Hi
I am 61 years, 87 kg (5 kg to much). I had an ftp around 310-320 nine years ago. Cycled Alphuez just under one hour, 302 watts.
Have trained ok, but not consistent, 350-400 hours including running, weights etc. About 300 hours cycling. Stepped up training the last three years. My ftp is now 251w, is there a hope of getting back to an ftp around 300w or is this impossible due to my age?
Sounds like you were at a pretty high level of fitness previously….given that, it will probably be difficult to hit that same FTP again. Father Time remains undefeated, unfortunately.
However, you can almost certainly gain a fair amount from where you are now. You had a very good FTP and your body will respond to proper training stimulus. You may even surprise yourself with how much you can regain.
I likely hit my FTP peak 3 years ago…currently 59 and haven’t gotten back to that level, despite solid training and volume. But my fitness is still very good and I can put on a decent turn of speed and put the screws to my buddies.
IDK. I hit my best relative fitness level in my early 60s due to having more time to ride and the situation I was in. It seems to me there is a lot of individual variability in the decline due to aging once you get into your 60s. I had a precipitous decline in my mid 60s. It was very discouraging, but I came to realize that what’s important is to just keep going. At that time, I also found mtbing to be much richer experience and more rewarding than hammering on a road bike, so I mainly ride mtb now, with some road/gravel at times. I do structured training following a training plan indoors for ~3-4 months in winter, but when it gets feasible to ride outdoors more regularly (right about now here in CO), I just quit the plan and start riding outside. I rode TR before it had the new adaptive stuff, but now I’m trying to see if with the new adaptive features it can of value when not doing structured training. So far, it’s a mixed bag and not looking great, but I expect it will improve over time.
if you can commit more time to training now than you could then and you use that time wisely, that will give you the best chance of finding out.
Check this thread out…
Welcome do the forums.
No idea
But does it really matter? Training back to your optimal fitness whatever that number is seems worthwhile to me. I have also heard that comparing yourself to past years should be replaced within season ie is this your best ftp this season? If so,
If you were at 310-320 nine years ago, and have trained that much, yeah, you can get back close to 300W IMO. There are plenty of strong masters out there with big FTPs at that age. This is way different than someone asking if they can get back to the 320W they had in their 20s at age 61. :-).
You will have likely lost some, but you had a relatively high fitness level and trained some between then and now. I think you can get a good bit of it back. I work with two masters, one 66 and one 72, and they’re both markedly stronger than when we started (though not as strong as they once were, obviously). You can still train and be really fit, just realize you can’t do as much load and you need more time to recover - that’s what limits you now, even more than physiology. You just won’t recover quite as well from the hard stuff, which means less training load over time, and that’s OK!
One of the big things I have worked on with my two older athletes is sustained power gains because they were both short power/sprinter type specialists in their younger racing days, but now they are often in fields with younger riders, so we first made sure they can stay with the fields, and then work on expressing their speed which is usually pretty devastating in their category. Like anyone else, we just have to get them to the finish line relatively fresh.
One of them (my 72 year old) claims he wasn’t much of a climber, and now he hangs with the younger guys and is proud of it, and does pretty well for his category in his TTs. He even kinda enjoys them now, to the point he bought a TT bike!
And some people say coaching is not expensive!
Your annual volume is fairly low, any chance you can increase it. Might be the kick you need, to see that increase in ability.
Welcome to the TR community!
The only way to know for sure is to go find out…
Lots of good tips and stories in here from fellow community members, though!
The big thing I see in your post is mentioning that your training has been “ok,” but “not consistent.” If you want to push back up to that 300W FTP range, consistency will be key.
If you haven’t done so already, I think it would be worth checking out our Plan Builder. It will create a training plan for you based on your training history and your goals to help you get faster. It takes care of the plan and the workouts for you – all you’d have to do is follow along workout by workout and start building up that consistency again.