Using Adaptive Training with a Power meter and Trainer that don't align

How would you use Adaptive training when your bike power meter reads 10% higher than your trainer with a mix of 50/50 inside & outside workouts/rides. Powermatch is not an option.

Set the offset to .9 on the power meter if it supports that?

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Offset is a good idea, doesn’t TR allow you to set that on the trainer settings?

Maybe do 110%? for indoor rides?

Or - swoop up some of those discounted vector 3s

I could do that but it would make comparisons with my historical data a bit meaningless and the power meter is the correct one Assioma Duos compared with a cheap Elite Zumo. I was thinking I could alter my FTP by +10% on the individual outside rides but don’t know how that would play with the AT algorithms.

Most trainers let you set it. Its not something you want to set in TR its something you want to set in the software for the PM or the trainer so it actually broadcasts a different number. I run a kickr core, vector 3s and a 4iii on another bike and have been able to get them all within the 1.5% they are even accurate to. Keep in mind the kickr has drivetrain loss the others dont so you will want to do 1.1 (or whatever) on it and assume the pedals/cranks are the source of truth if the software lets you.

For some strange reason known only to them , No

I don’t think you can do it on the Elite Zumo I might drop them an email to see if it’s possible. You can do it using Xert software on their IOS app.

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  • I think this is a stretch, and expect it is not that far reaching. I don’t think any Saris, Wahoo or Neo trainers allow it. Not sure on Elite or Kinetic?
  • Can you list specific examples?

It appears I am flat F-ing wrong. I just went off to get screenshots and whatever else i could find to show you and it seems to have worked in the other direction. I went downstairs and checked my settings in all the various apps and found I had adjusted it in the garmin software and the 4iii software and it seems both the kickr and the broken hammer dont have any option to change it. I am an idiot and there is nothing to see here.

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We see ownership and honesty. It’s all good

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It’s all good. I know I have seen that feature mentioned for some power meters, but had not seen it on any trainers. Would be a welcomed option in the TR app, to help deal with the near constant differences we see listed in various threads here.

My personal trainers and PM’s are close enough I ignore the differences, but I know that is not always the case. So some level of control seems like it would be useful here.

I’d either use TR powermatch or contact elite stating the issue and they will give you a JSON calibration file that will get your zumo to align better with your faveros.

Recapping what I think are the options at play:

  1. upgrade something - trainer or PM so you can use powermatch
  2. use an offset where it can be set
  3. adjust workout intensity - doesn’t help you outside or when doing tests but hey its something
  4. ignore it (like me) but 10% is a lot

To the original question - AT. Probably will split the matrix wide open and fall in. If you can complete workouts using these methods above, I would think the suggestions would be more about levels than watts and you can go from there. But man the data is going to be so confused.

Good news - this is something they’ll have to deal with. I just got new power meters so what does that do to old data, etc.

my head hurts

I would love to be able to apply a correction factor to power sources, and it’s disappointing to see that trainers don’t allow this. In my experience it seems the trainers are worse than PMs, but that’s hard to prove. Since the trainer MFGs won’t do this (likely as it looks like admitting that their accuracy claims are BS), it would be nice if TR allowed a correction factor on the trainer power source. While this won’t address totally broken things, this likely would allow ‘many’ people to have ‘much better’ correlation between the trainer and various power meters.
Having the ability to tweak the reported power is pretty much a must have for me on any future power meter purchases, as otherwise there is no way to manage all the variation between multiple meters.

I can help! While multiple power sources are something we’d like to address in the future, Adaptive Training does not currently make adjustments if you alternate between power meters. PowerMatch 2.0 lets you use your power meter to control your smart trainer when training indoors, and is an excellent option for many athletes in this situation. (You said Powermatch wasn’t an option though? Can you expand upon this?)

The good news is: Adaptive Training is super flexible and forgiving, and while there may be variation between different devices, it’s unlikely to seriously impact your training. Adaptive Training responds to each ride individually and won’t be “confused” over the long term by multiple devices. :+1:

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My guess would be that he has a bike setup on his trainer permanently and a separate bike with a powermeter for outside rides.

If that’s the case, I would adjust the power on the power meter if it allows it. I know you can adjust the output of my NGEco up or down by %.

My trainer is up 3 flights of stairs and has a dedicated (powermeterless) bike on it. Every time I go on the trainer I don’t want to have to take the pedals off my road bike and then put them them back on it when I go outside. 2 reasons 1) it would be a complete pain and take to long and 2. Every time I changed them over I’d run the risk of cross threading and ruining them.

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See my reply above as to why I don’t think it is good idea to knock the power down on future rides by 10%

Do are you saying that bumping up the FTP on the outside rides would work then?

Makes sense. In that case, as long as its not too much trouble, I would manually adjust your FTP (or the intensity of your workouts) when done outside, know that multiple devices are something we’ll account for in the future, and rest easy that Adaptive Training is still accounting for the work you’re doing really effectively!

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