So I’ve finally joined the merry group of powermeter owners, yay me. I’m not racing anymore this year and basically in maintenance mode as I’m upping my running mileage, but obviously its still fruitful to peg my FTP. I can do it inside or outside. Where I live its pancake flat, and there’s always wind, more often than not quite a strong wind. I all of my riding outdoors for as long as possible, but in the winter I will probably be mostly on the trainer. So:
- test inside? (Powertap + Tacx basic trainer), more “constant power” and no coasting, no chance of being disturbed by traffic or whatnot, but maybe not being able to push myself as hard?
- test outside? (Powertap), more “real” conditions, I also race outside. More of a coasting effect and susceptible to the elements.
If testing outside, is it best to do it with a tailwind/headwin/crosswind? Or a combination? Maybe psychologically it’s best to start with a headwind and then as things are getting harder to take the tailwind. But then again, wattage wise I guess they should be equally hard (can you tell I’m new to using power?) I think I can find a reasonably solitary ~13-15k piece of road. Finding a loop will still be possible but more open to external factors mentioned previously, or I can do a couple of loops, then it gets significantly easier to find a decent spot. Your thoughts?
In addition, which protocol do you prefer for testing? The 20 minute testing with a 5 min clearing effort before seems to be the shortest, but also skirts the anaerobic zone if I’ve read it right. Are there people out there who use other protocols? (excluding the full 60 min TT, this I’m not really looking to do, even if it is the best way)
I’ve also started reading the book by Allen and Coggan. One of the workouts I used to do on Trainerroad was the 2x20 sweet spot one. I’d also like to start doing this outside now that I’ve got a PM and when I’m just going for a short high quality session. But in the book the sweet spot training says to take 15 mins of rest between the 20 mins? (Specifically it calls for warmup, 5 min all out, 2x20 at SS (15m rest in between), then 8-10x1min at SS with 2 mins rest) I seem to recall the classic 2x20 has 4-5 mins of rest max. The 15 mins rest just seems to make it a bit too easy. They do mention fooling around with the number of intervals and the duration, but do not mention changing the amount of rest in between.
Thank you for your input.