3 second power is what TR recommends, and it seems to work OK for me.
I’m located in a big city, but I ride to areas where I can work out with sparse traffic (one area is closed to traffic so that’s wonderful).
Gradual hills or bridges make it difficult to keep the power steady – especially uphill – but I’m constantly shifting gears to maintain my cadence.
My main problem is that I find myself semi-sprinting to get ahead of (the very infrequent) cars or to get back up to speed after turnarounds. It’s a bad habit I need to address and break.
Here’s what 5x10minutes looks like. The stuff at the beginning and end is my commute to and from the workout area.
So, the power doesn’t hold steady, but it’s still an effective workout in my opinion. An automobile-free area is a great thing. Luckily, I have several available to me within 5 miles from the house (including a great 7-mile gravel road). Alternatively, I know several streets where I can co-exist with cars because the traffic lights are timed, or because I’m riding on a long stretch of street with few cross-streets and a nice bike lane.
Importantly, I use a headlight and rear-facing radar, which I can’t recommend highly enough. I often start out before sunup, so lights are important. The radar is much more useful than I ever could have imagined before trying it.
By the way, here’s a workout on roads with (sparse) traffic. The power is much more choppy, but I have to put safety and situational awareness ahead of workout consistency.
I agree here. The set up video for Garmin Edge recommended the Average Lap Power and I have loved that. I do 2 outdoor rides per week (Sat/Sun) and can usually hit the mark pretty well using the AVG Lap Power. Of course, AVG Lap Power will not take into account variability — i.e. big difference between riding 1/2 your interval at 200W and the other half at 300W [averaging 250W] versus sustaining 250W for the duration) — so you still have to try to hold consistent.
Here is a snip from my ride yesterday, which had 6 intervals, each with a 12s sprint at the top (Clark).
You should be able to program your wahoo workout screen to have a ‘average lap power’ display and not ever have to press a lap button when doing a TR outside workout. However, they have talked on the podcast about intentionally not using the avg lap power because it lends the user to chase a specific number instead of stay in the intended zone. Notice how on the TR app it doesn’t give you an average lap power, only your target and avg 3 second (?) power. For instance if you were doing a SS workout and lost focus or something and spent 3 minutes at 10 watts under sweet spot…now in order to get your avg lap power back up to the intended target, you have to spend an equal amount of time 10 watts over your sweet spot…which is probably pretty close to threshold, and if you do that you’re changing the intended workout and energy systems slightly.
Personally, I still run avg lap power but try to keep that concept in mind not to chase a number too much.
I also use 5 second average power in conjunction with the lighted bar on the left side of my elemnt (which seems like it’s more immediate power, I’m not sure?). Try to keep the bar from dropping under the target power, while double checking against 5 second power and keeping it from climbing too high. Seems to work well.
The other and probably most important thing is choosing the right road. A consistent uphill is by far the easiest to maintain consistent power. A constant flat seems to be fine too, on the few times I’ve tried that. Anything rolling makes it significantly more difficult to maintain constant/consistent power on. Too much shifting and rpm changes, the resistance just feels different and mentally you have to spend a lot more time thinking about your power and how you’re going to smooth it through whatever’s coming next.
Nice! I can do that on flat roads, where most of my training happens.
Saturday was on rollers, first time in 8 months! Definitely need to work on it, here is a 20-minute interval at 90% target with highlighting 88-95% sweet spot:
I’ve never done interval training on climbs, so to my eyes that was “ok” and I’m pretty happy with it given all my training is on the flats or trainer. The first steep downhill was fun, went flying past 5-10 deer at 30+mph
Outdoor workouts are great if you plan on racing outdoors! I found it really challenging to get a handle doing intervals outside on but feel like it has improved my pacing and riding a lot over the last year.
I agree that 3 second power is more useful in keeping yourself on track and having your avg power for the lap is good for longer intervals. Also, thinking of your power target as a +/- 10w range is more realistic than nailing your number exactly. And sometimes you have to turn or navigate an intersection without dying. Not going to ruin your workout by letting of the pedals for a few seconds. Looking at your VI after a workout is more objective feedback than looking at the squiggly line, especially if you are used to an artificially clean smart trainer file.
Something to think about though is that your goal usually is to spend as close to the prescribed time in the zone as possible, not to hit the average for the lap. Not the end of the world to go under power on a downhill section but too hard uphill can disrupt your overall goal. Being able to stay on the gas for a sweet spot interval and not blow up by going over threshold is a real good skill.
Outdoor intervals are a learned skill, it takes time to learn and figure out how to pace, but it’s very good practice especially if you’re doing time trials or looking at a breakaway situation in a road race. Starting with flat sections of road makes it much easier.
Also, do some of your indoor workouts in resistance mode. Holding targets is a skill which needs practice.
Finally, realize that most targets are zones not specific numbers. Read the instructions, know the target zones and the little variations will not bother you as much.
I found it really challenging to get a handle doing intervals outside on but feel like it has improved my pacing and riding a lot over the last year.