Hi all,
Whether it’s structured intervals like 3x10’ SS or an amex ride with a time in sweet spot goal, I’m having a hard time staying in SS zone when doing my workouts outdoors. I don’t have a problem achieving it as an average for the interval, I just can’t seem to stay in the zone. Indoors, I have no problem making the power with my trainer in erg mode. Just wondering how to get more consistent on the road, instead of bouncing between tempo and threshold work! Anyone else struggle with this?
Hey @mackay46!
When you are riding outside your power will never hold constant like it does on the trainer. It will fluctuate some, especially if you are riding on hilly terrain, but as long as you are staying within 84-97% of your FTP and your normalized power is falling within that range for your interval you are #FtFPing. If you are having surges well above or below that range, look at the route you are riding and see if you can set yourself up better to execute the intervals by finding a road with a steady grade and fewer turns.
As far as the trainer goes, the FasCat coaches actually advise against using ERG mode for intervals as it is unrealistic to doing those efforts the outside world.
Hi @mackay46
Lots of good answers here for your question and trust me you are not the first person who has this problem so just continue to work on smoothing out your effort and pedal stroke. Don’t be afraid to shift gears to keep the effort consistent. Find a good route or segment to do the efforts.
Another thing some riders do is change their head unit to show rolling power average for 3 seconds. This will cause it to show a reading that is less likely to be change so much as its an average of where you are at which sounds like you are in the zone.
Thanks for the responses! I may try doing more of my indoor work on level mode instead of erg, that’s a good time to concentrate on hitting targets without the extra challenge of grade change.