What’s your FTP at age of 40+? Did you still progressing?
Hi! My current FTP is 299W (for 92.5kg stable, age 40). I’ve had 325W back in January 2020, but work and life happened, and fall back to 269 by June (Feb+March totally off of training, slow ramp up in April+May). Restarted structured training on trainer and outdoor at the end of July, now sitting on 299. I expect to climb back above 320 by Xmas.
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I have similar numbers 292 and 71kg, I’m still fighting to go over 300.
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I am approaching 300w again, 74kg (bit fat, can be 72 if I drink less beer for a while) just turned 50. I know a number of 50+ riders with much better w/kg than me! But they train a lot more …
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Managed 304W for an hour (don’t believe the 20min 95% hype 
) last year on Zwift at 45 years old. First season Zwifting (not riding!) but have many many years as an endurance runner under the belt. Haven’t gone again this year but race performance indicates I’m in similar shape. 78kg hopefully getting lighter as I cut out the beer in prep finally for a cross country season again.
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Turned 44 this year. Managed to get over 300 W for the first time this summer. That was an 312 Watt FTP at 73 kg. Trainer Road low volume Plan plus some endurance rides. I’m happy to see that I’m not the only one having a beer limiter…
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40 years old.
305W 72kg
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I’m at 280ish at 81kg, 51 years old. I hit 295 about a year ago, at about 77kg. I was riding more, and drinking less beer last summer.
I started running again about this time last year, after not running for about 11 months. I’ve found that 3 days a week of running (4-5 hours) makes it really hard to have the legs for hard rides. I don’t know how the triathletes manage to balance all that they do, and I give them much respect.
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57yrs in a few weeks; I feel 40 if that makes this more relevant 
. I haven’t tested in a while and just have 315 pegged as my sFTP; eFTP (mFTP in WKO) floats around that number depending on my racing or training block. I’ve been bouncing around the same level (±10w) for the past few years but feel that maintaining while getting each year older at this point, is a win.
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41 years old and 4.00 w/kg, up from 2.74 just prior to the pandemic! TrainerRoad and intervals.icu FTW!
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Impressive !!!
I d like to have some details about your training :
- hours / week
- load / week
- how many intervals session / week
- any vo2max intervals
Thanks a lot
Feel free to follow me on Intervals.icu! I think I’m the only “Matthew Clarke” on there.
Hours/week = 4.5 - 7.5
Load/week = 315 - 420
Sessions/week = 5 - 6 workouts
VO2 Max = yes
I use TrainerRoad exclusively, and have been using the Sweet Spot Base (low and medium volume), Sustained Power Build, and 40k TT Specialty Phase training blocks.
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thanks !!!
interesting !
i do not use trainerroad or trainer peak… i guess i am too cheap !
I just build my own plan by reading articles and blog. I am trying to follow a Polarized plan with 2 times per week of vo2 max intervals.
But now in winter I will follow some plan on swift and do some races
At 52 (67.5 - 68 kg) …eFTP = 281W, based on a short early September test. Looking for 300W by the end of October…or the end of the year. Avg ~15 hr/wk…over 17 at the moment. About to cross 600 hrs for the year. Heavy Z2 + Z3 + Vo2. Increased from 282W for 8 minutes…to 337W for 6 minutes…since February of this year.
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43 y old 238w / 88 kg was my best in may. Got bad knees, very bad, dropped 210 now.
My goal is 275w next spring without injuring my knees.
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I just turned 44. Im embarrassed to reveal my numbers. I’m at 2.69 w/kg (FTP 175, 65 kg 173 cms) after a year of structured training on TR and sufferfest. This is my first year of “cycling”. Progress (whatever little there has been) has been slow and painful. Ive lost about 6kgs over the last year and have been grinding through my “plan” 3-4 times a week. I train on my wahoo kickr exclusively and don’t ride outside at all. Ive been a runner for 10 years now with my best HM time of exactly 2 hours. So i’m not exactly coming in sedentary/overweight or with any injury/medical condition. I also run 3-4 times a week. Increasingly I feel I’ve hit the ceiling of my (very poor) capacity, esp so when I see FTP discussions
All said, I still enjoy and look forward to all my workouts, indoor cycling, running or functional training. For those way back of the pack, like me, keep pedaling!!
