I can't progress anymore on the fitness chart. What do?

[Gerald]

@Oenkie

Must be possible to come up with good alternatives though. I know cyclinganalytics.com uses the terms LTS (long term stress), STS (short term stress), and SB (stress balance).

It’s much the same thing, with a different name. Understanding how each works, including the pitfalls of using it in isolation, is more important than what it’s called.

Have you read the Guide section, on the fitness page?

[Steve_Balboni]

16+ year ago began racing bikes.

[Olly_Thomas]

Awesome - who do you race for now and what is your plan?

[Steve_Balboni]

Thanks. That’s not really the topic of this thread. I think my question has been answered and the only thing I can do to keep moving forward is to extend out my duration/weekly kj.

[Olly_Thomas]

OK! Good luck. Keep us posted on how you get on

[MedTechCD]

@Steve_Balboni

the only thing I can do to keep moving forward is to extend out my duration/weekly kj.

No and yes, in that order…
If you can increase duration, sure. But you will somewhere reach a maximum. And that still doesn’t mean that you can’t improve performance. There’s plenty of people progressively increasing performance without that being visible on the Fitness chart.
If you somehow need a chart that shows that you are progressively doing more work, then use something ‘Work’ related. Doing similar hours and intensity will be shown as a plateau on the Fitness chart, but if performance goes up (FTP increase) the total Work done in those hours will still increase. If it makes you feel better to see a permanently increasing chart, use that. It will only show a plateau, once you are no longer able to increase FTP, VO2, … But the chart will become shallower when you’re getting closer to your limits.
But absolutely avoid to consistently increase intensity for the sake of getting a higher Fitness number. That’s the spiral of death…
Don’t remember who’s quote it was, but it is 100% inline with my opinion:
“Measure performance by directly measuring performance”.
Not by measuring indirect parameters that would/should improve performance. Those should be tweaked to make sure that performance increases.

[Olly_Thomas]

@MedTechCD

“Measure performance by directly measuring performance”.

Andy Coggan? “The best predictor of performance is performance itself”

[Steve_Balboni]

Nah I think i’ll just keep pushing CTL up for given FTPs by increasing volume and maintaining intensity until I can reset my FTP at 5w/kg. I’ll report back in 6 months to this thread and we can check on my “death spiral.” Lol.

[MedTechCD]

That’s the one!