terrymorse 

Who has had success getting off of a fitness plateau? What did you do?

I'm performing pretty well, and my best efforts power curve is slightly better than 2023, but I have seen only small gains in the past several weeks, and my tempo climbing pace is stuck at the same level.

My fitness is likely adapted to the current training level as much as it will, and I figure it's time to bump up the stimulus. But what to change? More time? More intensity? Both?

MoAlpha

At age 67 I'm happy not to be deteriorating (much) year by year and see flat performance as an equivalent to gaining fitness. I'm pretty happy to have actually improved my power curve a little, while losing about 10 bpm of max HR. That said, I do seem to respond to both time and intensity bumps within seasons, so if I retired and rode 20 hrs a week, that might do something.

hayden52

Intervals.

Jughed

My peak numbers - 5-10 min range - barely move year to year. I saw some improvement this year, but not very much.

The holy grail for me is an FTP of 300+ or 3.7 w/kg. With my typical 8-10 hour weeks, with the occasional 12+ hour week - the peak numbers are just not budging very much.

Intervals do little for me. I do them, but the results are so-so at best. And intervals just flat cook me. I don't recover well. At best I can maintain 2 weeks on, one off. If I push to three weeks - I blow up.

But my mid level numbers do improve. The % of FTP that I can sustain for longer periods seems to increase all the time.

FTP - at least for me, the 20 min test is BS and leads to numbers I simply can't sustain. My 20 min power is about 295w, meaning an FTP of 280+/-. NOPE!. Not happening.

I climbed for 1.5 hours last night at 3w/kg and was cooked at the end.

With the time I have and my poor recovery - I don't see that improving much moving forward.

PeteHski

Do you feel like you can handle more volume or intensity? How well do you recover from your current regime of volume and intensity? If you feel super fresh then increasing either or both should get results. But if you are already at the limit of what your body can cope with then maybe not. You might even find gains from backing off a bit if you are feeling jaded. I've been at both ends of this spectrum at various times. Doing something "different" seems to help.

Sierra_rider

If I'm looking at my power curve, I'd say that pretty close to last year based on average wattage. Due to cutting some weight, I did see some improvement to w/kg. That being said, I think there are some improvements that aren't fully captured by the critical power curve. Mainly my ability to repeat hard efforts during a ride and the percentage of FTP I can ride at the end of a 4+ hour race/ride.

I would like to improve my FTP some more this season...in my case, I think more intensity is the answer. I rarely ever do structured intervals, I sometimes do "intensity" days when out on the climbs...my other source is weekly XC short track racing. Just looking at the power analysis of a short XC race or even a tough climbing day compared to a structured FTP interval, I would get a better bang for the buck on the structured workout. Luckily for me, I seem to handle shorter, high-intensity efforts really well...it's the long rides that I find physiologically taxing.

pdlamb

Maybe you want to try some 2-5 minutes torture sessions intervals?

terrymorse 

I sort of am doing intervals once a week, but as hill climbs of 1-4 minutes. The nearby hills are up to a mile in length, so I hit one hard, recover as I head to the next one, repeat. Add that workout to the twice weekly tempo climbs of Mt Hamilton, and I think I have the intensity part dialed in.

I'm thinking of increasing the volume with a long ride, once per week.

Jughed

I was thinking of this thread when laying out a plan for the next 4 weeks (which I may make a thread about)... something we may not consider as regular joes are performance peaks. I tend to grind all year and want my numbers to be high or get higher all year, even during "base" training periods.

Maybe we need to ease off a bit, change things up, do some cross training - let the body recover - then build a peak.

My ego wants me to smash it all year - but the top athletes smash it in cycles.

As I was considering some VO2 work, I started watching this:
At min 17 or so - "What is achievable vs what is sustainable". Talks about our ego wanting to smash things, talks about making drastic changes to the diet and failing (which I did this winter), talks about how some changes take years vs getting qucik results. Talks about subtle changes vs making drastic changes to training... pretty good stuff so far.

PeteHski

Yeah, I definitely aim for peaks at my target events and take it easy for periods of recovery. I have a base level of fitness that I try to maintain all year round, but I can only rise above that level for a couple of months and only sustain peak fitness for a few weeks before it starts to become tiring.

I follow GT’s podcast (GTCC) and he once talked about how the elite of the elite tour riders are able to soak up considerably more training volume and intensity than even the midfield pros. Everyone has a different tolerance to volume and intensity and so you have to work out where you are within that spectrum. Quality sleep and nutrition might also increase your capacity to train longer/harder within your genetic and lifestyle limitations.

Clyde1820

Intervals, gradually going higher-intensity and longer periods.

But, that's me. Can't say whether most people's bodies respond similarly, but mine seems to. The old "mix it up" suggestion seems to work. Say, a 10mi route, with 3mi warm-up, then moderately-hard intervals for a couple of minutes, followed by whatever recovery period seems right. Eventually, I'm able to push harder, go a bit longer, require a bit less recovery ... and, in the end, make an overall improvement in the route's elapsed time and speed.

I've always done better when having 3-4 days each week for weights, daily stretching (2x/day), with fairly intense cardio. Takes a bit out of the body, while ramping-up the insensity and difficulty of each element, but it pays off. Continually mixing the ways I challenge the body, with various sports, movements, exercises. Often cycling, often (though not anymore) running, sometimes rowing, hikes up trails with lots of varying incline/difficulty, weights at the gym.

Of course, now at 60+ things aren't recovering the way they used to, and I'm not able to go nearly as intensely as when younger. So, the "level" is just lower, but the variation and exercises involved is much the same.

Hondo Gravel

I hit the wall weight training took about 4 days off to recharge. Lighter weights with higher reps and I feel much better the old joints don’t like heavy sets anymore. When I’m into cycling 2 days on one day off seems to work for me. 6 months building up strength and some muscle now I want to drop about 20 pounds without losing too much. Wish there was a magic formula.