Why Your Cycling Progress Has Slowed Down
8 min read
Discover why cycling progress slows and how to overcome it.
If you've been cycling seriously for years, you've probably noticed something frustrating: the rapid improvements you experienced early on have slowed to a crawl. What once took months now takes years. You're not imagining it—and it's not because you're doing something wrong.
The culprit is your trainingg](/knowledge-base/training-across-the-menstrual-cycle-optimizing-performance-for-female-cyclists) age, and understanding it is crucial for setting realistic expectations and designing effective training programs as you progress from beginner to advanced athlete.
Training age refers to the number of years you've been engaged in structured, progressive training—not your chronological age. A 45-year-old who started serious cycling training two years ago has a training age of two years. A 25-year-old who's been racing since age 15 has a training age of ten years.
This distinction matters because training age is a better predictor of how you'll respond to training than the number of candles on your birthday cake. Your body adapts to training stress over time, and with each year of consistent training, the adaptations become more difficult to achieve.
When you first start structured training, nearly everything works. Ride consistently for a few weeks? Your FTP jumps 20 watts. Add some intervals? Another 15 watts. The improvements come fast and feel almost magical.
This phase—roughly the first 1-2 years of serious training—is characterized by rapid physiological adaptations:
During this phase, beginners can often improve their FTP by 30-50% or more in their first year with consistent training. The body is responding to a novel stimulus, and the low-hanging fruit is abundant.
After the initial honeymoon period, gains start to slow. Athletes with 2-5 years of training experience—intermediate-level cyclists—find that improvements require more deliberate programming and attention to detail.
The physiological systems that adapted quickly in year one are now operating at a higher baseline. To push them further requires:
An intermediate cyclist might see FTP improvements of 5-15% per year with good programming—still substantial, but nowhere near beginner gains.
Once you've been training seriously for five or more years, you enter the realm of diminishing returns. At this stage, even small improvements require enormous effort and precision.
Consider the numbers: An advanced athlete with an FTP of 310 watts (like your current level at 83kg body weight, targeting 4 w/kg) might work an entire season to gain 10-15 watts. That's a 3-5% improvement—meaningful for performance, but modest compared to beginner gains.
This is where the concept of marginal gains becomes critical. Advanced athletes must optimize:
At this level, the difference between good and great often comes down to details that would have been insignificant for a beginner.
A common misconception is that older athletes can't improve as much as younger ones. While chronological age does play a role (particularly after age 50-60 for most people), training age is often more limiting.
Late-start athletes—those who begin serious training later in life—often experience rapid beginner gains regardless of their chronological age. A 40-year-old starting structured training can see similar relative improvements to a 20-year-old beginner, albeit from a potentially different baseline.
The key difference is that late-start athletes may have less time to accumulate the years of training needed to reach elite levels. But for those focused on personal improvement rather than absolute performance, training age provides a more useful framework than chronological age.
Understanding your training age helps set appropriate goals:
The first step is psychological: understand that slower progress is normal and expected. A 3% FTP improvement after five years of training represents a similar training stimulus and adaptation challenge as a 20% improvement in year one.
Instead of comparing your current rate of improvement to your beginner gains, compare your performance to athletes with similar training age. The competitive landscape at advanced levels is defined by small differences.
As training age increases, programming must become more sophisticated:
Advanced athletes often find that the limiting factor isn't their ability to train hard, but their ability to recover from hard training. With your resting heart rate of 56 bpm indicating good cardiovascular fitness, focus on:
When physiological improvements plateau, look for gains in:
A 2% improvement in aerodynamics combined with a 2% improvement in pacing strategy can yield performance gains equivalent to months of hard training.
Advanced athletes benefit from careful periodization. For your goal of reaching 4 w/kg by April 30th (approximately 332 watts at 83kg, up from your current 313 watts FTP), a 6% improvement, you'll need:
Advanced athletes often benefit from specializing in specific event types or durations rather than trying to improve everything simultaneously. Focus your training on your primary goals and accept that some areas may plateau or even decline slightly.
Many cyclists worry they've hit a permanent plateau. True plateaus—where no further improvement is possible—are rare except at the very elite level. More commonly, what feels like a plateau is actually:
Addressing these issues often reveals that progress is still possible—just at a slower rate than early in your cycling journey.
Viewing your cycling through the lens of training age encourages a long-term perspective on athletic development. Rather than chasing quick fixes or unsustainable training loads, focus on:
This approach not only leads to better results but also greater enjoyment and longevity in the sport.
Understanding training age transforms how you approach cycling improvement. Whether you're in your first year of structured training or your tenth, knowing where you are on the development curve helps set appropriate expectations and guides programming decisions.
For beginners, the message is encouraging: consistent training will yield rapid improvements. For intermediate athletes, the path forward requires more deliberate planning and attention to detail. For advanced cyclists, the challenge is embracing marginal gains and finding satisfaction in small, hard-won improvements.
As an advanced cyclist with a solid FTP and years of training experience, your goal of reaching 4 w/kg is achievable—but it will require the sophisticated approach befitting your training age. Focus on precision in programming, optimize recovery, and look for gains in multiple areas rather than expecting dramatic jumps in FTP.
The slower rate of improvement at higher training ages isn't a sign of failure—it's a badge of honor. It means you've already captured the easy gains and are now working at a level where small improvements represent significant achievements. That's not frustrating; that's the mark of a serious athlete pursuing excellence in a complex, demanding sport.
That's a 3-5% improvement—meaningful for performance, but modest compared to beginner gains
Athletes with 2-5 years of training experience—intermediate-level cyclists—find that improvements require more deliberate programming and attention...
Athletes with 2-5 years of training experience—intermediate-level cyclists—find that improvements require more deliberate programming and attention...
The culprit is your **training age**, and understanding it is crucial for setting realistic expectations and designing effective training programs ...
The culprit is your **training age**, and understanding it is crucial for setting realistic expectations and designing effective training programs ...
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