The main goal is to get faster BUT

Equipment
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good morning to all
I need professional help, days ago I asked how I should calibrate my smart trainer (Saris M2) according to the recommendations I did with the Saris app and I am still not convinced of the data that it throws at the time of training, I also tried it with the TrainerRoad app but they still have doubts. When I do the FTP test the result is 257watts, but when I go out to train I barely manage to reach 215watts.
I am thinking of using my Garmin pedals as a power source instead of the smart trainer, but it still makes me wonder if I should use the ERG mode or the resistance mode.

Everything I train in TrainerRoad is much higher than what I manage to do on the street, it is more, I feel very easy to train as a trainerroad and when I go out on the street it is a fiasco what I achieve

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Assuming you have the outside bike with the power meter used on the trainer, PowerMatch is what you should be using.

It is SUPER common for smart trainers and power meters to give different data. Welcome to life with 2 power measuring devices :stuck_out_tongue:

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I have a similar issue with a power difference between Garmin pedals and smart trainer. Smaller difference than yours, but still enough to turn a sweetspot session into a threshold session.

I actually took a different path to @mcneese.chad’s suggestion and decided to quantify the difference as best I could and then just live with it. Basically in the interests of time-saving and simplicity:

  • Less time spent switching pedals between bikes (I have a dedicated indoor bike and split my time about 50:50 indoors:outdoors)
  • Less time spent calibrating Garmin pedals which is always a slightly erratic process (smart trainer calibration by contrast is bulletproof and mine never seems to need it anyway)
  • Less time spent replacing Garmin batteries since they’re used half as much. Especially as I’ve had issues with power cutouts on mine, so changing batteries is a bit of a faff as involves putting drops of baby oil on the contacts to prevent faffing
  • One less device and one less connection equals one less thing to go wrong. If you’ve ever spent half of the hour you had available for a workout restarting and re-pairing devices trying to resolve connection issues you’ll appreciate this!

Difference between the 2 power measuring devices seems to stay consistent at different power levels, if they were diverging or converging as the power went up I’d be more concerned that the workouts were hitting the wrong zones.

I guess if you want to be really structured with your outdoor workouts then using same PM for both would make more sense. In my case I do my more structured work indoors, and outdoors rides are either with groups, or things like recovery, endurance or tempo rides where hitting precise power numbers isn’t too critical. Also turns out that I have a higher FTP outside than inside anyway, which almost exactly cancels out the difference between the PMs! This is quite common and likely a result of some combo of more movement on the bike, better cooling and/or better motivation. So if I did use PowerMatch and then did outdoor workouts based on my indoor FTP, they’d likely be too easy…

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Hey @mcneese.chad today I tried what you recomend, and the difference was huge, I barely endured today’s training, what I will do now is a new FTP TEST.

Thanks for the advice.

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Not to ask a stupid question, but when you ride outside…is it flat? Rolling? Windy?

I only ask because when I go outside, it’s REALLY hard to hit the higher targets that TR would have me use. Doing some of the high wattage workouts would be NUTS for me as I’d be going close to 30 mph if I did them at the correct cadence.

Many people are lucky to have various climbs around them where they can do repeated hard efforts…I got nuttin’…and wind…wind is so much worse since you can’t see it and thus can’t gear for it a head of time.

For me the FTP is correct, the training zones are correct, I’m just not comfortable at the wattages needed if I was outside.

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Well, when I go out to train there can be everything, depending on where I go, from something flat to mountainous places, and as you mention it I cannot reach or rather sustain what TR suggests in training.

According to the answer of @mcneese.chad I will try to train using that option and when I go out to train I will realize if there is a significant improvement.

I will keep you updated on the results

Happy Weekend

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