Hi all, I have finally applied myself to proper indoor training using TR after years of hating indoor work. One big difference is I got myself a direct drive trainer, but it’s a cheap one (Pinnacle HC) and it reads ~10% too high for power (tested with a stages for comparison). This is fine when it’s comparing with only itself, but how will the AI deal with outdoor rides where the readings are lower for a similar HR?
I’ve completed a couple of plans over the last 3 months and have seen a good trend for FTP increase, but for one reason or another not much outdoor. I’ve got a long plan setup to start next week ahead of some tough sportives in may/june (Fred Whitton + Dragon Ride in the UK and Marmotte in France) but when I start to add 4-8 hour outdoor rides how will the AI deal with this given the power data is a bit wrong for the indoor rides?
Is there no option to take power from the stages instead of the trainer? Or is it on a different bike?
Hey @micromacromonkey 
Ideally, you’d use PowerMatch if you’re using the same bike outside as indoors, as @James_Sanderson mentioned. This way, your power source is coming from 1 source (Stages).
If you can’t use PowerMatch, then the different readings will be inevitable, but I don’t think it will be much of a problem since it sounds like you’d be doing your Interval TR Workouts indoors and completing your long unstructured rides outside.
Where I would see a problem is if you were completing your structured Interval work inside and outside, and your higher FTP indoors makes it harder on your interval work outside.
As far as the system goes, it looks at a broad set of data when making adjustments, so just go ahead and complete your long unstructured rides, and the plan will adjust as needed.
OK thanks all, it sounds like it won’t be too much grief for the AI to handle then. The bike I use indoors is permanently there (it’s a frameset, cranks and some bar tape, not much else) and the power meter was from my outdoor bike, so it would be a PITA to keep swapping it over. Ideally I’d buy another power meter… but then ideally I would have spent more on the trainer but I was hoping to keep costs down!
I didn’t know about powermatch, but actually that’s the way I used to use TR with my old wheel-on trainer a few years back.
So yes I’ll do the intervals inside (in fact ALL rides while it’s so cold outside!) then gradually add in the longer rides outside instead of the weekend Z2 session.
IDK if it’s been mentioned, but some power meters have apps with the capability of putting in an adjustment factor. If a trainer is reading generally 10% higher, then the PM might be adjusted to 91% to read generally the same. This may not be the best for absolute accuracy, but in the context of training, it will keep things more consistent.