I’m new to cycling and have done it for about a year with structured training only in the last 3 months. I’ve been using trainer road for 3 months now on a low volume plan. I just finished 3 months of base and had my rest week at the end of the third month. As outdoor riding is coming up I thought I should get a power meter to use for outdoors.
I got an installed the left-sided assioma pedal based power meter and started using the power match feature in TR.
I had my first workout of the build phase today which was a VO2 max workout and it was incredibly easy. I’m worried that the pedal based power meter was off or somehow wasn’t working right with trainer road to increase the resistance appropriately. Has anyone had this issue? Is there some way I can troubleshoot?
Before doing this workout I did use a separate app to record the power from my pedals (using trainer road to measure my trainer based power) during an endurance ride in my rest week. The average power from the pedals and from my kickr core were essentially equivalent, so I thought I was safe.
Please help is I don’t want to waste the next week or two of training with too easy workouts
I’ve recently had a similar experience with my Kickr Core. I turned off power matching and now my level of resistance is back to normal again. I had to “forget” my power meter in the TR app to stop using power matching.
I think if I switch back to my trainer it will return to the way it was. However I did spend a bunch of money on this pedal-based power meter and I would like to use it outside and have a comparable measure of power.
Many here have recommended using the paddle-based power meters for both indoor and outdoor rides to have that option. There must be a way for it to work?
My power matching worked great, but last week something suddenly changed. I basically lost ERG mode. And with ERG mode gone, I could make power too easily, like you described. I got ERG mode (and normal resistance) back by ending power matching. I haven’t tinkered with it to try and get it back. But I will at some point. You should reach out to TR support and see what they say.
But regardless, you didn’t make a mistake getting a power meter. You will really appreciate it outside, especially when you can do some of your TR workouts outside and have power numbers.
Thanks - my erg mode works, though it doesn’t feel as automatic as it did without a separate pm.
But the bigger issue is that what should have been a hard vO2 workout seemed quite easy and it may be because of a discrepancy in how power is measured. In my (admittedly simple) test during an endurance workout, power levels were very close/identical.
But if the pedals now measure my power higher for the same effort, my workouts will all be off until it somehow catches up. (less importantly, what is my actual ftp? The trainer ftp or the pedal ftp?)
The other thing that might be going on is that your first VO2 workout really is quite easy. Since it’s your first, it will be a very low PL workout. If you answer the post workout survey accurately, your upcoming VO2 workouts will begin to adapt to something more appropriate to your fitness.
Not my first ever, just the first of this new build phase. 4.4 was “productive” but my max hr was 152 where I often hit 170+ in sweet spot rides. RPE was also low.
This may not help but I used to have issues with power match between my garmin pedals and wahoo kickr. Big issue I had was that the wahoo utility app had its version of power match on and I also had it on in TrainerRoad. The two apps seemed to be fighting for control of the trainer and was giving me a lot of problems. You may want to check that you only have one turned on.
No idea what’s going with the Kickr but Id use an FTP based off the Assimoa as you can take that outside. You could do a ramp test to get an estimate of FTP whilst AI FTP adjusts. Good luck!
As you have the favero UNO my guess is that you have power doubling set to “on” on the favero app.
Some apps need the pedals to double the power but trainerroad doesn’t - so if you have the pedals doubling the left side power too you will end up with twice the power you should.
Turn off power doubling if it is on.
I grabbed this screenshot from DC rainmaker - hope he doesnt mind…
EDIT: I’ve just done a bit of googling and it might be that Favero have changed the name of this to “half the power”? If thats the case then is need to be “on” for Trainerroad… I would check but not near my bike at the moment.
Assuming there’s no technical issue like @kevistraining suggested: In my experience, measurement discrepancies between power measuring devices (trainers, power meters, whatever) are not consistent at every wattage. I’ve had a trainer and spider that were identical at around Z2 watts, and a good 15%+ off each other at threshold watts. I’ve also had a trainer and spider that track super well. The marketing materials on everything has insisted they’re all accurate to within like 2.5%, it’s all nonsense
All your power measuring systems are yardsticks of slightly differing lengths. You have a new yardstick, so your best option is use only the new yardstick. Forget whatever your Kickr Core said and embrace the pedals.
TR doesn’t support multiple power profiles, but AT will get you to the right place after a few rides. If you want to speed up the process, choose harder alternates until they feel “right” (or until you start failing, that works too).
