Golden Cheetah for PC will do "virtual" power. I believe it does it both in post-processing and will act as a training tool as well for workouts during (but not sure since I don't really use it). A lot of the paid training apps like zwift and trainerroad will do this as well.

Or you could just use a combination of heart rate, gearing, RPM, PE, and a few hostorical benchmark workouts to gauge things - which is what I've been doing for years!

YES - power is more effective, and immediate, but with a bit of work and some experience so is the above.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Yeah. Long story short, he's extremely old school (he races with a 10$ stopwatch only), I have coached him for a few years and we remained good friends after I retired from coaching. He's asking me for tips and such from time to time, doesn't have the disposable income to buy all types of gadgets. So only SC, no HR, and RPE is hard to convey to the other person (me). We could continue like this, but he's a 4:30ish 70.3 guy, and we feel he could get better on the bike and get to 4:15-4:20... we're trying to maximize what we have available for him.

Yeah. Long story short, he's extremely old school (he races with a 10$ stopwatch only), I have coached him for a few years and we remained good friends after I retired from coaching. He's asking me for tips and such from time to time, doesn't have the disposable income to buy all types of gadgets. So only SC, no HR, and RPE is hard to convey to the other person (me). We could continue like this, but he's a 4:30ish 70.3 guy, and we feel he could get better on the bike and get to 4:15-4:20... we're trying to maximize what we have available for him.


If he's experienced and has a good multi-year base, and no body mechanical issues, then I would suggest the following:

1. Sweet Spot intervals

2. T-Max Intervals

Google and look both up - some good info online. As I'm sure you know there are no real secret workouts - it's the cumulative effect of time that really move the needle, but my N=1 experience backed up by a bit of research, says these are two that you can and should do, and the work particularly well on indoor trainers, DO really move the fitness needle dramatically over a pretty short period of time - again assume a good, deep and strong base.

The Sweet Spot is really that area of the zones (high 3 low 4) that many say you should avoid, but this is where you spend a lot of time in racing - particularly longer distance racing. So using the law of specificity - this IS where you should invest a good amount of time in training.

Warning - the T-Max stuff is ugly. NOT for the faint of heart and so hard that really only experienced veterans can push themselves there. It's 3 - 5, ALL OUT, 3+ minute intervals, where what stops you is you really can't turn the pedals over any more!! You are essentially riding to total and complete exhaustion in under 4 minutes! Rest fully and repeat, and then when you can't repeat it, you are done!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I'm a TrainerRoad member (no affiliation) and have somehow ended up with a bunch of free one month subscriptions. If your friend wants to try TrainerRoad free for one month I'd be more than happy to give him one of them.

Does he have a basic bike speedometer? If so and as long as the variables (ie: tire pressure, trainer tension, trainer settings, etc) remain constant his KPH or MPH could be used as a measurement tool.

Another option is to make his workouts descriptive (ie: "session best maximum steady effort") rather than prescriptive (ie: 106% of FTP) and let the duration and number of intervals put him in the appropriate level/zone. As an example, if you tell him to ride 4 x 4:00 at a "session best maximum steady effort", this should end up as a VO2 max workout.

My key takeaway from your post is that he will be racing with RPE so he should really focus on developing his sense of RPE and I think descriptive workouts are a great way to develop it.

I would recommend him TrainerRoad. Or Zwift. Or Sufferfest. Or... but the thing is that beyond 1month, he won't use it. He just doesn't have that income to spend.

Yes, he uses the Wahoo Blue SC. That's exactly what we've done in the past: make all parameters the same, and do a 20min max effort, and then use speed/distance on that effort. I has worked, he has progressed but tbh, not in relation to the training he has done. So we're simply trying to see if we can min/max the information we have under hand. Otherwise yeah, we'll continue with RPE :)

I couldn't find a way in Golden Cheetah to reprocess SC to power... but I think one of the Tacx app has virtual power, is for ios, is free and supports the Blue (which has about the same power curve as the Satori).

I have 5 free one month TrainerRoad subscriptions.

I'm not sure how it actually works but I will give your friend all 5 of them if he wants them so he could spend January - June on TrainerRoad and then finally head outside in July after our long Canadian winter ; ).

A. Isn't the Taxc Satori a "semi-smart" trainer that already converts the resistance curve to virtual power data, and transmits that to bluetooth and/or ANT?

B. Tacx has a free app that allows you to create workouts, review data post-workout, export workout data, etc. Even if your friend has a basic Taxc trainer, the app can supposedly derive virtual power if you have a speed/cadence sensor. (Specific Tacx sensor may or may not be needed, not sure).

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

There are multiple version of the Satori... his is the magnetic "dumb" one.

Does he need watts? Could he go just by speed?

I’m not sure these guys advanced nbeyond beta testing but it might be worth dropping them a note to see if their software is available for download: https://maximumtrainer.com/home

Right. If I was his coach I'd have him use a HRM and prescribe workouts that way. If he has a phone he could buy a bluetooth HRM for 25 bucks and use any one of multiple apps to record the data.

Right. If I was his coach I'd have him use a HRM and prescribe workouts that way. If he has a phone he could buy a bluetooth HRM for 25 bucks and use any one of multiple apps to record the data.


I'm a bit Old-School - but too many triathletes, chasing watts, and numbers too early in their cycling development.

I get it - it's easy, but it's become an obsession. Good and proper development can be accomplished focusing on, HR, pedal RPM and gearing - taking a whole winter indoor season to work on that. Forget about the watts for now. This is for the rank-newcomer - never ridden seriously before.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

No need for an app. All he needs to know is whether he is doing more or less and that is going to be based on speed. Have him do bread and butter intervals (4x4, 4x8, 2x20, whatever) and increase cadence/gears to achieve greater external like everyone else has been doing for decades. When he can do more with the same internal load (RPE, HR, cardiac drift), he's headed in the right direction.

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