Ygduf

when I said this it was 20 pages of "train the position"

I understand what you're saying, I'm just sour today!

Grumpy McTrumpy

even if they wrote 200 pages of it, I wouldn't even respond.

grolby

Maybe. A hard road race might be better. It depends on so many different things. You in particular are probably prone to NP-busters in shorter races. Other people with flatter power profiles, less so. It's a good idea to test regularly (I'm bad at this part), but use race data as a reality check. And vice-versa. Human nature being what it is, it's so easy to prefer the estimate that suggests a higher FTP but of course overshooting it does you no good at all.

lorill

The ramp and 20' tests were on two consecutive days, but at the end of a rest week. The intervals are going ok, the difficult part is the pacing for now. Bumping FTP by 10 or 15W wouldn't change the zones that much, and with my imprecise pacing, it wouldn't change much I guess. I'll let it where it is for now and plan a more ambitious test in a few weeks then.

Thanks!

revchuck 

If by "pacing" you mean keeping your watts within a narrowly specified range (e.g., 200-215 watts) during the entire interval, IME it's not going to happen on the road though it may on the trainer. You'll naturally do your best to do that, but don't sweat the times you go above and below the target watts. Your average power for the interval will most likely be in the desired range, and you'll have accomplished the workout's goal.

lorill

Yep, that's exactly what I meant, but i'm trying to stay in a larger range (say in target +/- 20,).

shovelhd

I have no problem staying in a 5w-10w range on the road on flat to gently rolling terrain, although I have many years of practice. The key is to relax as much as you can and focus on pedal stroke and rhythm. If you're all tensed up staring at your power meter then you may have difficulty. Use an object up the road as a target.

canuckbelle

And are you looking at, for example, 3s average, or just the 'power'? The latter will jump around a *lot* even if you're steady. But if you're steady, the 3s average will stay smooth. What's on your readout?

lorill

I'm looking at 3s, 30s, and interval average. The sad thing is that garmin's workout mode is only checking instantaneous values, and isn't usable.

Wylde06

You can change what is displayed for workouts

canuckbelle

What are you looking at *while* doing your intervals, though? As Wylde said, you can change the displays.

lorill

I'm not talking about the display here. You can prepare a workout file, specifying your intervals. Say 2mn at this range, then 1mn at this one, and loop, this sort of things. It displays it and guides you, and beeps at you when you get out of the range. I don't think you can set "use avg 3s" for this feature.

lorill

Looks like my written expression is too poor to communicate properly

I'm looking at 3s, 30s and interval wattage at the same time, trynig to keep 3s in the range but not fussing too much if it gets too high or too low. I can get the interval wattage in a narrow range without problem if there's no obstacles on the road. I know how to setup my head unit, and as I said, i read the classic books, so i know you can't pace using non-averaged values.

Ygduf

I literally just figured this out yesterday and gained 20w on my downhill TT intervals. the 5min ones used to be 365/330ish now 365/355.

globecanvas

Explain?

Ygduf

instead of just trying to focus on the pedals and watching the power meter, I pick a marker 10 seconds down the road - a mailbox or streetsign or shadow or _anything_ and I focus on pushing through that marker. As I get near, I jump my eyes up the road to the next target.

I can't say why definitively, but focusing on getting *there* as fast as I can (while controlling breathing) resulted in better and smoother power for me that was right up at the limit of where I wanted to push.

my ride yesterday: look at lap 4 and lap 6, e.g. https://www.strava.com/activities/371998431/laps

TheKillerPenguin

Your 6th interval is above 30mph.

Ygduf

downhill, sadly.

caloso

Yes, you just page forward to your standard workout view. In my case: 10s power, lap avg. power, and lap time. It will still beep at you when you're out of range and when the interval ends.

globecanvas

I don't know anything at all about the "Watteam PowerBeat" $500 left-right power meter, beyond what I've just read in DC Rainmaker's preview article. But I thought this was a creative way for them to help the user calibrate the unit. They provide a plastic bag that you fill with water to achieve a specific weight.

Ygduf

there's no way that weight is more than like 10kg, even if that jug is way bigger than it looks in the pic. 1ga is like 4kg

Yep

When I do intervals of anything more than 30 seconds I usually use average power and I'll target the wattage to the watt. I'm fully aware that there's false precision there for a variety of reasons, but if the problem is trying to get consistent power averages, that should be really easy.

johnybutts

So I just started training again. Every ride is on the trainer. From kinda feel, my FTP is probably about 195-200W. I'm almost to the point where I could likely survive a 20min test.

Question: I'm basing that feel on my trainer rides. I know training watts are typically lower than what you could produce on the road. If all my rides are indoors, should I keep a trainer FTP? Or should I get outside one of these weekends and do an outdoor 20min test?

globecanvas

If you are doing intervals and measuring fitness/fatigue entirely on trainer rides, then it makes sense to use an FTP estimate that is appropriate for the trainer. Personally I suck on the trainer so I definitely aim for lower targets when doing intervals indoors vs on the road.

globecanvas

Thater was fast & furious but NP was surprisingly low, about 20w lower than a typical summertime crit. It was the 15 efforts >800w, 5 efforts >900w, and 1 effort >1000w that hurt. And I didn't even get to sprint.