Switching Trainers Regularly

Equipment
1

I am pretty new to TR workouts and started a plan using plan builder last week. At home I am riding a KICKR Core which I did a Ramp FTP rest on when I started the plan. When I travel, for work I spend a couple of weeks away from home and have a TACX Neo 1. I am getting ready to switch to the Neo 1 this week.

Should I do a second FTP test this week on the Neo to see how it compares to the KICKR? I assume I should. After that I assume I can just use one FTP in TR and manually adjust the workouts by percentage when I am on the Neo.

I do not have power pedals at this time.

Thanks!

2

Do you happen to have another power meter on your bike you can use as a baseline?

If so you could hook the bike up on both trainers and check what the offset is for the two trainers and adjust your ftp accordingly.

1 Like
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He does not:

4

I’m not sure you are going to get an exact mapping of power. The best you can probably do is pick a threshold or SST workout and try to figure out your zones based on RPE. You should know about how fast your heart rate rises based on your proximity to threshold and you can get a rough estimate and fine tune +/- a few percent from there.

It is also very important to understand how your body reacts to stimulus as well so now is a good time to start if you haven’t already.

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You can test it every time but if the work feels the same (RPE, HR) the differences are probably negligible.

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Thanks. I’ll plan to keep my KICKR as my baseline. I guess I’ll just tackle the next workout and see how I feel. I’m pretty new to this training so I don’t really have a good feel for how hard each workout should be.

I used the Plan builder and think I’m doing mostly SSLVB (did I get the acronym right)?

I’m on week 2 of my training.

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both of those trainers should be pretty close. 1% difference of a ftp of 200 is 2 watts. Dont worry about it. I have 5 powertap wheels. Never saw a difference. If your really worried about it get some power meter pedals and only use them for power and let the smart trainer control resistance. Ive done this before and it really consistent.

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@purplecu22 Thanks! I was not too worried. I just wanted to do what made the most sense. My FTP is 186 from the KICKR. I’m recovering from some hip replacements last year and hoping to learn my way around TrainerRoad and get fit.

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Update: I rode the Neo 1 for 2-weeks. When I came home I was due for Palisade, which I did on my KICKR Core (after warm-up and spin-down). It was hard and seemed in-line with the slow increase in difficulty of each training session.

Thanks for the advice. I’m due for another FTP in about a week which I’ll accomplish on the KICKR again.