FormerRower

Unfortunately you can't change anything (as far as I know) on the summary WKO screen. That is my biggest gripe with the program... well that, and the fact you only see the averages per month for the last 11 months and no more.

Abu Jack

I am new to training with power. I have an Ibike Pro. Today my workout was 3 9' intervals, 2 at 240w and 1 at 260w with 5 min RBI. I have a hard time hitting the target power. If my goal is 240. I usually do 20 or 30 over. The power reading on the Ibike fluctuates so much that I tend to go as hard as I can for the interval to make sure I hit my target and end up going over. Does getting better at maintaining the target power come over time? Does it matter?

brian416

Yep, it takes time to learn how to pace yourself to hit the correct average wattage. The number will end up going above and below, but just try to keep them as close as possible to your target.

rbart4506

Not sure if this helps or not, but my coach always gives me a range to work within....I always try and keep my ave. power within this range...

gregf83 

I never look at instantaneous power during intervals. I just display the avg power for the interval and keep that on target. Once in a while I'll switch to 10S power halfway through the interval. I can hit my targets within 1W without difficulty.

aham23

i use 3 sec avg power all the time. i find with a Quarq i dont see as much jumpiness as i did with my PT SL+. however, it does flucuate and you will get better at pacing. use an avg though when doing intervals. later.

SalsaPodio

Just took a look at my power profile after a few months on the trainer pretty much exclusively

FTP = 4.3 W/kg
5 min = 5.5 W/kg
1 min = 7.8 W/kg
5 sec = 14.5 W/kg

My 1 min and 5 sec are pretty pathetic. Guess I have something to work on when I'm able to get outside.

waterrockets 

Nice work. Regarding the 1' and 5", those can't be tested on a trainer. In a full sprint, the bike doesn't move right, and the wheel can slip. Since the first 5" of the 1' test should look exactly like the 5" test, both are screwed on a trainer.

SalsaPodio

I've been able to ride outside three times. I didn't really try to test the 1' and 5" so the numbers are probably a little higher, but I'm not expecting much. We'll see.

FormerRower

Hey Salsa those are really solid coming into the season. You did the threshold test on the trainer right? I was in a similar situation in terms of being confined to the trainer and when I was finally able to get out and test there was a huge difference in power numbers relative to the perceived exertion I had when on the trainer. Will you be able to test outside soon?

SalsaPodio

Thanks. Yeah, I did the threshold tests on a computrainer with a custom ramp test that the guy who was testing my team uses, so it was essentially an ergometer.

I've only had the powertap for two months, but from the outdoor rides I have done with it, I can tell a pretty substantial difference in PE vs wattage. I'm hoping to get outside soon. I might put a cross tire on my ptap wheel and use it for a gravel road race this weekend, although windy and 20F temps don't sound to nice for 100k right now.

Jancouver

How do you estimate TSS for other types of workouts such us weights, running or swimming? I got the feeling my TSB & ATL are way off since I do not log any of those.

SalsaPodio

If you tracked HR you could possibly use that, but I'm just guessing.

echappist

if you can get golden cheetah to work, TRIMP points (based on HR) can be used. But that probably requires you to know your LTHR for those other sports.

I'm not sure about lifting though... You can probably search the wattage forum for more info.

GirlAnachronism

I'm curious about that too since I spend a lot of time the gym, and it definitely adds to my fatigue.

My playing with my power numbers is just for my own fun since I have a coach who writes my program, so I wouldn't really change anything if I had that information, but I'd been wondering if I should enter those workouts into GC, and if so, how I should do it.

echappist

All the ptap/garmin/whatever device basically saves your workout as a huge spreadsheet, with power/HR/speed/whatever, recorded almost every second. You import the file the way you normally do, and it does its thing to calculate TRIMP points. TRIMP, however, doesn't correlate that well with training stress, so that's one caveat. The other is that GC currently can't handle TRIMP and will crash if you go to performance manager to view your TRIMP (ask how i know ).

Here's TRIMP vs TSS for different intensity

FormerRower

Running and swimming are a bit easier than weights because presumably you have a given duration of sustained work at an intensity you can ballpark... with my cross training I'll do a 'new manual workout' on WKO and then just do the duration and intensity factor, and the TSS is produced. Weights has been hard for me to quantify as the fatigue is 'different' although I want to account for it. I'll usually just plug in the time I spent lifting and then a really conservative intensity factor.

Generally I think this gets me pretty close.

dc1215

Does anybody know if there is a way to tell from the file if the ptap was zeroed out or reading high during a workout? I did a 20 min test tonight that seems a little bit high to me, add this to the fact that I'm borrowing a friends powertap for the week and this was my first workout with it, and I'm thinking something might be wrong.

waterrockets 

You can look at the torque column and see if it ever gets to zero, like right when you were getting off the bike. It's a bit of a mystery how you'd correct it if you saw something like "3" in there when it should be zero though.

At any rate, I say just take the good test, reset your power zones a little higher if it bumped your FTP estimate, and see how the workouts feel.

rbart4506

When mine was reading high it was pretty obvious....It would never '0' when coasting...When I got home and downloaded the data, and looked at the graph, whenever my cadence was at zero I was still registering power...

I ended up having to send mine in under warranty because the torque tube was fubared....

kleinboogie

I'm using GC 2.0.0 and TRIMP seems to work.

Creakyknees

My Powertap USB cradle seems to have crapped out - I'm having connection problems and can't get it to complete an upload. Anybody have an extra they don't need anymore? Please PM me... thanks

echappist

does it work on the stress tracking chart? Mine calculates the Trimp zonal points for each interval, but doesn't calculate a total.

waterrockets 

Are you sure it's not the head unit battery? Mine was flaking out as you describe, and when I replaced the battery, it started working like new again. You might also check the connection at the prongs. Before I figured out the battery, I improved performance by dropping a tiny bit of saliva on the contacts with my finger.

kleinboogie

I'm not sure what chart that is. I see TRIMP zonal points on the metrics page which looks like the total of all intervals. Each interval number is on the summary page.