I’ve read some of the discussions about indoor vs outdoor FTP differences, and it sounds like cooling is the biggest factor.
I generally use TrainerRoad during the week (3-4 workouts) plus 1-2 outdoor group rides on the weekends. I use a Computrainer indoors in TrainerRoad and have the FTP set to 254, which is where I tested doing a 20 minute indoor FTP test 10 weeks ago. The workouts did seem to start getting “easier” (still tough, but nothing insane). I planned on retesting my FTP sometime soon but have been avoiding it a bit.
Recently I bought PowerTap P1 pedals that I’ve been using outdoors. They’re calibrated and working great. I went for a long ride, about 60 miles with 4,000’ of climbing which ended with a really long climb, so I decided to do a 20-minute FTP test just to see what I’d get. My legs weren’t fresh but I decided to try it anyway. In that test I averaged 295 watts for 20 minutes. Based on that I should have a 281 FTP, correct? That makes me really happy, especially since I went into it with fatigue in my legs.
I feel like there are a lot of factors though:
1) Cooling outdoors is better than indoors
2) Computrainer indoors VS. Powertap P1’s outdoors
3) I haven’t tested FTP in 10 weeks and have been riding consistently, so maybe I just made gains
So, what’s my FTP???
Should I restest on the Computrainer to verify? Argh those 20 minute tests are tough. My end goal is to make sure my indoor FTP is set correctly so that I can get those most out of my indoor sessions.
I generally use TrainerRoad during the week (3-4 workouts) plus 1-2 outdoor group rides on the weekends. I use a Computrainer indoors in TrainerRoad and have the FTP set to 254, which is where I tested doing a 20 minute indoor FTP test 10 weeks ago. The workouts did seem to start getting “easier” (still tough, but nothing insane). I planned on retesting my FTP sometime soon but have been avoiding it a bit.
Recently I bought PowerTap P1 pedals that I’ve been using outdoors. They’re calibrated and working great. I went for a long ride, about 60 miles with 4,000’ of climbing which ended with a really long climb, so I decided to do a 20-minute FTP test just to see what I’d get. My legs weren’t fresh but I decided to try it anyway. In that test I averaged 295 watts for 20 minutes. Based on that I should have a 281 FTP, correct? That makes me really happy, especially since I went into it with fatigue in my legs.
I feel like there are a lot of factors though:
1) Cooling outdoors is better than indoors
2) Computrainer indoors VS. Powertap P1’s outdoors
3) I haven’t tested FTP in 10 weeks and have been riding consistently, so maybe I just made gains
So, what’s my FTP???
Should I restest on the Computrainer to verify? Argh those 20 minute tests are tough. My end goal is to make sure my indoor FTP is set correctly so that I can get those most out of my indoor sessions.