My employer has recently requested all staff should be in the office more frequently. Aside from being annoying, this sort of ruins my training schedule as I usually use my turbo trainer at lunchtime and simply work around it.
Thankfully, I have a gym next door to the office and they have peloton machines. And thankfully, the extra day in the office is usually my endurance day.
Instead of doing the exact prescribed Z2/endurance/sustained power workout from TR, I’m going to do the same duration (almost always an hour) at 65-75% current FTE. Not ideal, but definitely better than nothing. Cadence and power (which I appreciate probably won’t be that accurate) will sync from Peloton to Strava and then to TR.
While I appreciate I can link my HRM to the peloton machine, I can’t be arsed. There are multiple machines, you never know which will be free and the Bluetooth sync is always a faff I won’t have time for.
So my question is whether or not TR is able to detect improvements that come from these workouts if the workout data itself is incomplete. I’ll be doing an hour of uninterrupted Z2 work, so assuming my nutrition and recovery is adequate (it’s pretty dialled within the constraints of my circumstances), the adaptations should show up in the proper TR workouts I do at home.
Ultimately, I want to ensure my plan adapts appropriately despite doing one fewer proper TR workout.
And, to be clear this is as much curiosity as anything since I have no choice but to do some of my Z2 sustained power workouts on a peloton in a gym. It is what it is.
In case it’s useful I’m on a masters plan with two hard intervals and one endurance during the week, and one longer dynamic endurance in the weekend (which I switch out for solo junk miles when life and weather permits because f**k two hours on the trainer when the sun’s out).
Yes, a Garmin forerunner 955. I thought about using that, but it’d record heart rate and not power. My assumption was that power would be more useful to TR.
I suppose I could record on both the watch for HR and Peloton for power and somehow merge them later, but I’m pretty sure I’m too lazy for that.
I misread that you were able to get the peloton workout. I think just that power should be fine. The stock peloton endurance rides are probably higher IF from standard TR endurance rides.
The only reason to just record and submit HR would be if the pelotons are crazy off. I had one and it was pretty accurate. But I’ve heard horror stories.
I would try to stick with a consistent bike to get consistent power meter option and try to use your HR strap when you can, guessing not many people will be on it and connections for me in hotels have always been pretty easy. You can also broadcast your HR from your Garmin if that is easier (although not as accurate).
I know the power meter can be off… cuz on vacation I did two Peloton rides in the hotels. One ride was solid, seemed accurate zone2, and imported in w/Power&HR for a good TSS/etc. The 2nd I freestyled a 20min sweetspot/LT… at 430w LOL , had to delete remove power from file with fitfiletools.com and import again.
I use a Bike+ for my indoor TR rides. They have accurate power meters.
The regular Peloton Bikes do NOT have accurate power meters, they require routine manual calibration, no gym ever calibrates them because its a pain in the you know what, and I would bet a lot of money the regular Bikes are the ones used in commercial gyms. Each bike will likely be out of calibration with one another. 100W on one bike will NOT be the same 100W on another bike.
You should only go by HR and RPE when using commercial Peloton bikes. It should be trivial to connect a HR monitor to the bike via Bluetooth, and should be a very stable connection. The Pelotons are just Android tablets slapped on a trainer.
There is a setting in TR to determine TSS from rides with HR-only data. Turn it on, keep your RPE low, and you should be fine.