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

I commute 17/18 miles each way and it can vary from 30TSS to 70TSS (each way) depending if I go easy or smash it

sounds like Sanddancer does a similar amount so it could vary quite a lot. You can get a fairly accurate TSS from HR though and I use that when It rains and I take the winter bike and will probably ride all winter on just HR.

My commute is shorter but you can generate a huge variance in TSS depending on your mood, number of traffic lights etc - lots of reds and it becomes an interval training session, lots of greens and you're trying to hold 400 watts for the length of Brixton and then Kennington road.

Compare that to pootling in because you thought it would rain so wore a jacket, which turned out to be a handy effort-brake as any sort of speed would see you China with extreme rapidity.

I'm literally commuting 5km so its variations are negliable. As is the contribution to my CTL. A longer commute would impact CTL and thus impact the effect of Your weekend rides.

My issue at the moment is tracking swimming. My techique is all over the Place. Sometimes I'm crazy fast while pushing what I'd Call low sweetspot/tempo effort. Sometimes I try to smash it but technique suffers so I have to work twice as hard for very little pace improvement. As sTSS is based in pace. This fecks things up quite a lot.Should buy a swim HRM from garmin. But that means more Garmin Products in my life.

The differences aren't that big unless commuting makes up most of your weekly volume and if that's the case then you're not actually training and don't really need a power meter :P.

It's also quite easy to adjust an estimate if it's a fast commute vs. a slow commute. But, by all means add more powermeters to your bikes, it makes them cheaper for me in the long term.

do you need hrm data in addition to power for golden cheetah to do TSS or Bikescore?

TSS is calculated from power. You can estimate it from HR data but it's primarily a power metric.

i can only get tss from one of my six rides when i have used the power meter, am not sure what golden cheetah is doing

You need to hook up the smoker PID for accurate calories data and HR.

I don't use GC. Are you sure the other five rides have power data in the files? Have you set up your user data with stuff like FTP? Is it possible the five empty ones haven't had their values set properly - maybe it can be configured per file? Try viewing them in WKO/TrainingPeaks or one of the other power apps - maybe Powertap's app? I can look at one in WKO and let you know if there's data in it? Or maybe Garmin Connect or Strava will show it?

If the metric you want (e.g. TSS) is not shown then you will need to add it via the GoldenCheetah preferences pane. On Mac this is from the menu option GoldenCheetah->Preferences whilst on Windows and Linux it is under Tools->Options.

You will need to select 'Data Fields' option from preferences toolbar and then the 'fields' tab. You will see a list of fields that are associated with a particular screen tab. If you scroll down you should find entries for the 'Metrics' screen tab, you can insert a new entry here with the '+' button. You should make sure the new entry is called exactly the same thing as the metric in question.

For 'TSS' this is relatively straight forward. For others, e.g. 'Average Heart Rate' you must make sure that the name includes spaces etc. Once your metric has been added to the configuration you should save that and return to the details screen where you can now maintain it.

If you are creating a manual entry then there is no 'details' tab in the dialog. Once you have created the entry (and again in this case TSS can be entered in the dialog) you should go to the details tab to maintain any other specific fields. The manual entry dialog is designed to be simple and accept only the most common of entries.

https://github.com/GoldenCheetah/GoldenCheetah/wiki/FAQ-METRICS

The differences aren't that big unless commuting makes up most of your weekly volume and if that's the case then you're not actually training and don't really need a power meter :P.

It's also quite easy to adjust an estimate if it's a fast commute vs. a slow commute. But, by all means add more powermeters to your bikes, it makes them cheaper for me in the long term.

It's been years since I trained properly (or even improperly) but I find the data interesting, and if I ever find the time to start training again I'll have a large volume of data to go from - that may be largely or totally irrelevant, but hey, I'll have it just in case.

I basically restart every year anyway. So historical data is only useful for me if it's race data.

I haven't raced for a couple of years, I do do a few events each year and its interesting to compare how I perform in those vs general "load", and the historical performances, but this is all purely for the sake of curiosity - I don't derive any benefit from having this data.

The only area in which a PM genuinely helps me is pacing - especially as I'm so down on training vs where I used to be, having a "hold your horses tiger!" warning when climbing into the Rockies is very useful.

