Interesting post. When your powermeter was down, were you still cycling, and with the same schedule and intensity? I would wonder how you would correctly work within your FTP and other power ranges if the SRM was down and not telling you how hard to work, or how much to back down. If the objective training metric is removed, I could see a natural (if not unknowing) drop-off in fitness, such that the drop off in fitness could be more related to decreased intensity and decreased activity, as opposed to hormonal causes (not saying it doesn't occur, I've just not personally seen it with me).
I'm a former competitive cyclist, on MTF HRT for a couple of years...I've personally not seen a significant loss in FTP/5s power, etc that I would say *must* be HRT related (vs decreased training related). Interestingly enough, I (finally) (re)joined a gym after an absence of 5+ years. The first couple of weeks (esp. the very first week back) I felt so weak and thought - maybe this is the E2 strength drop most people talk about. Nope - I just had to reawaken the muscle memory. Now after 4 weeks of weightlifting, I'm about 85% of my squat and leg press weight (the first week I was about 75%). I have lost lean upper body mass, but I think it really is a combo of decreased calories and increased aerobic work (cycling), with only a tiny % due to E2; based on the tape measure, I know my calf size has increased 1/4-inch in one month of weightlifting, so despite having high serum E and low serum T, the mass and power is returning from their long vacation.
So just wondering how much decreased fitness do you think could be due to no longer training with a powermeter vs hormonal causes (esp. since I've trained with cis-gender competitive cyclists who - with obviously female range E and female range T, and not doping in any form - can still throw down the power).
(p.s. jealous you had/have the SRM...I used the Saris PT, but thinking about jumping to the Stages powermeter)
