New powermeter, unusually high power. Am I doing something wrong?

Equipment
21

I lost 30 points of FTP when I switched from my Tacx Vortex to a Stages. Consider yourself lucky!

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22

Hah, I have a similar issue. Iā€™ve been using my wahoo kicker snap for a couple years now. I brought my road bike, with itā€™s stages crank power meter to compareā€¦and it was consistently 15-20 watts higher than the trainer.

Iā€™ve been working pretty hard to hit 300 wattsā€¦not sure if I really consider this method of breaking that barrier for me successful though lol.

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23

So I need some advice again, and itā€™s related to my powermeter change. As I wrote before in this thread, I switched PM to the Assiomas, and the power is about 20w higher than my previous PM (tacx flow).

I did a Ramp Test last week, and tested at 231, about 13w higher than my previous test 6 weeks before. The thing is, this was the result I was expecting with my last PM (about a 12-15w increase, due to the base block I finished). So the jump with the new PM should have been to around 250w or so. But I guess my legs and brain were conditioned and kind of gave up once I reached the ā€œmagic numberā€ I was targeting before. And the huge jump would have required me to go about 23 minutes on the ramp test, which is mentally brutal.

So Iā€™ve been using the 231w I got from the Ramp Test. But the workouts have been far too easy. At least 10 bpm lower in HR compared to the last time I did the same workouts. From my analysis, I think the targets should be around 8% higher for me to have the same RPE and HR as before, which coincides with a 250w FTP.

So now I have two options:

  • retake the ramp test, but a 20w jump is still big and will require me to keep going for a long time, so I risk giving up too soon even if I have a higher FTP.
  • increase the intensity by 8% on all workouts, but face the same ramp test problem at the end of the block.
  • manually input a 250w FTP and be done with it.

What do you think?

24

Why not bump your ftp up and then test and see how long you last. You can then take it back down if need be.

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25

Do you mean increase it manually, and then do a ramp test?

I thought of doing that, but was afraid it would maybe skew/inflate the numbers.

26

Iā€™m in a different boat because I have a fluid resistance trainer, but in my case the warm-up certainly INCREASES resistance on my CycleOps Fluid2.

For workouts with repeated intervals at the same wattage, my ā€œspeedā€ starts out fast for the relative effort and gradually slows down as my trainer warms up.

27

I think youā€™re over thinking it. Itā€™s just a 20 minute or so work out.

You are convinced your FTP has increased but are worried that the expected bump will make the test last too long.

So bump 4% ? And give it a go.

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28

Iā€™ve actually bumped todays workout (Shasta) by 5% and it was still too easy compared to the last time I did it (HR 125 vs 141 bpm last time).

I think Iā€™ll bump the FTP manually to 250 and do a ramp test tomorrow. If I survive the 19,5 minutes or so that it takes to maintain the set FTP, Iā€™ll know I was right.

2 Likes
30

So I increased the FTP manually to 250, and just did a Ramp Test. Result: 230, basically the same I got last week (231w).

Iā€™ll just keep the 231w FTP and trust the process. Itā€™s a base block after all :man_shrugging:

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31

Base 1 is meant to be fairly easy. Better to undershoot your FTP and get quality work than overshoot and risk burnout, injury, or mental defeat, IMO

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