"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Question about TP WKO+ Max Speed

Hello guys, I just started using training peaks when my Garmin arrived from PBK two days ago. Since then I have been on two rides that I have imported into both Garmin Connect and WKO. The problem is that when I look at the Garmin or Garmin Connect it shows my maximum speed lower than WKO. Today for instance, I hit a max per Garmin of 39mph, but in WKO it shows as 49mph. I have downloaded the most up to date firmware for Garmin and run a every second recording interval.

Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks for the help.

You can't use the max speed in WKO with the Garmin. There are speed spikes that will give you something absurd. Don't worry about your max speed, it doesn't mean anything. If you do want some idea, just look at the graph, find where the high points are and zoom in. Find a few seconds at the peak without a spike and check the average over those seconds. WKO is showing the data without any kind of smoothing, whereas the garmin unit does smoothing on the data before it displays it on the screen.

Also, running every second makes the speed spikes worse. Unless you are also running a power meter, it is recommended to leave it on "smart recording"

Thanks, I just wanted to make sure that it was not going to be importing enough spikes to pull any averages off. I will also change the Garmin back to smart recording since I haven't found a way to get a power meter without my wife throwing it at me.

question... why use WKO+ if you don't have a power meter?

Thanks, I just wanted to make sure that it was not going to be importing enough spikes to pull any averages off. I will also change the Garmin back to smart recording since I haven't found a way to get a power meter without my wife throwing it at me.

The spikes don't affect the averages. For every corresponding upspike there is a downspike. They are caused by the lack of precision in the position. If you think about it, if you go a mile in 3 minutes you've gone 20mph, and a few feet aren't going to make any difference. But there are 5280 feet that you covered in those 180 seconds, or about 29 feet per second, so if it is 10 feet off in one of those seconds, then it will think you were going 33% faster that one second, and 33% slower the next second.

question... why use WKO+ if you don't have a power meter?

Lots of reasons. Its a great tool for visualizing all kinds of data. Even, gasp, heart rate!!! :)

You can still do a lot of training downloading HR and the like in WKO+. The powertap just makes it an even better tool.

is it possible to get power-spikes in WKO+ as well, or from the powertap in general? (like how some speedometers can show 60 mph from a stoplight sensor)

WKO said i hit 1,076w briefly last night.. i'm thinking maybe that's true, as my previous max wattage was ~960w, but i was surprised. i don't remember really tearing at the pedals that much. i know it's not super-human strength or anything, but can the power numbers always be trusted?

do wattage spikes happen too? the data looked correct, as it was a standing start from a stoplight. i was just surprised to see that number.

Generally when I see erroneous spikes in WKO+, a visual inspection of the data will easily reveal it. I once saw a spike of 1800W that lasted one second. The power immediately before and after the spike was around 120 watts.

Now, I can probably hit 1800W, but I definitely don't have the control to hit it for exactly one second and return to exactly the same previous wattage.