Not sure what you mean by TKA, but I tore my meniscus 9 months ago. I was struggling to walk properly for the first 5. I couldn’t ride at more than 40% FTP for about 5 months as well. The last 4 months have seen significant improvement, and although I’m not training properly (because I’m spending 2-3 sessions a week in the gym building up lost muscle mass which leaves my legs too screwed to ride properly) my FTP would be around 7% lower now than before the injury, and I’m fairly confident I could get that back with focussed training. I’m 50 so a bit younger than you.

I'm 67 y.o. and 4.5 months post-op from a TKA (total knee arthroscopy, aka knee replacement). I was back on the bike (indoors, of course), working on range of motion at 4 weeks post-op, but couldn't do full revolutions of the cranks without significant pain for the first couple of weeks. I did a 2 hr Zwift ride today, first hour a moderate warmup, the second hour was an 'hour of power' test. My 60 min power today was only 25 watts below my estimated FTP from last August, derived from a 20 min test.

Like RMT, I'm also spending a couple of sessions a week in the gym, and my numbers there are already surpassing pre-op numbers.

Time will tell, but I'm expecting to surpass last year's power numbers by mid-Spring. What I'm really hoping for is to hit my numbers from two years ago. Last year's numbers were a tad low, as I was essentially pedaling one-legged for much of the year.

Thanks, that gives me some hope. I still have some atrophy to reverse so maybe I can get back over 200.

Coming off three scopes and one OATS surgery (cadaver tissue transplant) myself. That last one had me on crutches for 12 weeks. I'm not quite in your age neighbourhood, but I can see it from the edge of my driveway.

Three things I have found: 1) getting over the atrophy takes longer than expected (just past six months now, and I'm just about near pre-op strength); 2) I look a little more closely at w/kg when doing FTP testing, and while the watts are recovering, the kg are still a bit high, so I may need another few months of consistent work before I'm fully back (and maybe less pie and ice cream); 3) maybe it's just being on the wrong side of 50, but it's taking longer to recover from hard/long efforts, and this is delaying return to previous condition.

So, based on my N = 1, I think we are similar paths. It's a slow road, not always straight, frequently uphill, but we'll get there!

TKA = Total Knee Arthroplasty. Complete replacement of the joint. This will take many months to recover from. But I believe it’s definitely possible to get back to a normal FTP within 6 months to a year or more. Problem is that patients are usually much older and even without the surgery, FTP naturally declines.

Arthroscopy, as some others have chimed in, can result in a very quick return. As in days. Adding an OATS procedure or meniscal repair will greatly lengthen that recovery.

That being said, when it comes time for knee replacement(I’m hoping consistent running and good form will post pone that level of discomfort) I’ll try and have it done as soon as possible. People usually put knees and hips off for far to long and wish they had acted sooner.