Thanks so much for all the detailed answers so far! These helped me to reflect on this and understand things better. As for the questions:
- Yes, I do use a dual power meter while riding outdoors. I also use a chest strap for heart rate, so I have pretty much everything available that might be needed for calculating any metrics.
- I’m not really fit, to be honest. Last summer my FTP was around 230 watts, but then I injured my knees on my job. I was not able to kneel, sit or stand without pain for months. There was no way I could cycle as it was making things worse.
It took almost five months, but with tons of physio, foam rolling, and exercises, the pain got manageable. In February this year, I started with a low-volume plan on Trainer Road, using adaptive training and post-ride surveys to adjust whenever I feel pain returning in my knee, and it works well. It started with an FTP of 105, which caused knee pain at first, but thanks to adaptive training, I can gradually increase the load on my knees in a controlled manner. AI FTP is now 159 watts with pretty much no pain, so there is hope for me to be able to properly cycle again.
The data of the ride:
- Duration: 1 hour and 56 minutes
- We did two breaks of 5 minutes each
- TSS: 83, IF 0.63, NP: 100 watts
- I spent 26% of the workout duration coasting, 35% in power zone 1, and 20% in power zone 2.
- RPE was 2-3 (except for some minor hills)
Since I was unable to train for some months, I got some books about training. One of them is “Training and Racing with a Power Meter” by Hunter Allen. There is a table (7.3, chapter 7), that suggests that for TSS values below 150, recovery is generally complete by the following day. So with a TSS of 83, I wasn’t expecting my Edge to tell me I need 4 days of rest.
So I am not sure what skews this, but let’s be honest: I’m pretty much under-average fitness-wise and thanks to my knees I had a massive throw-back, so does all this fancy stuff even apply to me? Or should I just ride as much as I can without worrying about overtraining, TSS ramp rates, and all this technical stuff? (I find it very interesting, though…)
Cheers and sorry for the long post!