grolby

I just use the lap timer on the Garmin, but then, I haven't done a MAP test. I do the conventional 20 minute test. It's hard, of course, but mentally it's easier for me to pace myself at max effort for 20 minutes versus 3 or whatever it is.

Wesley36

Finding the interval finder in GC very helpful in looking at anaerobic work, using W' to search.

This training block I have been doing the SubLT-W6 workout from TARPM once a week. After a 3 min VO2 interval, there is a 20 min interval of SST with 7x 10s jumps. After this, up to 6x 300m sprints (5m recovery). First week through, I got in 1x 300m sprint, almost lost my cookies, and called it a day. Last week I completed the full workout. Last night I just about lost my cookies after the 3rd 300m sprint, pulled the plug.

It was still some good training stress and practice going into the red and recovering at speed (unsurprisingly a weakness), as well as punching out a sprint with tired legs (also something that needs work), but still a bit discouraging. That is, until I noticed that the % of W' expended was much higher last night, even though last week I did 3 more sprints. Used the interval finder by W', sure enough, every jump was 0.5 to 1 Kj higher. Nice.

TMonk

Does it make sense that your CTL, at any given point in time, will vary? I've noticed that if I check my current CTL shortly after entering a workout, it is often lower when I check the same day a few days later.

For example, on W of last week (2/4), I checked my CTL, and recorded it in the ride description of that file in WKO+ as 45.6
Now, when I hover over that date in the performance manager chart, it states: 42.1

Wtf???

mattm

@TMonk dunno but I wouldn't worry too much about it.

i mean it sounds weird, but I mean you should worry more about the trends (up or down).

shovelhd

CTL can lag.

globecanvas

My guess would be that normally a workout begins to affect CTL the following day, unless you are looking at the current date, in which case it begins to affect CTL on the day of the workout. In other words, after you enter today's workout, it will show you the same CTL you will see tomorrow morning. But tomorrow morning, if you look back at today, it will show you the CTL you had before the workout.

Just a guess. Like mattm said, don't worry about it. I'd worry much more about how you're going to finish a neutral lap with a CTL in the 40s

Wylde06

Unless that neutral lap includes Crybaby hill and you weigh 200 pounds..then it doesn't matter what your ctl is!

TMonk

burn!

Creatre

Yeah CTL lags a bit. Also you have to consider what you did 42 days ago (or whatever your CTL calculation is). Maybe you had an off day or instead you had a 300 TSS ride that is skewing your CTL.

ColnagoC40

This question has probably been asked a million times before, but i can't find it.

What recording interval are most using, 1 second, 3 seconds?

revchuck 

Three seconds.

mattm

1 second recording, always.

Which is not to say you can't display a 3-second average, but you might as well capture all the data available!

revchuck 

I think (<===dangerous!) that power data is captured once per second, but most folks display it as a three second average to smooth it out a bit. I've been wrong before.

mattm

It's ok, we're both right. The terminology is confusing between "recording" and "displaying".

What I meant was don'e ever use "Smart Recording", use 1-second recording. (this is at least with Garmins)

Then you can display 1-second power, 3-second smoothing, 30-second, whatever. Luckily my 705 can display more than one at once.

caloso

My Garmin 500 displays 10s power, which is a little laggy, but much smoother than 3s. 6s would be just perfect, in my opinion, but no one at Garmin asked me.

Wylde06

I have power, 3s, 10s, and 30s all on one of my screens!

Don't ask me why though, because I don't have an answer to that question.

furiousferret

I do 3s / 30s on my racing screens, and 10s on my climbing screen (since my wattage is consistent climbing).

Jancouver

Question, do I have to send my SRM for re-calibration after swapping the standard rings for Q rings?

If so, how much discrepancy should I expect from not re-calibrating?

I just hate removing the crank and sending the crank to Colorado ... and paying $100+ for that. Already done that twice in last 18 months and truly regretting my SRM purchase.

Also, what is the deal with Q rings and Quarq? Perhaps I could put those rings on that crank if that is a better option.

Or should I just sell the Q rings and forget it?

echappist

You should recalibrate, but you can get certified weights and do it yourself. This is something you would need to do regardless of the crank-based PM.

shovelhd

I would never regret purchasing my SRM.

tetonrider

PC7 allows you to display smoothing over a user-selected # of pedal strokes. i use 3 but you could use something like 6.

kind of nice. 3 rotations works well for me; 3s smoothing for a garmin is pretty standard.

tetonrider

power display will be off with Q-rings due to the way power is calculated by crank-based meters.

that said, SRM recommend calibrating oval rings by using a round ring, then installing the oval rings. IME with many SRMs, slope change is basically nil if you are going from the same size ring to the same size (e.g. 53/39->53/39) regardless of brand switches. even when making a jump from 53/39 to 56/44, the change is pretty small (1.5% the last time i did it on my TT bike).

so....if you really don't want to pull the cranks, send to SRM and re-install, i think you're probably fine. for oval rings, you're not going to notice the small change (probably more like 0-0.5%) given the inflated power values that oval rings show.

(lots of people ask me about oval rings; i always tell people to try the and see what they think. there is no free power, but some people like the way they feel.)

as echappist recommended, you can do it yourself. having that capability is valuable (IMO), and for less than the cost of a one-time commercial recalibration you can buy a really nice (20kg +/- 2g) mass to use for a lifetime of recalibrations with any crank-based meter you use in the future....unless it's a power2max.

Jancouver

Thank you for the info! The oval rings are 53/34 and will be replacing the same size standard rings. I chose this as it is a compromise between Standard and Q rings. Perhaps next time you are around, you can show me how to do the calibration.

... and I hope that you will choose to stay over at my house next time you're around!

Creatre

3s/30s is all you need. 3s is smoothed enough to see what you are actively doing, and 30s will show you a running short average.

tetonrider

happy to help out. if you're replacing rings of the same size, i'd just install the Q rings as the error introduced when they report power is not going to be any different if you calibrate with them on. save the $$.

OTOH, i'd definitely pick up a proper weight for calibration. mine's pretty old, but i bet i could find a link to one, if you're willing to spend $50-$100.

you want something at least 10kg (ideally 20kg...and the heavier the better) that is accurate to .01% (i.e. +/-1g on 10kg....or +/-2 on 20). seems like overkill but if you are going to bother doing it and possibly overriding the factory calibration it needs to be done right. you also need a way to precisely measure anything else you use to hang that weight off a pedal. a few grams matters, but it matters less the heavier the weight.

i also know you are a very smart guy--i've typed up the process before, but it is pretty trivial. the first time you do it it is just a bit awkward, but once you learn it takes maybe 5' total to take the readings and then run the simple calculations.

checking slope periodically (6-12 mo) is a good indicator of how stable a meter is and can help one learn of a potential issue before it affects much data. even if it doesn't change when you check it, it's good to know it is "healthy".

(i've seen meters of all brands ship from the factory with an incorrect slope, so i test right away when i install them for people.)

...and thanks again for that kind offer. i'm sure i'll take you up on it one day. you live in a great place!!