Ten (More) Years on the Bike...Just the Numbers

I read a comment about a week ago by Dr. Andy Coggan in which he stated that in the last 10 years (in his case, from ages 38 to 48) he hasn't lost a single watt at his VO2 max or at his functional threshold.
Having hit "the big four-oh" on New Year's eve, I began to ponder where my fitness is and, for comparison, from where it had come from in the last 10 years.
While knowing where it was 10 years ago isn't quantifiable for me because unlike Andy, I "only" began training and racing with a power meter after the 2001 racing season. I do, however, know exactly where my fitness was in the winter of 2001 coming into the 2002 spring race series.
It was at this time I purchased a power meter and tested my fitness with some field tests designed to indicate the status of certain key elements of my fitness and began to correlate them to each other. I chose this time because I had just finished the 2001 season and had experienced the best race results of my racing "career" and was feeling even better as the new season approached.

I mention the state of my fitness at this time because I believe that at this time it was better than it had ever been. I had been (finally) training with a plan in 2001 and was able to stay healthier throughout the season and place consistently higher in races than ever before. I had been performing certain training sessions that I'd use as marker sets and was doing so better than any point in the past year. So, roughly six years ago, I began to keep a record of my fitness that I am still keeping to this day.

In the last six years I have increased my power at VO2 max by 10%, my functional threshold by 12% and my 5-second power by 20%. Better still, I have managed to increase theses power outputs while decreasing body mass by 2 kg. By understanding the actual intensity of my bouts of cycling training via a portable power meter, and through correlating intensity with perceived exertion, I was able to find and push through the old "ceiling". I know not only how long and how it "felt", I know at what intensity I elicited these results. The single biggest advantage for me to this has been knowing when I need rest. By knowing when to rest, I have actually managed to get better as time has passed.
I'll keep on keeping on and see if I can manage to hold this for the next 8 years or so.