globecanvas

How long? I just looked at my hardest road race last season, 3.5 hours at 85%. If you're riding for a couple of hours or so, you wouldn't expect to see an IF much higher than that.

beatlebee 

4:13

globecanvas

Well, jeez. What are you expecting? To hold 20k TT pace for 4 hours? 76% for over 4 hours is a hard ride!

Hermes

My IF's rarely go above .8. I did a TT yesterday that was 10 miles out to a finish and then I rode tempo back to the start. IF = .85 for the entire ride that included 46 minutes of z1. Warmup, cool down and steep downhills with no power reduce IF. And I rode most of my TT above threshold but with downhills it was right on target for an IF of 1.0. Even hammer and nail rides where I am the nail result in lower IF due to too much z1/z2. If you want a big IF, ride solo as hard as you can all the time and pick a course that facilitates that.

I average zeros into power but not cadence. If you want your TSB more negative then you need more training stress per day that means ride harder or longer or both.

Ygduf

not necessarily

but it can't hurt

don't be shocked if your number is about right

you might just have a good FTP.

I have an OK FTP, and have talked about this with some lower-ftp guys before. They do the same group rides with me and will come back with .IF of ~9 or like 150tss in 1:45. Stuff like that. For me, it ends up being .7 and ~100 TSS. When I'm on the front, I pull around FTP numbers; in the middle, I'm often at ~.5ftp. For them, pulling is ~FTP; hiding in the middle is ~.7ftp.

Everything else you describe lines up well with my experience too. My CTL is usually ~105-~115, but because my CTL is also really flat on the macro level, my TSB always hovers around zero, too. I think the formula for TSB incorporates the delta in your CTL as your fitness/recovery ability. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, why are you concerned? Are you getting stronger (times/RPE) or do you feel like you're stagnating. Don't get too hagiological (!!) with the numbers, my lines are flat but performance is not.

TheKillerPenguin

dat diction

beatlebee 

Thanks guys!

shovelhd

Fudgy's Teton level response summed up where I was going with this. I'm not a big fan of using Hammerfests for training much less measuring baseline power numbers. Too much variability. So if you go that route, don't get too attached to the numbers.

beatlebee 

This time of the year is mostly unstructured for me.

jsutkeepspining

Wrong thread

Doge

Strava really misses it on guessing when wind / tailwind comes into play. Today the group had a nice tailwind.

Look at the power for those with a power meter vs. those without. More than 4:1 Strava Guess power vs. Power Meter.


Strava Segment | Jamboree - Up and Over

jsutkeepspining

^that's why people say that strava watts except for on hills are worthless

furiousferret

If your wind in Orange County was anywhere close to what it was in Redlands today, there was quite a bit of free speed on the table.

shovelhd

Hoffenberg is still an animal, wind or no wind.

Doge

It was very windy. Mostly side winds in the canyon and tailwind down Jamboree. I don't think this section riders were even trying that much (200W??) - except Hoffy likes to win that sprint. Puppy Doge on his 52x14 was not having the same fun...

Yesterday the TT was still at the start, had slight side wind and headwind through the canyon.

Ygduf

...

furiousferret

For those of you in the market for a power meter, Power2Max has a good Black Friday sale:

power2max Black Friday sale

$649 for the cheapest power meter, $879 for most others.

Gramercy

Is your kid home schooled or something? How does ride on Tuesday during the day?

Doge

Correct...technically a charter school, on-line.

spectastic

how big of a deal is it that stages power meters assume the same power output from each leg and doubles its input? I like that one the most, because it's cheap and versatile, provided I stick to shimano cranks, which will probably be the case, as long as you can mix/match different cranks arms like 5800 or 6700 on a 6800 or something.

Doge

Not that big of a deal for team Sky.

But back to my post about using power for TTs. I do not believe Mr. Wiggins was doing that in his TT championship this year. I believe he used his HR. The power was a recording of what he did and a verification that he done good.

spectastic

yea.. I contemplating on just getting a good HR monitor for now. I am nowhere nearly as methodical in my training as people on here. there's no way I'd be able to get the value out of a powermeter than it's worth.

any recommendation for a good HR monitor? The last one i used (polar bear or something) sucked. It would stay at the same number for a long time, even when I know it's changing. and there was no way to access the data. because I don't have data on my smartphone, it'd be cool if I can use bluetooth or something to pair it up with the HR monitor, or have the HR monitor have a easy plug-in to a computer. any recommendations?

echappist

those are the keywords, as in a business deal. Sky used Stages b/c Stages gave them $$$, simple as that. Quality of data really doesn't enter into the discussion.

second hand source, but i take the words of Coggan on this matter over what Doge purports

Doge

I have stuff 3 feet away used by tour pros because they thought they were better - than what the sponsor gave them.
For a UCI TT WC - the rider rides what they want. Mr. Wiggins rode non sponsored stuff.

For example, SRAM offers money to pro tour teams to use their stuff. I have been told that no teams will be using SRAM next year. I have also been told several TdF teams are buying their stuff.

shovelhd

I suggest you pick up one of those Garmin 500 bundle blowouts at $149. It's not much more than you would pay for a good HRM and if you add power later it's ready.