I’ve noticed some workouts have really low rest or recovery wattages for my FTP, and in ERG mode it’s sometimes difficult to engage the trainer and record power values without resorting to an unnaturally slow cadence.
I’d like the ability to specify a minimum wattage for my trainer in ERG mode. In other words, no matter what the workout says, tell the trainer to give me nothing less than 50 Watts to prevent me from spinning out.
What trainer do you have?
Welcome to the forum! 
That’s a good suggestion.
What gear are you in on your trainer?
I always recommend using the lowest gear possible while still having an acceptable chainline.
I’m using a Saris H3, and keeping the trainer engaged with anything less than around 50 watts is problematic. I haven’t been using the “lowest possible gear”, but I am in the small chainring with a straight chain line a middle-ish gear on the cassette.
I ride a Saris too. I’m not sure what you mean about keeping it engaged. At very low ERG power, resistance will be very low at normal cadences around 80-90 rpm. If it shows you’re putting out the set ERG power, then you are, even though it feels like almost no resistance. Increasing cadence will cause the resistance to go even lower. Of course in ERG mode, slowing cadence down increases resistance, so at very low ERG power, it might take slowing the cadence a lot before resistance feels significant. In any case, if it shows you’re putting out the set ERG power, then you are irrespective of cadence and how much resistance you feel.
They are talking about the ERG level of the trainer NOT dropping low enough for their recovery valley.
The user seems to be asking that TR allow a user to set some different “wattage floor” that THEY can control vs having TR allow too low a value for some use cases.
That’s not what I am reading. The OP seems to be saying that 50w is too low of power for them to feel any engagement from their trainer, so they want to be able to set a floor that is a higher value.
Also, I’m not sure of the fitness level of the OP, but 50w is a really low power value, so I guess I’d wonder if pretty much everyone would feel near zero resistance at that point. 
Perhaps being able to set a minimum ERG power might serve some useful purpose. However, the OP suggests the the trainer is “not engaging.” I think that may be a mischaracterization of what’s happening, which I believe is simply the very low resistance that accompanies very low ERG powers at normal cadences.
Thanks, everyone – I’m the “OP” and can clarify with some specifics: My FTP is pretty low at 170 after an injury and time off the bike. The “Lobuche” workout inspired this request, because it seems to have rest periods at a relatively low wattage – although I also tend to encounter this issue with Workouts that ramp down to nearly nothing during cooldown.
So when I did Lobuche last week, the rest intervals were asking for 48W in ERG mode. In order to engage the trainer and have it push back with any resistance whatsoever (and show a power reading), I was having to drop my cadence to 35-38 rpm… and I just can’t pedal that slow!
I can probably improve the situation a bit by shifting to a lower gear in spite of the chain line, but what I’d rather have is a setting that identifies my absolute minimum maintainable ERG power. For me and my Saris H3, that seems to be around 50-55 Watts, and I’d like to tell TrainerRoad to always ask my trainer for at least this much.
Thanks for the numbers, the problem is the workout structure not your trainer, 48w is only 28% of your FTP, that’s too low a % of FTP for a rest interval for anyone.
The workout instructions might be better saying get off your bike and have a leg stretch.
Another workaround might be to manually increase the workout intensity during the very low recovery intervals. Probably wouldn’t take much of an increase to get back above the erg floor of your trainer. Of course, you have to manually decrease it again when the next interval starts.
Or switch Erg off for those low power parts.
How about a 40 kg girl that just started training and has an FTP of 100? 48 Watts would then be 48% of her FTP which is quite adequate for rest. Power floor for trainers IS an issue.
agreed that it is an issue, but not sure that setting an artificial power floor in trainerroad is a good solution. In your example, riding above 50% of ftp might change the entire purpose of the workout. A better work around might be to switch to resistance mode during the valleys and then go back to erg for the intervals. Another might be to only do workouts that have valleys supported by your trainer, which might mean free rides on really low intensity days. A better but more expensive approach is to buy a trainer that can hit a lower floor.
I agree power floors are a problem for some riders, the problem the OP is having is due to TrainerRoad scheduling workouts with ridiculously low power targets.
I see your point, but I’m not sure why I couldn’t have the choice. If it would cause confusion for the masses, TrainerRoad could bury this in an “Advanced Settings” section within the trainer device configuration. Spinning against no resistance doesn’t suit the purpose of the workout either, and it messes up the analytics since no power readings are recorded.
I use my phone for TrainerRoad while riding, which means using my fat bouncy fingers on a small screen. Repeatedly trying to adjust the intensity or resistance mode during the workout would be cumbersome.
Is there a reason you can’t just shift down on the rear derailleur for these recoveries?
Since you are mid-cassette, there is likely a fair bit of room to get lower power at a decent cadence. I’d suggest testing it at the very least, if you haven’t already done so. It is likely the easiest “hack” here vs the app side stuff people have suggested.
I do plan on trying this when I next encounter the issue, as it would at least help me keep a reasonable cadence. I’d still like the ability to set a floor in the application, though.
Very few workouts have a recovery area of 28% like was being pointed out above, most are 40% or so I think. I looked and of threshold 1.0 and below like what this was I could only find 1 other example. So while I 100% get that this is annoying this isn’t a feature that you will even need in maybe a weeks time.
Even at higher watts this still comes down to being a gearing issue anyway. If I am sub 300ftp and extend a cool down my favored cadence and gearing makes it hard to get under 100 for example on my eilte. I can shift and avoid it but 100 is fine and probably preferred in this case. There are times though I suck it up and shift.
Example from my last workout.