Try riding it with the screen taped over. You still get the data but you pay more attention to the sensations of riding.

After TCR I'm tempted to ditch the PM on my ultra bike. It's extra weight, complexity, cost and I just don't use it during the race. Afterwards it may be nice to examine the results and adjust training but training for this kind of thing is just stupid and I'm not sure the data for me is useful.

Half the time I wear a Fenix 3 (rather than have a Garmin on the bars) that records the data quite nicely, but also doesn't get in the way of riding my bike.

I think the data is useful after to analysis and work from.

It's also interesting to laugh at how little power you can make.

I made loads... I just needed some frenzied dogs running after me.

I wear an hr strap on my commutes. In the absence of a powermeter, TP will automatically calculate a TSS score for the ride based on hr data (hrTSS). I can't remember the exact formula but I think TP's hrTSS score is based on TRIMP score. GC doesn't do this automatically, but it can show TRIMP(100) scores which are based on hr and have the same scale as TSS/TriScore. To get commutes to show up on the Pic I manually enter the TRIMP score into the empty TriScore/TSS box.

I wish you could automate the process of estimating TSS/TriScore using the best available data in GC but I haven't worked out how yet.

I'll try find some bring them along to you 10 mile TT.

My powermeter just encourages the twat in me.

On a 21km Climb on Saturday I rode bastard hard for 20 mins, then cracked and suffered horribly for 80mins. Adding 13mins to the time I set only 1 1/2 months ago.

When my bud had a og at me. Asking why the fuck I have a powermeter if I dont pace myself by it. I had to be honest and say it was the lovely numbers for the first 20mins that made me go off hot.

Fun though.

....in a sick twisted way.

If all 6 rides contain power data then check that your ftp is set correctly. GC allows you to set the start date for your ftp, so if you set your ftp today then historical rides will not show a TSS score as there will be no ftp data for the corresponding time period. you can set the "from" date in the user preferences window where you entered your ftp.

SwimScore, BikeScore and RunScore are all the same thing and are all Gc's own version of TSS. The only differences between them are that they use the appropriate estimate of threshold for that sport (ftp for BikeScore, threshold pace for run and swim). TriScore simply takes the Swim/Bike/RunScore for each workout so that all sports have a common metric. If a run has a RunScore of 50 then the TriScore is 50 and if a ride has a BikeScore of 110 then the TriScore is 110.

As I said above, TP automatically uses the best available metric to calculate TSS so it automatically estimates a runTSS and swimTSS for triathletes, and these numbers automatically filter through into TP's PMC chart. GC use the stricter calculation of TSS that requires power data. This means that TSS and the TSS based Coggan PMC chart in golden cheetah are only useful for pure cyclists using a powermeter. If you want to use data from multiple sports in gc then you need to use TriScore.

Last year I spent a few months manually entering all of TP's Swim/Bike/run metrics into GC and found that although TSS/TriScore occasionally differed slightly from one workout to another the differences were tiny and the Coggan PMC chart mapped perfectly with the TriScore PMC chart.

I thought tss was calculated from power values, it was just the only ride where GC gave it a value was the one when I wore an HRM. Will have to have another tinker with GC when I get home tonight.

That shouldn't be the case. If there is power data there should be a TSS. Are you sure you are looking at the right metric? Has it read in the power data? Check that tab that has the raw data and see if there is a power column

I'll tell you what i find annoying/pleasing about training with a PM (you can argue that after only 3 rides i am hardly (yet) 'training with power' ).....

My commute is 25 miles each way, and i ride steady on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays to build up the TSS, and use weekends to put the structure in (it also means i spend more time with my daughter/family whilst i get early training in on the turbo).
My commute with power (just purchased a quarq)this morning at zone 3 left me arriving at work feeling fresh at only 5 and half minutes slower than my quickest commute time, which is an absolute smash-fest that leaves me feeling shite.

Its quite clear that previous 'quick' commutes must see me all out on hills etc, but crawling along in recovery mode in other sections...... I've never really paid attention to anything but time.

Knowing when to put in the effort is all part of the game.