davidalone wrote:
I sometimes find if you haven't done enough outdoor riding for awhile is that you can find it hard to mantain the real threshold power you can do, because you've got to focus on other things- handling, obstacles, other riders, not crashing, head position etc. On a trainer all you need to be worried about is to keep that power highI think there is a ton of truth to this, also you swam first then biked. How is your swim fitness? It could be limiting your triathlon bike leg.
I ride almost exclusively indoors. When I go outside, I have a 10bpm increase (at easy paces, hitting it hard makes the gap in power smaller) just because of the extra stimulus (extreme focus required on road surface, other riders, traffic; heat; etc).