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Please don’t be embarassed. I’m at 3 W/Kg 63kg and perfecty able to ride a century at 28k/hr. I’m a bit older then you are but never have been above 3.5W/kg. I’m enjoying all my rides, solo and group rides. Just don’t join a pack of racers.
My guess though is that you are overloading your system, both in time and intensity. 6-8 workouts a week, grinding through TR/Sufferfest… It’s probably too much and when you do too much, quality is low…
Winter is coming (at least here in central Europe) so first take a full week off to recover and then try the following.
Do 3 workouts/ week per discipline, one long at low intensity, one hard at (really) high intensity and one medium at VT1 intensity. Before starting the high intensity one, you should feel well rested and capable of doing some real hard work around VO2 intensity. Stop doing anaerobic treshold work. It induces too much fatigue for the load you are doing.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you make some impressive progress in 6-8 weeks of time.
After all, your aerobic fitness is probably really good after all the work you already done. It’s time to turn it into gold by training in a more clever way.
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I’ll echo exactly what @MedTechCD has said and just give my 2c worth.
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Take a break; to allow your l internal clock/battery to reset. I see a number of people in a similar predicament to you, where they‘ve come off a year of TR (or Zwift) and feeling it wasn’t that great. While their plans are okay, it’s not tailored to your specific needs and circumstances.
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For two years I was doing 3 runs per week and 3 rides, and I lost a lot of peak cycling strength and fitness as a result. It was because the running had too much high intensity and the cycling too. My best HM was a 1h53, and I was racing Master/40+ age group in cycling, but getting dropped on 4-5% gradient climbs; so I can also relate.
Make sure you have 1 high intensity session for each of the two disciplines per week, and keep everything else long and slow. Keep the high intensity sessions at least 2-3 days apart. Do all your easy workouts (low intensity) using heart rate, and ignore the power. As a guideline, the rides should be at/below 75-80% of your maxHR (it’s an estimated level equivalent to LT1/VT1, or a pace that you can hold a solid conversation. If you have to pause taking to breathe, you’re going to hard.
A good workout for cycling in the base season is 4x8m at 90-105% of FTP. If you struggle with 4, then start at 3, and progress up to 5 sets. The intervals at >105% of FTP don’t require a long time to develop, so can be done after the base part of the season.
For the runs, if you know your L1/Z1 pace, then do most of your runs at that pace. To work it out, run on a treadmill (if you can), and run for 5 miles (8Km) and keep your heart rate at level/zone 1. The minute you go over L1, slow down. After the distance is complete the pace (mins/mile or mins/Km) is your L1/Z1 pace. For the high intensity workouts you can do Tabata-type workouts, or similar short HIIT sessions.
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Thank you for your replies and advice @MedTechCD and @Gerald . Much appreciated!
Yes, I probably should back off a bit. I may have plan non-compliance anxiety. lol
Appreciate the advice on having max of 3 sessions each for run and bike and also specific advice on the intervals. Getting some rest and keeping most of the workouts in Z1 will certainly help with motivation and hopefully gaining some strength.
I have been doing most of the running in Z1/Z2 power zones (HR sometimes drifts in sometimes into Z3). I do find that doing a Z1 is very challenging and requires frequent walkign. Doesn’t help that I live in a hilly area and a hot country (India).
The sufferfest workouts seem well thought out and depending on the week have 1-2 hard sessions, rest being in an easy z1/2 kind of zone.
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I often found myself walking, but I was told to trust the plan and see the long term results. It does work. Your L1 pace does increase as you become more aerobically fit. Zone 2 is only 4% higher than zone 1, or in my case 7bpm. As your L1 pace speeds up, so too will your pace at other levels.
And remember to keep effort easy at first, as your HR will increase over time: “cardiovascular drift”. That’s why the are called levels, and have a range from x% - y%.
Just remember that your heart rate for cycling will naturally be lower than running, so make sure to keep those two separate.
Good luck with the hills, that’s a tough place to keep the HR down, but my coach would say, do circuits in the flatter stuff.
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