Power Meters / Powermeters (SRM, Powertap, Quarq, Ergomo, Vector, Stages, power2max, P2M, 4iii, InPower, Cinch)

I'd suggest having a google. Training peaks have some information on their blog. Or theres is a lot of literature out there already.

But I'm not surprised you feel shitty.

^^what's your CTL at? Going that low suggests your workouts are way too hard compared to your CTL

Or FTP is not accurate.

and you should include commutes even if you just throw in a guesstimated TSS for them.

Thanks @dubtap and @skinny.

Am not 100% on my FTP, but I think it's within 5% of being correct from looking at my peak power graph (not sharing it as it's too pathetic for public consumption).

My numbers on Friday were CTL 79 and ATL 120. I know the basics of what these numbers mean having done some reading (primarily of the acrhives on TP) but don't know all this stuff inside out yet. @dubtap, what do you mean when you say my workouts are too hard compared to my CTL?

Apologies, powern00b here.

Just to chip in, though please remember I'm as new to this power thing as you, but your CTL probably won't be right because you've only been collecting data for a short amount of time (6 weeks?). Unless you've seeded it of course.

EDIT -

Also, see this in regards to testing FTP.
http://alex-cycle.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/sins-of-sins-testing-ftp-2.html?m=1

Yeh, I did wonder if that's a factor; i've got around 7-8 weeks worth of data and CTL probably only starts being really meaningful after 3-4 months at a guess.

Will have a butchers at the FTP blog. I find it hard to do a meaningful test, as I find turbo a bit unrealistic when I ride on it (my heart rate is practically negative indoors for instance), and it's not particularly feasible outdoors due to cars / lights etc

My TSB hit -102 a few weeks back. I felt like a zombie. One of those 70s zombies that barely moves. Just groans, as bits of itself fall off.

This was mainly due to a lazy winter followed by hard cycling holiday. But would have been exagerated by poor TSS logging during low activity periods.

But it doesnt sound like your data goes back far enough. If you're pretty regular. Can't you guesstimate back data?

To keep your CTL increasing"safely" for want of a better word, your ATL should be higher than CTL but not too high.

TSB is just the difference between these two and what % you can handle is going to be individual but a 50% diff is probably going to be felt.

Actually my set FTP was a bit high for that holiday. So my TSS scores should have been higher.

I've got a stages 6800 for sale, I bought 2 because I was offered them at a decent price so if anyone wants the other for what I paid for it it's available for £520. I'm going to post in classifieds too but I though I'd post in here first. Brand new, unused in the box btw.

Thank you. That's great guidance, not seen the 50% rule in my reading thus far.

It's not really a rule but most training programmes in any sport seem to use 10%-15% ish increases in training load per week/month as a rule of thumb.

I'm doing a half marathon plan when the amount I run this week is never more than 15% higher that the average of the previous 4 weeks, and each week is only 5-8% higher than the previous week for example.

TP advise your CTL should only be going up 5-8 TSS per week too which from a base of 79 would be a convenient 10% increase.

if you've only recorded power for 6 weeks and not put in a CTL seed value then your values will all be 100% wrong.
So in TP PMC put in a rough seed value of CTL.

As your numbers will then be 'accurate'.

Ah, right, wasn't aware of this. How do you work out a seed value to use and how do you input it!?

what crank length are they?

Depends, there are a few ways to work it out. However what's your weekly TSS been like since starting. Has that been the same as your riding the list last few months?

172.5

bargain.

From +10 to -50 but not lower than -30 for long (or more than a couple of times in a week).

Mostly ~ -15 at this time of year.

This is just based on self-observation/experience of getting ill etc.

As @skinny says... you need to stick in a seeding CTL of whatever you were averaging (in TSS) for the weeks before you started logging.

Powermeter user in 'numbers all wrong' shocker. Tester will be lapping this up. For shame... For shame!

If you have a long history of cycling you can go way above 50% ATL over CTL rule of thumb with little ill effects. Best thing to do with a PM when you first get one is just log Everything! and ignore the numbers, the tests, etc.

^ this - build up a big load of data to look at. I've been using one a year-ish and I'm only just starting to get a decent picture of how my body works - and that's still pretty basic.
Don't overcomplicate and remember that you shouldn't lose sight of listening to what your body is telling you - it's ok to use perceived effort and fatigue too (especially if you don't have a coach).

Nobody's got time for that.

I've been coming back from injury using percieved effort. But logging everything to look back on. Having my Power logged while doing hill repeats. Yet not looking at my garmin (on my wrist under an arm warmer). Was kinda Nice. Wanted to do 3 x 250w (about 25min Climb). Did more like 245w. Which I thought was bloody Close. My legs didnt have much more, Yet HR was way off threshold. So its hill repeats agin this week (if the mental storm fecks off).

Why might my powertap keep cutting out? Didn't stop pedalling in this hour, not that the power file would have you think that. It had fresh batteries last week, and was fine at the weekend.

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