Power Mentor Group with Shane & Marc - Closed. (Page 19)

Personally I would aim for whatever cadence is going to produce the highest wattage during the tests.  Whether that be 70 or 90 - psuh the pedals till you cry.  Once you have the tests completed then play with cadence during the weekly workouts and see how different rpms work for you.

Of course I can tell everyone to bury themselves on the tests at the moment cause I'm sick and not testing. 

Sufferlandrian olympic training center may need a few space heaters and some minions to tell you you're weak   But I do agree, Jason's outdoor rides are certainly enviable over current options (whether that's because it's icy and in the negative temperatures or because we train at 4am!).

Speaking of 1% grades -- we literally don't have them in Houston.  And my race in May is hilly.  I've always been kinda of the mindset that a watt is a watt....regardless of whether I'm going flat or uphill.  I think I mostly tell myself this because I don't really have the option to train on hills.  Thoughts?

That said, I do have plans to drive to some hills so I can learn how to pace them....i.e. not crush myself on the uphill and cruise on the downhill, but to keep relatively constant power.

Nice work on the 5' test, Jason!  Do you find it difficult to test outdoors?  When I'm on the trainer, I don't have to worry about traffic or stopsigns or anything....and I can put 100% focus on watching my power and holding it steady, which seems like it would be difficult to do outdoors.  Needless to say, I'll have to learn how to actually pace by power outside one of these days if I want all of this training to be useful!

For my last test, we just took my 20' avg as my FTP, and didn't subtract 5%. She said based on my data, I could probably handle the workouts as written using my 20 min avg as my FTP. It worked for the last one!

So, we'll see what number I end up using.

Very true...if Nicole is hitting 3.7 indoors...you're right that 4.0 is possible very soon outdoors. 

Will likely do the 20' on Sunday so long as I don't go crazy on the group ride Saturday.  I'm using the Quarq.

GF still uses the PT, but is not interested in the data yet.  She is always riding with at least a couple of people so her pacing is more about keeping up with them or sometimes even slowing down for them rather than using power.  She hasn't tested at all.  We do have a 10 mile TT coming up at the end of February, so I'll try to take a look at some of her training files and give her a ballpark estimate of what she might want to shoot for and use that as a 30ish minute test.

Agree though that power likely won't be for her to fully utilize, but she doesn't mind seeing the number.

It's easier to put out power going uphill.  Yes, a watt is a watt, and for efforts in the 70-80% range, I'm not sure it makes as much of a difference.  But when you're pushing threshold or above, the resistance of the hill helps keep the power constant rather than you having to mentally focus to keep the power up.  If the hill is steep enough, you can also engage some pulling up on the handlebars to add more power.  I would say my 5' test was aided by the fact that it was easier to keep constant power, but I was never pulling up on the bars because it wasn't steep.  If I did the test on a 5% grade, where I sat up more, or got out of the saddle, I would expect a higher number.

The route I use to test outdoors is safe.  I purposely picked that route due to very low traffic, no lights, and a 12' wide shoulder.  I still almost ran out of road though...LOL.  For the 20' test, I do use a climb that's closer to 5.6%.  I know the power number will be inflated, but it's the only safe way to do 20' all out outdoors and it beats the heck out of the trainer.  That and two of my A races this year are climbs...so I need a "climbing FTP" so to speak.

Marc, imagine if we all had Edge 510s or 810s while testing.  You could be like Jonathan Vaughters in the Garmin Sharp control room.  LOL.

LOL, I did my 20' test today and had a similar thought.

Would you believe I flatted during my test.  Must have been a pinch flat but I had a 9" tear along the tube seam.  And getting that darn orange Continental Home Trainer tire off is a PITA

Results:  216W Avg, 164 HR Avg

I plugged the numbers into GC and came up with CP=199W

Wow, there are some really great numbers in this thread.....quite humbling.