umd

Btw I'm "Steve Weixel" on the goodle wattage group. I saw your post there, I've just been lurking until recently. I know very little compared to many of the guys there.

slynkie

but as long as it's consistent relative to itself, it should be perfectly usable for training. if you happen to own another PM, you can use them together once, and have a good idea of the offset.

ljrichar

Mine wasn't off consistently, it was off to the square or cube or something, I'm not a math person. Here's my original post on the matter.

https://67.201.16.77/showthread.php?t...ht=power+curve

slynkie

isn't your post about consistency relative to the powertap?

Dubbayoo

How hard do you push 20 min intervals?


At the end of March I started doing 20min @ 91-100% and I was usually at my threshold HR (168) the last 5-8 minutes. MY FTP has gone up quite a bit, to the point where I'm now finishing the intervals around 160-162 HR*. If I try to finish the interval at threshold HR now I end up a good 30-35 watts over my last calculated threshold power. If I don't push right up against threshold HR for the last 5 min at least I end up recovering so quickly I'm not sure I'm getting much out of it. Seems like the ideal would be to get within a few beats of threshold ASAP and hold it for the duration, rather than just ending there. I'm going to raise my wattage target for May; just not sure how much.

At what point in your 20min intervals do you try to hit threshold HR? if at all.


* - this is mostly because my FTP was so poor to begin with.

ridethecliche

If you're 30-35 watts over your previous threshold power, you really need to test again. Maybe do a 2x20 test with 5 mins in the middle for rest, or do a MAP test.

How did you determine your FTP to begin with? Do you have any longer rides where you have a reasonable 1 hr AP/NP?

I'm shooting for a MAP test next week. I did 2x20 at almost 100% without serious pain. I need a retest. I'm guessing my FTP has gone up by 10-20 watts since the last time I tested.

Hocam

What kind of rate do you guys use to increase your TSS week to week? I've been shooting for 10% for 3-4 weeks, then -20% for a rest week.

slynkie

I'm not aiming for a precise ramp rate, but it looks like I've been doing about 10%/week. -20% for a rest week sounds like too much though, at least at my CTL level (57.8 today). Unless you're talking about a week completely off the bike. I don't think I've dropped more than 15% for a rest week this year.

Also, I don't think the 10% gains will be sustainable (for me) as CTL goes up.

LT Intolerant

Conventional wisdom says 4-8 is a sustainable ramp rate over the long term and most power forum geeks have done away w a scheduled rest week taking rest when they feel they need it or when life demands it.

I average a ramp rate of 3-4, opting for 0 or less when a target race comes up (to ensure my TSB is positive).

slynkie

are you talking percentage points or actual CTL?

umd

I asked this on the wattage group a little while ago and most of the answers were actual points not percentages.

LT Intolerant

Sorry, I was talking about points.

Hocam

I was talking about % increase of your TSS since it's a bit tricky to figure out what TSS is required for a CTL ramp rate.

LT Intolerant

I believe the formula for determining what TSS is required to hit a desired ramp rate is...

((Current CTL) + (6*Desired Ramp Rate)*7)= Needed TSS to Achieve Ramp Rate

Dubbayoo

I need to raise my threshold in WKO+. I know how to do it but I see the 'effective date' is always grayed out. How can I enter the new number so it doesn't affect past data?

umd

Options > New Zones

esammuli

Shouldn't it be


((Current CTL) + (6*Desired Ramp Rate))*7= Ramp Rate ??

Dubbayoo

You're a gentleman and a scholar.

LT Intolerant

So lets say my current CTL is 100 and my desired ramp rate is 5....

((100) + (6*5))*7) = 910...the TSS I need to hit to achieve a ramp rate of 5

Maybe I have it wrong?

esammuli

That should do it now, except you've got one extra parenthesis at the end. I was just pointing out that the syntax from your original post would have been

((Current CTL) + (6*Desired Ramp Rate)*7)= Needed TSS to Achieve Ramp Rate
100+6*5*7= 310

Now it's (100+6*5)*7=910 which is the desired result (aside from the unpaired parenthesis at the end). I think we've got it settled now.

mikerhymeswith

good explanation; this clears up my questions; i have to contend with a lot of rollers; most hills where i live can be put away with 3 minutes or less of FTP and it's hard to increase cadence or shift to keep power constant as you crest a hill, and vice versa after bottoming out; finding a good 5' test spot has been my challenge

LT Intolerant

Cool. Math was never my strong point. For that matter neither was english, science, etc, etc

umd

Check out the 30 day PMC predictor spreadsheet that was posted on the wattage group.

Robobo1

What constitutes a high VI?

I'm battling a similar question to the OP of this part of the thread... just did two races this weekend and seem to have blown up my FTP big time. It's time to re-test, but it doesn't fit in the schedule for another couple of weeks (until after the big stage race on Memorial Day weekend).

umd

Not sure what the "cutoff" would be but everything I've heard suggests that 1.3 (30% difference between NP and AP) is too variable to be useful for those purposes. Rides I do that don't have excessive amounts of coasting or extreme high power/lower power seem to come in more like 1.1 or less. I don't have a huge amount of experience here so take this with a grain of salt but it seems that if you get any higher than 1.15 you are too much into AWC territory IMO.