Hiya Sarah,
Thank you SO much for reaching out.
I think I mentioned in my OP that I running TrainerRoad on an iPad. When I do a workout, paired with the iPad are:
- the trainer, a Wahoo Kicker
- Garmin heart, cadence and speed sensors
- Look power-meter pedals.
Iâve set the the trainer in ERG mode.
The only place that I am reading power is on the iPad, using the TR app. Actually I think that on the devices page, I could see what the pedals were reporting and what the trainer was reporting, separately. Iâve nearly never bothered to do that. I just see the power reading that the TR app shows during an activity. My original question, in fact. was about where that number came from. Did it come from my pedals or from the trainer? Was it an average over time?
But now youâve already answered nearly all of my questions. The responsiveness of the TR team has just about spoiled me for any other athletic service. You folks are just amazing.
Letâs just move past my original question, given your answers: it might just be confusing at this point. Let me say what I think is happening.
First, TR is showing, in the number in the upper left of the activity page, the most recent power reading from the pedals. It shows the target power as a number below that. It also shows both, again, graphically, with the average power calculated over a number of seconds settable elsewhere in the app, on a thermometer in between the two numbers.
It sounds like TR calculates the difference between the target power and the most recent reading for power that it receives from the pedals It calculates this difference using the most recent reading from the pedals and not, for instance, the average power over the last few seconds. It reports the calculated difference to the trainer and the trainer, in turn, adjusts its resistance.
I am mostly just curious about how it all works. ⊠and, for the most part it does just work. I do have some issue with the way my setup, in particular, handles, especially sprints and some high power intervals. In 30 sec sprints, even if I keep my cadence within ± 1 rpm, the resistance often does not stabilize within the sprint interval. Similarly, during relatively long, high output intervals I find that I have to progressively increase my cadence to keep my power output on target.
Neither of these things are a significant problem. I just do increase my cadence. It works fine.
My current hypothesis is that my Look pedals are very slow to report power. I suspect, from using them with their own app, that the power they report is the power that was applied to them as much as 3 or 5 seconds ago. I suspect this lag causes oscillation that only stabilizes in long, lower effort intervals.
Again, thanks just a million for indulging my curiosity.
-blake