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

If you're not using power training peaks is pointless. Just log your time and percived effort in a diary and see how you feel and you can check back.

Sorry to nit-pick but... I've been getting HR TSS (with whatever bike) over the last couple of years. For everything but stationary trainer intervals the TSS compares well enough with that gathered from a PM.

For the turbo I use a calibrated spin-down for power (not a virtual profile). So... all bases fairly well covered without actually owning a proper stress-gauge PM.

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/what-is-the-performance-management-chart

Form (Training Stress Balance, or TSB)
Finally, by subtracting yesterday’s Fitness from today’s Fatiuge we come up with the yellow line, or the Form.

Powertap G3 rear, White Industries T11 front, HED Belgium rims - what's a fair price?

The rear hub was new at the end of last year (done by Saris as the torque tube on the old hub failed).

The rims are worn but not dead, only reason for me moving the wheelset is because I'd like to go back to my tubs.

Ha, how do you know about that? Quite a few of us have been banhammered today. I kept it civil!

Hah, he's such whinge!

How long was transcontinental and what kinda ride was it?

You'll be wanting to read this thread http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/228045/ coverage of this year's event starts around page 8.

Fucking vectors... 99% of the time I think they are great but occasionally they piss me right off.

Trying to update them and on first attempt the pedals connected to the computer but the update failed, and now for the last hour they won't even pair with the computer.

Any tips (aside from the obvious P2M comments)?

Am I right that my vectors only have 1 year warranty? One of my pods just disintegrated almost as if corroded. 18 months old, never over torqued etc.

50m tt tomorrow, HIM next weekend, currently only able to install one pedal... Not amused.

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Just double the numbers, works for Froome.

My vectors keep on breaking. If this continues I will be in the market for something else. They have been so bad and inconsistent I have no idea what my ftp is. I actually don't care either well I do but since I can't measure it I have to not care.

Burn them in a ditch then shoot them

You mean like this?

I put a washer between the pedal and the pod to reinforce the split area above but it snapped in two at 25nm

Oops...

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Had my first proper outting on my p2m at the London Triathlon today. Having never used power before, today was more for curiosity, but I intend to train with power more often now. For that I know I'll need to estimate FTP to set up my zones; would I be able to use the triathlon as a starting point? What should I look at, 60min avg or 20min? I wasn't going ALL out, but fairly close to it.

http://tpks.ws/oZCZ

Oh yeah, forgot to add, the p2m type s is great, so easy to install and use. I'm a fan of GXP too.

By definition, FTP is the power you can produce going all-out over an hour. You can estimate it using a 20 minute figure then applying a reduction of 5% but that's a bit of a bodge. Using a triathlon figure seems a reasonable starting point, although of course it won't be flat out for the cycling bit so your FTP would presumably be higher if you were just doing the cycling bit. It's a bit of a stab in the dark, but given that your 60 min figure was 222W, I'd say 230-240W would be a reasonable starting point.

Cool, thanks. Interestingly, for the whole 72min my average was higher than my 60min... I guess that makes sense, going harder at the beginning and end must've bumped the total average up. Think I'll stick with 240w for now and see how that feels training.

How does everyone else here estimate their ftp?

It's a bit of educated guesswork I find. I cobbled mine together from 20 min tests on a turbo and bests for normalised power over 20 mins and 60 mins out on the road on recent rides. As @danstuff said though, you need to take 95% of a 20 min effort.

The problem with 20 min tests is getting the pacing right. That's why I tend to prefer going off 60 mins outdoors and allowing for the fact that it's not totally full out due to traffic, freewheeling around corners etc

Yeah, I would guess based in that a ftp of around 240-250 seems likely.

In other news, don't manual zero your Garmin with your feet on the pedals. I got a "calibration" value about 100hz lower than normal, and then wondered why I was struggling to hold ftp for 5mins....

How does everyone else here estimate their ftp?

Over the winter I do 20 minute efforts on track, and then apply the 5% reduction. Over the summer I use the results from my 25 mile TTs. I don't often get below the hour mark (twice so far) so I can get a 60 min figure from those.

20min climb.

I do several all out 20min climbs a week. So while I may not constantly adjust my FTP. I do have a idea of my form.

Um. Most of us live in the UK.

And some of us live in the Fens. A 20 minute climb would involve crawling on all fours. Backwards.

Cudham Lane from the A21 to the curry house at Biggin Hill.

In other news, don't Garmin

Fixed

Yeh, that's a decent length grind. I went up there yesterday actually for the first time in ages and remembered i really dislike riding it. It just feels really dull and the road surface is really weird and bumpy (I'm a bit precious).

One that I prefer for that type of gradient and length is layhams road / skid hill lane in West Wickham (but there is a crossroad half way which can throw a spanner in the works)

Does anyone else find that their power on a turbo is different to power outdoors?

find that riding to my typical 'outdoor' ftp on my turbo is really tough, like maybe 5-10% harder.

Not sure if it's due to the constant spinning and lack of out of the saddle-ness of a turbo or due to the resistance on the wheel. Or maybe just the dullness. I use a kurt rock n'roll if that makes any difference.