TL;DR - post about how it isn’t always an upward trend.
So - in what seems an accurate reflection of how things ‘feel/RPE’ outside I’ve just been going back through the last 15 months to see where I was testing and it’s pretty horrifying (and wrecks / changes this years plans a bit
Jan 2021 - testing much as expected. Ftp sitting broadly in right place for the training I do. All good. Plannning ahead for 2021 to see if can improve it ready for 2022. Exciting times back then - thinking about what just a small improvement of a few percent would do for when I try some long one day efforts on the MTB.
By June I’d done three more tests and each one was slightly down. About 1.6% each time and now down 5% in total.
No big deal I thought - June is summer time and even with the three consecutive declines I thought I can turn that round.
I was about I have the time to finally kick off some STR work more and embed that in the programme and as a relative weakling on the muscle front I saw a huge opportunity there.
Roll on the second half of the year
Tests continue to show the same gradual decline and another 4% is lost by January.
At this stage I’m a wee bit worried about 2022 (now consistently dropping 1.5% every two months for about a year is starting to add up.
Replanned for Q1 this year based on the simple fact of where I was. got some great sessions in.
End of quarter test today and another 1% off ftp so now a full 10% down.
It’s interesting - as in theory I had a good opportunity with STR to make a difference. I certainly should have been able to at least maintain where I was I thought.
Like everyone I get older every year. Could be a gentle decline as the body starts to decline a bit (but how on earth without professional testing of all sorts of markers will anyone ever know that).
Sitting today mixed between curious and slightly depressing as last year was about building up to this year (I have some very specific ‘22 opportunities).
Can’t really understand it.
Email already away to @Rupert on the subject of a call - anyone out there with similar experiences?
Thing about posts like this is everyone is so different. One persons age is irrelevant compared to someone’s else’s (I’m in my 50’s - shouldn’t really be a big issue for me). I have no blood test issues being shown (had some tests last year for various things and have no obv issues with any part of me).
Probably a reflective post for deleting in a week. Just shows though. It’s not always upwards !! and I would really like to be one of those who can post improvements all the time