Correction noted and accepted. 
It looks like you have a major seasonal drop every year. Do you stop or reduce the training when you enter off season? Why not just keep the volume up?
what happened in 2017 → 2018
Self-coached 2016-2017 to TR in 2018-2019. Dropped both volume and intensity. First plan was the old / pre-AT SSB1 HV and the lack of intensity and switch from outside-to-inside at first was ok but it started a fitness decline and realization I should have kept riding outside instead of embracing the trainer (can ride 365 days a year here). For myself it’s max efforts for the win 
I’m fairly certain our bodies don’t know what 300 is…
Likewise they don’t know what 100, 200, 3w/kg, 4w/kg, 5w/kg are etc.
These arbitrary goals based on convenient decisive numbers are a fine example of why so many people fail at long term cycling success. I understand that some people obsess over metrics and use it as motivation. It’s ridiculously common on this forum, for obvious reasons.
Just focus on doing your best sustainable training. Focus on beating your best climbing time on your favorite segment. Performing in a event. Holding your highest ever speed over a distance. Completing a riding challenge. Or… winning a race or category in a race. Literally, just chose anything… anything is better than a metric based on a number system. We are not computers…
There must be 8 billion posts now saying. “Help me get a 300w FTP.”
I’ll get behind anybody that posts an actual physiology/real world based target.
“Help me get my FTP to 287.5w.” Chance of being written by a TrainerRoad user… zero 
My training is based on something else, and I said it above…
Actually, 10+ minutes at 300W highly correlates with A group hanging on flat roads. Old and new routes are 45+ minutes at 230+ watts on a typical Wed. Personal best on a Wed group ride:
In 2024 I’d be super happy to push 300W for 10+ minutes, and 260W for 45+ minutes, by March. A 20-min field test at 316+W is a dream - that seems unrealistic. Love to hit 300 for 10+ minutes in the next 3-6 months.
My take is to figure out what type of longer rides you like to do, and to get out and enjoy them. For me that’s a moderate pace with some tempo/threshold pace on the climbs, and the number of times I’ve been 2.5 hours into a ride thinking “this is great… there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing right now” keeps me riding a lot. The fitness showed up on its own.
When I was trying to keep power down on rides due to some possibly misguided idea that I should keep my HR below some specific level lead to both boredom and lower fitness, even when the total volume was the same.
FWIW, I’m pretty fast and have good power to weight.
Yes, and I was responding to the posters general thrust which is “in order to achieve new levels, you need to do something you’ve never done before”, which is true - combine that with I nearly got there, and you get an “almost new” plan 
I had a couple longer term goals that I had broadly targeted. 400 watt ftp and 5 w/kg. Again arbitrary round numbers
I hit both of them by more or less ignoring them. My overriding goal (better race performance) always trumped them
So for me, hitting those targets was achieved by looking beyond them and playing the long game. I don’t think a specific power target for ftp is wrong per se but I think if you’re targeting that endpoint you are best served by making it a long term target and not an end of year shorter term push
Build the habit and the consistency and the power will follow
The specific training volume and modality will be unique to the individual and their life, but maybe most relevant to a forum thread, their training history
Who Redford , playing Jeremiah what in the what now?
For health reasons I do more now in autumn than I used to, but I usually cut back then change things up. At the moment I’m focussed on a long run and a short swim. My bike focus should start in December, generally I’m highly compliant in January with a dip in March, so I’m thinking to align to that see where I get in February and plan for a recovery of sorts in March, pick it up again in April if I’m on track.
I see. I guess it would be easier to reach a new top if you maintained your FTP throughout the year.
@JoeX I was interested in the same data as you showed above and put some analysis together based on Trainingpeaks export, using R.
Just Bike:
| Year | Number Activities | Annual hours | Weekly hours | FTP | W/kg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 119 | 178 | 3.4 | 257 | 3.8 |
| 2019 | 168 | 224 | 4.3 | 273 | 4.1 |
| 2020 | 190 | 284 | 5.5 | 284 | 4.4 |
| 2021 | 150 | 206 | 4.0 | 261 | 3.9 |
| 2022 | 128 | 160 | 3.1 | 263 | 3.9 |
| 2023 | 136 | 185 | 3.6 | 264 | 3.9 |
With swimming, running, and strength, weekly hours 2019 were 9h and 2020 8h (dropped swimming).
I’m the classic time-limited athlete with a busy life and I have multiple yearly periods with weeks of interruptions with international travel. I always drop a few % during such travel periods and it takes time to bounce back. I love the challenge of finding a recipe that works well with the time I have available. Thank god I respond well to intervals!
A consistent increase of weekly hours to 4.5 - 5.5h (=MV plan) would maybe allow me to get back to my previous peak, and who knows where 6h would end up
Maybe adding some VO2 weeks here and there could boost what I do in the other weeks, without adding more training time?
Looks familiar, for myself, ramping from 5 to 8 hours a week will directly result in an increase in FTP (with or without a lot of intervals).
The same - 6 to 8h - FTP boost, 8 to 10 FTP boost, despite the same amount of intensity (2x wk).
I doubt weekly bike hours for the year would correlate for me, I’d have to manually go and look at the period running up the the test. Overall SBR for the season or year might.
was your 16 hours mostly endurance riding?
No it would not. You need to rest and “lose some fitness” if you want to achieve long term incremental success
That’s a very interesting breakdown.
Thanks for sharing it.