Tecumseh - is it that hard or just me?

Training
1

Today I did tecumseh for the first time and didn’t make it 50% of the way through. I love sprints - 30/30s - and V02 work. Didn’t think this would be difficult at all - saw it on the schedule and went after it with gusto.

Then I hit the first block ! 15/15 is really hard in ERG and my trainer was killing me - i was over/under the targets at all times. Resistance all over and never settled well. None the less I knew the suffer to reach for so I was hitting the overs just fine, under the unders.

I got 2-3 done and had to back-pedal. Another 2 and a pause…recovery valley and i had to backpedal through it. This repeated for the next two blocks - I started blowing off unders, overs, 15 here, 15 there…about 40% through the ride I switched to resistance and just buzzed 200w till i was done which lasted another 5 min.

Anyone else struggle on this one?

Workout Description:
This pyramid-format VO2max workout grows the number of 15/15’s (125% FTP/88% FTP) as high as 12 per set before stepping back down to where it started at 6 repeats.

2

Not done it. But .89 IF for 90 minutes is tough, yes.

However, 2 honest observations from looking at your TR rides history…

  1. You fail to complete a lot of your indoor workouts, not just that one.
  2. There are some enormous discrepancies between your power on the turbo (Tecumseh had an NP of 199) and your power in outdoor rides / races (some have you with an NP in the high 300s).

I’d suggest focusing on making sure your data and your training zones are accurate and consistent before worrying about one particular workout. Are you calibrating your Vector pedals regularly? Are the pedals tightened to the correct torque? Is your turbo in a cool enough room with a fan going? Are you using powermatch on the trainer? Have you tried doing a different FTP test, e.g. the ramp test, to see where you’re at?

1 Like
3

Yes to everything but the fan. Thanks for the assessment

4

A fan can make a MASSIVE difference.

1 Like
5

I use it off and on. I’m going on from here on out.

I looked back myself and your right a lot of the bails come on indoor rides. The all have a reason but that is a pattern to eliminate.

As for indoor outdoor discrepancy in np I don’t know quite what to make of it. I know one race had junk data but everything else seems right. Thoughts?

Note various power meters - but most of what you see is vector for trainer and races, quarq on outdoor training rides.

6

That was what made me wonder about power meter calibration, and making sure those Vector 2 pedals are torqued really tight. Do you take the pedals on and off bikes or keep them on the same one? I often find mine take a little while to “bed in” and properly calibrate when I put them on a new bike.

Not sure what else it could be. I think the key is just consistency, i.e. trying to eliminate variables between indoor and outdoor. Calibrating at the same time, keeping indoor sessions cool with a fan, putting the trainer on powermatch and making sure in the devices tab that everything is connected. If you’re covering all those bases then I’d be at a bit of a loss.

7

Thanks. It’s not perfectly consistent and you’ve opened my eyes.

Historically the vectors have moved but have not in 2019 at all.