Power inconstancy / peaks & drops in power during workout

Hi there,

in all of my workouts, the power output is all over the place despite the fact that the power/force on the pedal feels quite consistent. I see sudden peaks followed by drops and overall not a ver smooth power output. Is that my inability to ride/pedal smooth or the one sided power meter?

Here an example from today:

I calibrate the power meter before every ride.

Thanks
winoria

Looks pretty normal when I record using my Stages crank power meter.

What power meter are you using?

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Stages crank arm power meter - Left Sided

Admittedly I’m new to this game of making the power match set target (got my power meter beginning of summer and started using TR end of September) but that is what my power looked like the first couple of TR sessions.
Working hard on following coach Chads pedalling drills and focusing on smooth output has smoothed that out. As I fade at the end of workouts this gets harder.
I think it’s natural, more so for us with single side power meters. I also don’t think it matters that much, more then bugging the OCD part of my brain. :slight_smile:

Wouldnt hurt to get in touch with the support team, they can look at the internal ride log of your workouts, isolate any potential issues, and go through any firmware updates if needed!

You can email them at support@trainerroad.com, or submit a request online. Good information to include is your username and the last ride where you experienced this issue. They’ll sort you out!

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just submitted

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your power graph looks normal, I’ve had both left-only and left-right Stages power meters. There is some pedaling skill that will make the graphs a little cleaner, but what you are showing looks like so many of my TR workouts. Hope that helps.

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Yep, totally normal. Some devices give artificial smoothing to make people feel better, it’s kind of like photoshopping your imperfections out without working on them. You can definitely get smoother with focus but that’s not sounding off any alarms for me as is

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this is 100% normal, here is example from my ride yesterday, comparison betwen my power meter (purple line) and my trainer (blue line), power smoothing was turned ON on my trainer

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Yeah, completely normal.I have Stages L.
I focus on not trying to chase the accuracy too much, but keeping the fluctuations approx 20w within target is good enough for me.
My main objective is keeping the average power ball thingy🧑‍🔬 on the bar graph slightly above target…

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