Ive had mine for going on 3 years now

new power meter coming to market

4iiii?s Introduces $399 Power Meter, Precision: My First Ride With It | DC Rainmaker

I'm a bit confused. I've based my power zones on my tested FTP, but although riding in the endurance zone feels fine all day my HR is like 5-10bpm higher than I'd ride endurance if I was going by heart rate alone. Not sure what this indicates, and whether or not I should disregard HR readings in favor of hitting power numbers.

it's fine; if you stick to the upper end of endurance zone for 2+ hours, HR will creep up

in fact i really don't do any tempo rides these days when they used to be my bread and butter (80 minutes of 80% FTP), but my long rides tend to just creep into tempo territory, and they end up being quite strenuous

Do you guys create separate intervals on your computers for z2 workouts? I've been creating intervals (as distinct from my warmup/cooldown) for anything z3+, but am wondering if it is necessary for a z2 ride.

So...ordered a Quarq. Price was right and if it fails due to weather I get to try out the highly touted customer service of SRAM/QUARQ. I reckon I get to do some winter reading and make the most of the data collection. I haven't read yet, but is it safe to assume the initial steps for training with a power meter would be do a series of power tests (5s, 1m, 5m, 20m) to establish some kind of baseline?

All I did was a 20 minute test a few weeks after I got mine last year. I still havent put myself through a 5 minute test..

Give yourself a couple of weeks to just ride/train/race however you normally do so, and start analyzing that data. This will allow you to become familiar with the tools (e.g. GC, WKO, whatever) as well as to start to get an idea of how your perceived efforts and pacing actually related to the data. Unless you're used to doing 20+ minute TTs, properly pacing a longer critical power test (and coming away with an accurate result) can have a bit of a learning curve.

What he said. Play with it a little bit so you understand how your body is churning out watts. A test right away isn't necessarily going to be a false read, but it takes a few weeks to find the optimal way to maintain power for a set point of time.

I just started doing this recently. It has one step: 1. [time] 30s PWR in Zone 2.

I chose 30s power because it gives enough smoothing that it's not beeping at me every time I go over an overpass. This is on a Garmin 500, btw.

From my first to my second 20 minute test I picked up ~30 watts. Im sure a lot of that was just learning how to ride with power.

I want 30w. I'm expecting a big increase as well. but that's huge!!!

is there some way to change the default columns in WKO calendar view? I'd like to hide the post activity comments column and add weight.

Not that I've found.

Depends. As noted doing some rides and making sure you understand how to let it temp stabilize and zero, Etc. is really your first step. Learning how to ride within a zone would be next; most folks are much choppier than they realize starting out.

Then I'd look at your training plan before deciding to test or not. It makes no sense to test for a specific interval if the work you will be doing is not specific to that interval, or you're going to back off training in that region. Doing a 5m test when you're planning on a lot of base miles is a waste of time. Some stuff will become self evident; if you do sprint drills you'll get the numbers.

When you do test you should develop a protocol. Same course, try for same conditions, and same build up. Doing a 5m test on a Monday after a day off is going to yield different results than a Friday test after three hard days of workouts. I try to use the same course for my intervals as well.

Collect data. It takes 3-6 months to start seeing trends and to really figure out if you're doing things correctly. And don't ever trust the meter 100% over PE and HR. Even the odd SRM can fart out bad data.

And I'd save the files in native format if your training software converts them to another format. Can only speak to WKO but I wish I had done that with years of SRM data; there are some things I wanted to see that got wiped out and there's no way back to native from their proprietary format.

Roger that. Thanks all for the feedback. Should have it installed by weeks end and riding with it on Saturday.

quarq installed. got to ride it around for about 2 miles. much fun. will take it out for a longer ride tomorrow. might look like chris froome for a while though

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=412602

at least he keeps his head far enough up to look at the stem. I stare at the bottom bracket and watch the crank arms go round.

http://i.imgur.com/P137Y0gm.jpg

True, but you're at least doing it when solo. He's glued to that thing when mid pack.

Considering trying to use a MAP test rather than the TARWPM 5 min and 20 min tests to test fitness this season. Seems quicker and easier, but more importantly, with 20 min tests I always second guess my pacing - with a MAP test it is unambiguously a maximal effort. Hmmmm...

The MAP test sounds relatively straightforward to do, but it's not clear to me what you are supposed to do with the results. That is, do you translate it into FTP somehow and base your training levels on that?

Yep

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=412962

I'm done with Golden Cheetah - it now crashes every time I try to see any ride detail. I guess I'll play with PowerAgent for now.

I'm turning into a VERY big fan of Velo viewer. Works off your Strava data, but is pretty awesome.

Yep, then if you want a target for an hour-long TT (FTP estimate, shoot for 74-86% of MAP). Mine is on the bottom end of that scale. My guess is kilo and sprinter types will end up on the bottom, and pursuit, TT, and climber types will be on the top end?

Looks interesting to me from a different angle. Started collecting data in May, all of the analysis I've run across is aimed at finding Threshold and setting targets for riders with a "typical" power profile. For riders like myself with a large gap between FTP and say 20s power, targets for shorter intervals end up way too low (based on past experience & PE). MAP might give higher targets for anaerobic work. Have to try it out.