Guys, thanks a lot for sharing your experiences and suggestions, am amazed on quality, number and speed of responses i’ve got. Great community indeed!
Certainly can imagine now / relate many of them to my surrounding (alas, not the one of TT track).
Will be getting the Assiomas soon and combine the fun outside with working on my yet poor power outcome. Thank you!
BTW, @dhellman - you said FTP outside may be a little bit higher - can you refer me to a source of some approximation of what % it could be?
I would like to find it through adjustments before i make proper outside FTP test.
Hi, @mkop, I believe that the podcast has mentioned this a couple of times, but I have no recollection of which ones. However, Joe Friel says it might be 10% or more difference… and here’s another one. Also, there’s this whole thread here for overall discussion:
Anyway, you might consider bumping up your FTP 5-10% when outside and see how it works?
Awesome, thank you @dhellman! That’s great starting point for my outdoor adventures 
maybe a stupid question but i can’t get this to work. How do you get the workout target overlay on top of you power data in Garmin Connect?
Did you edit this image?
I did not edit the image. This is how Garmin displays my power data when I complete a TR workout on a Garmin device. All I have to do is open the activity in Garmin Connect (the website) and expand the Power section.
To be clear, when I do an outdoor workout, I push the workout to Garmin from TR, refresh the Garmin Connect app so the workout is on my calendar, start a new workout on my Garmin device (Forerunner 935), and load the workout via the prompt. Once I finish the workout, I upload the file to Garmin Connect, and this is how it displays.
Hope that helps.
So I bit the bullet and bought a Assioma uno pedal which was followed by an outside FTP, the result of which I was very happy with.
So indoor training, hitting and holding the prescribed power was a skill which was quickly acquired, however riding outside and hitting whilst maintaining the correct power is a different story altogether, I’ve set my zones on my Garmin, crank length correctly set, calibrate before every ride and the power is measured every 3 seconds. To keep it simple I have the zones pre set in the Garmin.
My plan is to incorporate some threshold sessions on casual weekend rides and sweet spot, entrance and threshold in the week so to add some structure and gains over the summer before a another winter of indoor training. I don’t want to sacrifice outdoor rides over the summer and need to up skill on how to adapt to rolling roads. We have moved home recently with the local roads being lumpy.
I am trying to anticipate the road and smooth my power output but any informed tips on dampening my power would be gratefully received.
Thanks in advance
So it’s like my own story - bought the Assiomas and went outside with my training, just to find out my power (3s, but even 10s) it’s kind of all over the place and it’s nothing like a ERG on the trainer (surprise, surprise).
I was told it comes with practice and that I should feel how given each zone “feels” like to try to maintain it by feeling. I try to do it this way, but seems that there is still a lot of learning ahead of me.
Anyone who knows how to “build-in” ERG into Assiomas - please advise!
It’s easier to focus on interval power than 3s power, short term you’ll see a much larger variance than indoors, but you can focus on overall power and that’s what matter most
Yes but when your power oscillates you are not training in the zone. So if you are doing 30 min SS your power is going from tempo to FTP/FRC, and 30 min SS becomes 10 min TiZ and rest are other zones, even if your avg power is in the SS zone. It is especially hard with threshold - going over threshold with power causes you to fatigue a lot more. So it is virtually not possible to replicate this specific “targeting” of zones like during indoor training when you are crossing the zones a lot less.
I feel stronger when training outside, perhaps for this reason, perhaps for another. It seems that specificity (riding outside) is better than zone targeting (training inside), at least for my body. And I’ve never come across any strong evidence in the science to support the assertion that tightly controlling power zones leads to superior adaptations.
Thanks for the insights you shared, still i think i could do better maintaining more tight power range / zone - after all we don’t ride only for training and when in TT or triathlon one could be better with more consistent power output and without too many spikes.
How to practice that successfully? I read somewhere that I should lean to push the specific power without changing gears too much (unless the terrain changes, obviously) but when i try to do that i see my power drops consistently once i reach specific speed and i have to gear down, which throws me again out of zone and usually i stuck in grinding for a moment just to get back to previous gear and the story starts again. Any hints?
Don’t worry so much about maintaining the target power for every instant of the ride. There are many, many times when this will be counterproductive. Instead, try to maintain the “spirit” of the interval while reacting to the terrain in a realistic way. Suppose you’re doing a five minute steady power interval, but your course has a couple of bumps that slow you down considerably for 15-30 seconds on the uphill and then you accelerate quickly on the downhill. Don’t try to keep the same power going up and down the bumps; it’s nearly impossible and doesn’t really replicate the way you’ll ride these in an event.
You’re going to have higher power on the uphill, but try to do the least you can while staying somewhere near the range of your target. Then do the same on the downhill; the power will be lower but try not to let it get too low. Finish the bump with your average at the target. This kind of variation won’t look as smooth as the indoor version of the workout, but it won’t hurt your training and it will help you prepare for the real-world conditions of competing outside.