I started my '20/'21 season's TrainerRoad-based training plan 2 1/2 months ago, taking my first ramp test for over 12 months. During the past year, despite having followed a TR plan for nearly all of it, I'd just left my FTP at the same value, a value which was quite a bit lower than the year-ago tested value because I wanted an easier time in TR! The result was that I did a year of "maintenance", which was OK considering Covid.
After 3 years of TR I've zeroed in on doing "just" low volume plans, but focusing on quality and trying to be very well recovered for harder sessions so I can complete workouts with high compliance. The TR stuff can be augmented or very occasionally replaced by outdoor rides (inc group rides) from time to time, but since mid-Oct through until the Spring, the focus will be very much on indoor workouts and following the plan.
I also run, once or maybe twice per week, keeping the pace more to endurance/tempo level rather than caning it so as not to compromise recovery (fast runs beat me up a lot compared to steadier ones). Also, I'm doing upper body weights - no leg work - twice per week. The running and weights are for general well-being, aimed at keeping me more well-rounded and robust health-wise than just riding a bike all the time. It's also more interesting for me: I find that too much time on the bike, week after week, is quite boring for me, whether indoor or outdoors, but we're all different so each to their own. No criticism of anyone else's approach intended.
My so-called "schedule" also means that every month I interrupt the TR plan for a week-to-10-days, where I do more running and longer, steadier outdoor rides, geared towards building muscular endurance.
My target event was June '21, now Sep '21 if the world co-operates.
I'm not going to do many ramp tests between now and then, but will manually adjust (raise, ideally!) FTP as I feel progress is made across the plan. I'm currently at 255w, 3.65w/kg. My goal is primary a process goal, so the FTP will just be whatever it is, but I'd hope for 260, and 265 would be nice. So, no great uplift being aimed for by me.
My FTP now is roughly where it was a year ago, but I feel that I've made quite a lot of progress in that time that FTP doesn't capture. I feel that muscular endurance is improved and I recover faster, more easily able to string back-to-back days together. Some days, like today, I do both a 10k run and an endurance turbo session, and it seems fine. I've also set power records across a bunch of shorter duration (VO2mac-type) timeframes. Maybe down the line, these non-FTP, mainly unmeasured, improvements will be transformed into a decent FTP bump, which would be a pleasant bonus.
Good luck to everyone in the season ahead, whatever your goals. May you largely dodge injury and illness(!) and may your completed TSS plots slope progressively upwards and to the right