I’m new to trainer road, I have a wahoo kickr for inside and an easton cinch power meter on my mtb. I plan on doing some of my workouts outside when possible. I’ve done a ramp test on my kickr I and know that the power on it reads quite a bit different than the easton power meter on my bike, 30 watts or more different. What’s the best way to deal with this when I’m doing my scheduled workouts on my mtb?
There have been a few recent threads on this - search the forum for PowerMatch. This is a TR feature that allows you to use your power meter both indoors and outdoors.
From what I understand powermatch is for when you have a power meter on the same bike that you’re using on your trainer? In my situation I’m using my gravel bike, that doesn’t have a power meter, on my kickr and then for outside workouts I’m using my mtb with it’s own power meter, that reads different than the kickr.
Correct, since you are using the devices separate, PowerMatch is not a solution.
Sadly, in short, there isn’t much solution for you. There are no real tools or easy ways to handle training with different FTP and related power values be that from different devices, indoor/outdoor, etc.
As mentioned (even though it was considering a different take on your issue), there are numerous threads of people trying to deal with these power differences, and there are no great options with TR to handle those variations.
Do a ramp test inside, and a FTP test outside (2x8min is probably quickest) around the same time. Then at least you have a percentage baseline for the difference (say…270 vs 300, or 10% different, +/- a couple watts). Set your TR to the one you use most often, and then when doing the other (inside/outside) type of workout…adjust the percentage accordingly.
Most of my workouts are outside, so I choose to set my known outside FTP as the one to use on TR. If I do an inside workout, I know it’s about 8% lower…so I just start the workout and knock it down 8%.
Note that you can’t easily adjust an outside workout to be a lower wattage…but if the difference is small you could know that only working the bottom of the ‘target watts’ in a given interval is effectively working the correct wattage and only hold yourself to that standard.