 w/kg.
- Despite 9-10 hours of mixed training consistency, I hovered between 4-4.3 w/kg for 2 years.
My breakthrough came with:
- Increased riding time: 10-15 hours/week for 3 months.
- Prioritizing sleep: Ensured at least 7 hours nightly.
- Strategic dieting: Maintained a 200-300 calorie deficit daily, aiming for double my body weight in grams of protein. At 67 kg, I’d target an intake of 134 g of protein daily.
- Adopted a polarized model focusing on anaerobic training, avoiding zones other than upper threshold and VO2 max. Previously, I adopted traditional training approaches of sweetspot, threshold, you name it.
The result after 3 months: FTP bumped from 4.2 to 4.8 w/kg.
Note as of 4.29.2024: what is not noted above is that I was riding a lot in January-June of 2023, and then was sidelined with a pretty nasty injury (I’ll spare you the details, but I hit a deer on a descent when I was going about 50 mph). That said, I had some solid base fitness going into the 3 month period where I made all the gains (despite the injury setback) that also propelled my progress. I’m in a position now where I’m at 4.2 w/kg at the moment, and I know I have to build a pretty big base (again) to build into that 4.8 w/kg number.