First, it seems like there is a discrepancy between your indoor and outdoor power sources. Which types of power meters are you using for each, and are you calibrating them to the manufacturer’s specifications?
You’re regularly marking indoor rides with lower Intensity Factors as harder than outside ones that are much higher.
One example is the week of July 27th. On the 29th, you did an indoor workout with an IF of .81 that you rated hard, and the next day you did an hour-long ride with an IF of .90 and rated it as moderate. Two days after that, on August 1st, you did an hour-and-14-minute outside ride with an IF of .84 that you rated as easy.
I think part of the problem could also stem from all of your past activity history having missing RPE surveys. We had power data from those rides, but no RPE, which does play a significant role in determining fitness.
You don’t have a ton of training data yet, so all of those rides are important, and we’re learning from your activities each day. The proof of this is the all-time power PR you set in your level 1.9 Sweet Spot workout on Friday.
I think going back and adding RPE surveys for any of those past rides that you feel confident you can recall the effort from would help us get a better understanding of your fitness quickly.
Your current training plan doesn’t have any sustained work, which could be working against you here too. That makes it a little harder to really dial in FTP quickly, but I’ll be curious to see how your upcoming workouts go. If you’re doing structured work and the hard intervals feel easier than they should, don’t be afraid to increase the intensity on the fly. If you knock out the work and rate it how it felt, we’ll analyze what you did and adjust things accordingly. I think that’s the best way to get things on track.
Thanks so much Eddie for looking into this carefully. Like many of your customers, I probably think about this all a bit more than I should, so great to have an actual TR team member engaging here!
First, it seems like there is a discrepancy between your indoor and outdoor power sources. Which types of power meters are you using for each, and are you calibrating them to the manufacturer’s specifications?
I’m using the same bike with the same Garmin Rally pedals as my power source both for outside and inside rides. Regularly recalibrate the pedals. Side note, decided against using my wahoo kickr core 2 for power source for outdoor/indoor consistency.
On the 29th, you did an indoor workout with an IF of .81 that you rated hard, and the next day you did an hour-long ride with an IF of .90 and rated it as moderate. Two days after that, on August 1st, you did an hour-and-14-minute outside ride with an IF of .84 that you rated as easy.
I agree that is weird I remember both outdoor rides feeling energized at the end, even though they had a number of harder pushes. Have you considered adding some more detail available in TR on how to think of RPE, including on unstructured outdoor rides? Maybe a link to a table with explanations when you’re prompted for the RPE? That would help me calibrate my answer more consistently
If you’re doing structured work and the hard intervals feel easier than they should, don’t be afraid to increase the intensity on the fly. If you knock out the work and rate it how it felt, we’ll analyze what you did and adjust things accordingly. I think that’s the best way to get things on track.
1 - Easy
This ride felt easy and non-taxing, requiring little effort or focus. You could repeat the ride and pass it without issue.
2 - Moderate
This ride was somewhat comfortable but required some focus to complete. You felt a little challenged but had confidence that you could finish. If the ride had an additional set of intervals, you could complete it.
3 - Hard
This ride required effort and focus and was challenging to complete. It felt tough, and you looked forward to the ride ending. If there were an additional set of intervals, you could have done it with significant focus.
4 - Very Hard
This ride was very difficult to complete, and it tested you. If there were one more set of intervals, you wouldn’t have been able to complete it.
5 - Maximum Effort
This ride was extremely difficult. It pushed you well beyond your abilities and took a massive amount of energy and focus to complete. You felt like you barely made it to the end of this ride, and that you had to pull out every mental trick in the book to finish. If you had to pause during a workout to catch your breath or adjust the power demand down, the workout was likely a maximum effort.
If a workout was a maximum effort because of external factors like illness, poor sleep, or fatigue, be sure to add that detail in the follow-up question.
It does seem like there could still be some sort of power issue.. The RPE for a handful of your workouts/rides doesn’t add up.
Were you able to go back and add RPE surveys to some of your past rides?
Eddie thanks for the reference on the effort. I think the thing I’m struggling with the most is how to translate that scale to unstructured outdoor rides.
A couple examples - same bike, same power meter on both:
Aug 12 Watering Pond - (NP = 222 for 1:05) - moderate was clear. Challenging during the intervals but not overly taxing and could have done more
Aug 16 - Outdoor ride - (NP = 251 for 1:41) - Debated between easy and moderate, went with easy. There were a couple punchy pushes, but tons of rest/group drafting, and overall the ride felt smooth and easy. I chose easy because I felt I could have gone longer or redid the ride (though with a lot of effort the second time I’m sure), and also because I wasn’t sure what “an additional set of intervals” would mean (using the moderate phrase) but seemed like I could handle more than one additional set of intervals.
(Edit: TR intensity factor isn’t really comparable because it was based on 285 ftp on ride 1 and 258 ftp on ride 2)
Given all this, do you think I rated the RPE correctly? Or do I need to recalibrate myself a bit? Unstructured outdoor group riding will always be a theme for me, so I want to make sure TR and I am handling those rides well and then doing the right indoor workouts to fill in the gaps. Thanks!
We always recommend simply trusting your instincts without overthinking things too much.
Sometimes, just looking at the first sentence of each description helps to simplify things.
How to Rate Your Effort
1 - Easy
This ride felt easy and non-taxing, requiring little effort or focus.
2 - Moderate
This ride was somewhat comfortable but required some focus to complete.
3 - Hard
This ride required effort and focus and was challenging to complete.
4 - Very Hard
This ride was very difficult to complete, and it tested you.
5 - Maximum Effort
This ride was extremely difficult. It pushed you well beyond your abilities and took a massive amount of energy and focus to complete. You felt like you barely made it to the end of this ride, and that you had to pull out every mental trick in the book to finish.
Just one thought: are you including zeros on your power readings on your head unit when riding outside? If not this will give an over inflated (and false) average power for a ride. I thought I was a cycling god until this was pointed out to me!
Yes I include zeros. My outdoor ride average watts are pretty much always lower than my indoor rides. Though my net power on outdoor rides is often higher, I assume this is because there’s a decent amount of short burst efforts…
But I will keep that in mind in case I ever feel the need to feel like a cycling God! Ha!
I remember both outdoor rides feeling energized at the end, even though they had a number of harder pushes. Have you considered adding some more detail available in TR on how to think of RPE, including on unstructured outdoor rides? Maybe a link to a table with explanations when you’re prompted for the RPE? That would help me calibrate my answer more consistently