February Outseason 2018 - Week #5
It is test week.
For 2018 OS, testing is optional. I plan on testing, given that I am feeling stronger after coming back from surgery. @Josh Church won’t test given that he is feeling pretty challenged at his current testing levels. The new OS gives us the option to rely more on feel to figure out appropirate power levels to set our weekly workouts.
Over the past 18 months, since I joined EN, I have tested regularly. It is a good workout, and it allows me to calibrate my workouts better. Also, it can be a good sign that you are over-training if your FTP is dropping even though you are hitting all your workouts.
@“John Culberson” - sorry to hear that you are not feeling 100%. However, a bit of rest and adaption are much better than developing a significant chronic injury that will require a huge amount of recovery.
Curious if @Toni Buck or @Chris Zahlis will be testing and how your FOS is going.
This was a bit of a crazy week for me. I ended up doing my FOS week #3 outdoor ride and long run in Red Rock Canyoun, outside of Las Vegas. Then, I had to jam my week #4 bike workouts into a half week.
Also, I spent a lot of time this weekend preparing my road-bike for outdoor riding. I got new carbon wheels, replaced my cassette, cleaned my drivetrain, changed the batteries in my HRM/cadence meter, and installed new pedals (which required new cleats). I acquired the Assiomo power meter pedals, and am hoping to calibrate them to my indoor riding. Last year, my indoor and outdoor power readings were very different, so it was hard for me to track my cumulate training load (CTL)/fatigue. I tested the pedals and Kickr tonight. Unfortunately, they were about 20% different. So, i think it will take some significant trouble-shooting to sort this out. However, I have a few more weeks before I start doing my long rides outdoors.
Hope everyone else is having a good FOS, getting stronger and not having any major equipment issues.
Good luck with testing; otherwise, hope everyone has a great non-test week.
For 2018 OS, testing is optional. I plan on testing, given that I am feeling stronger after coming back from surgery. @Josh Church won’t test given that he is feeling pretty challenged at his current testing levels. The new OS gives us the option to rely more on feel to figure out appropirate power levels to set our weekly workouts.
Over the past 18 months, since I joined EN, I have tested regularly. It is a good workout, and it allows me to calibrate my workouts better. Also, it can be a good sign that you are over-training if your FTP is dropping even though you are hitting all your workouts.
@“John Culberson” - sorry to hear that you are not feeling 100%. However, a bit of rest and adaption are much better than developing a significant chronic injury that will require a huge amount of recovery.
Curious if @Toni Buck or @Chris Zahlis will be testing and how your FOS is going.
This was a bit of a crazy week for me. I ended up doing my FOS week #3 outdoor ride and long run in Red Rock Canyoun, outside of Las Vegas. Then, I had to jam my week #4 bike workouts into a half week.
Also, I spent a lot of time this weekend preparing my road-bike for outdoor riding. I got new carbon wheels, replaced my cassette, cleaned my drivetrain, changed the batteries in my HRM/cadence meter, and installed new pedals (which required new cleats). I acquired the Assiomo power meter pedals, and am hoping to calibrate them to my indoor riding. Last year, my indoor and outdoor power readings were very different, so it was hard for me to track my cumulate training load (CTL)/fatigue. I tested the pedals and Kickr tonight. Unfortunately, they were about 20% different. So, i think it will take some significant trouble-shooting to sort this out. However, I have a few more weeks before I start doing my long rides outdoors.
Hope everyone else is having a good FOS, getting stronger and not having any major equipment issues.
Good luck with testing; otherwise, hope everyone has a great non-test week.
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Should I re-test or just wait until the next testing period?
Different tools will almost always show different measurements. The key is to pick one of the two and use that tool/baseline for all of your wkos going forward. This will allow you to measure progress consistently.
I personally like the pedals vs. the trainer given the ease with which I can transfer to outside riding and maintain the same measurement system.
However, either is fine as long as you choose one and stick with it throughout your OS. No need to retest.
SS
And actually, my last test was on the Direto. I still feel like this time the test was wrong based on the low heart rate. Maybe I need to look into what could be going wrong with the Direto...
Coincidentally, I am using a very similar setup to what you have. Right now, I have my road bike on my Kickr. I am doing the OS workouts through Zwift. However, I just got some Assiomo pedals that measure power. So I am tracking power with two devices, but using my Kickr to control the workouts.
When I put the pedals on, they were very out of line with the Kickr. However, I re-set both before my test yesterday. On the Kickr, I did an advanced spin-down. Then, I re-calibrated the Assiomo pedals by going into my settings on my Garmin 820 bike computer. There was a calibration setting when I pulled up the pedal power meter profile.
For the test, I used my PC/ANT+ connection to record my FTP test on the KICKR. I used the Zwift FTP test protocol. Then, I used my Garmin 820 to record the test through my Assiomo pedals. Long story short, after re-calibrating both power meters, my FTP test results were within 3% +/-. Acceptable, but not perfect.
I will stick with the Kickr measurements for the OS and for all of my indoor rides. However, when I start riding outside, I should have enough data from my pedals to be able to know what my relative intensity should be.
My advice is to calibrate your power meters often, and periodically compare the measurements to make sure the relative measurements are consistent.
As for your question on HR, I run into similar issues. Sometimes, my legs feel heavy and I cannot work them hard enough to get to a high HR (which is 170+ for me) on an FTP test. I chalk this up to fatigue, and it should result in a lower FTP.
Over the past few years, I have watched my FTP bounce around quite a bit. Over-training, inconsistent workout regimens, nutrition or not enough recovery time can all contribute to FTP tests that don't end up where you think they should. Therefore, I try to test often and re-adjust my training as my FTP score changes.
Ultimately, I think it is fine if the wattage recordings for your power meters are different, so long as the difference is consistent. However, note that tracking cumulative fatigue (CTL on TrainingPeaks or Fitness/Freshness on Strava) will become tricky because your TSS/IF scores will be different for the same workout, depending on which power meter you use. My goal this year is to better manage my training load despite recording data from several sources.
Good luck with the OS. Thanks for your post!