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FTP for Indoor and Outdoor training

 Most of my riding is done indoors on a computrainer and my most recent FTP test was done on it. But until the weather worsens I will still be doing many outdoor training rides especially on the longer weekend rides. Since I read that outdoor watts are generally higher than indoor is there a conversion factor that could be used or do I just ride the indoor watts outdoors? Hopefully I don't need another test for outdoor riding.

Comments

  • Jeff, no hard and fast rule but start by adding 10% to your indoor FTP, ride that outside and see what happens. If it kills you, call it...something less than 10%

  • As long as your computrainer and powermeter read close (within 2%) you would ride the same outdoors as indoors. A watt is a watt whether indoors or out. Put your power meter on the computrainer bike and calculate the differential watts each device is reading.  You then can either adjust computrainer calibration so it matches the powermeter or simply use math to figure your outdoor watts.

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