So confused and frustrated

A drop to a FTP of 141w? Something is very wrong here.

I’m pretty similar to you except almost 10 years older. At 40 I had been riding a year, wasn’t particularly fit from anything previously except a little running etc, but about 180-185lbs, 6’, and certainly not fast enough to trouble any regular serious cyclist etc. I got my first power meter and did a 20 min test and did 200w. I’m no genetic freak either as now I’m still hovering around a 285w FTP. So, 200w for a pretty much newbie cyclist.

What I’m trying to say is that either your power meter has a serious issue and is now not comparable to your earlier results, or you have another issue such as a health related one that is impacting you. If your hill climb times reflect a drop in FTP like this then I’d make sure you get checked out and try and get to the bottom of it.

Good luck.

This is another good idea. If you have been doing running baselines for the military, you’d likely see a substantial drop in performance here too if the issue was not related to a PM. If your running has been relatively consistent, then you’re likely dealing with faulty power. If not, then it may be a vitamin deficiency or something of that nature.

This was going to be my advice. Something very wrong indeed there in my completely unqualified opinion.

Thought about a running test, but was wary as I haven’t run much at all since OCT. Think I may go do a couple miles today just to get a sense. Thanks.

Great point on the hill. Here’s some data from Strava 2 days ago:

Length: 2.28 Miles
Gradient: 2.7% for the segment

My performance:
Time: 8:58
Avg Speed: 15.3mph
Avg P: 166W

#10 on the leaderboard for the same segment is:
Time: 7:44
Avg Speed: 17.7mph
Avg P: 270W

I’m not sure if there is an equation to guess-timate power off the time, speed, distance, weight factors. I’m open to suggestions.

Thanks. Sounds like a project for the weekend.

I do calibrate every ride the same way… wake the pedals with some non-weighted turns of the crank, calibrate. Never been an issue before.

per Climbing Power Calculation

I guessed on the weight of your bike so give or take a couple of watts… Obviously weather and rolling resistance could be slightly different than what’s here but as an approximation…

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Wow & thanks. I am unfamiliar with this overall, but even a 20% error would put me well over 200W.

I’ll keep testing.

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I had the Vector 3S for awhile. They seemed okay but then the power would read kind of low and dropout so Garmin sent me new ones. They kept having dropout issues though so I eventually just bought the Assiomas.

166w on that climbing seems low for 15mph

Not saying you don’t have a a health issue… But I would bet the power meter is busted

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Even if all those assumptions are a bit off, and all go the same way, I’m reading that the OP has held at least 240 w for 9 minutes.

No way he’s doing that if his FTP is 140W.

I’m very inclined to think the PM is busted.

OP - does the budget run to a simple left hand crank pm? The other thing would be (if gyms are open near you) is to find an exercise bike (like a WattBike) that has power numbers.

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@loftusmt77 are your pedals left/right power meters? If so, what does the right/left balance look like? Maybe one of them isn’t working anymore, and you get half the power.

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You need to compare you own performance with your own. I think that was more the point.

I.e FTP 230w resulted in a 7:30 minute climb
FTP 141w resulted in a 7:40 minute climb.

Made up numbers but if something like thats true the power meter is off. If in the example it took 9 or 10 minutes with a 141w you know the performance decrease is real

Depends on weight though, and maybe on wind direction. The strava segment can give you an idea, but unless you know someone’s weight, its hard to say if the power was comperable.

That is a good call. I have Vector 3 dual and the right drops out regularly once the battery is below around 40%

Also going from single to dual can see a small drop if your left right is unbalanced. I lost a few watts on my FTP because of this.

Oh you reminded me and re my compare Strava self with self check, OP check the wind direction to see if you can make a comparison. Windsocks?

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It appears you was on a downwards trajectory even before the 25% drop in FTP. Based on my somewhat similar experience, here are a few things to consider:

  1. Too much intensity, and not enough recovery. Out-of-the-box TR plans were not good for me in this regard - I had to dramatically lower the intensity and increase volume.
  2. Consistency. Your training stress curve must be going up during a training block. If most of non-compliant workouts (15%) happen during the later half of your block, it could be that your body doesn’t get enough stress overload and adaptations do not kick in.

…still, this sharp 25% drop looks weird, and it happened between December and February…with this happening in January:

if you changed your measuring device, you can’t compare numbers.

your power meter is definitely screwed - only 1.5mph difference up hill yet only 60% of the power.

The only time ‘My performance’, to a similar scale, genuinely dropped off a cliff was when suffering from Anaemia.

You can’t draw that conclusion, different people, weight, day, weather (wind direction, temperature, air density), cda, power meter. etc

well maybe he had a 70mph tailwind but somehow I doubt it…

He is now the same height and weight as me and no way I get up a 2.7% grade 2.3 mile climb in anywhere near that time on 140w. Dont care what the air density is.

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