Originally Posted by
caloso
Hack:
For what it's worth, I find it's better to ride into a headwind if I'm doing a test (or just doing intervals generally). I just need something to push against, whether it's the wind or gravity. In a perfect world, I'd have a gentle steady 3% that took 20' to ride.
Also found this to be true.
FWIW, I did the Allen and Coggan 20' test protocol about 2 months ago on a trainer and averaged 223W on the 20' interval, for a calculated FTP of 212, and at 75kg, not so good. Fast forward to last weekend, I went on one of my first group rides of the season with some fast locals. One is a pro. 45 mile ride, hilly (3k elevation). After going pretty hard for the first 2/3s of the ride, I got dropped on the long run in home that was mostly uphill, nothing over 3%, and headwind, smooth pavement, no stop signs. Not only did I have the mild uphills and head wind, but I had another dropped rider ahead of me to chase. I decide to do a hard time trial and averaged 283 watts for 30 min back into town. I'm highly skeptical my threshold would truly climb that much after 2 months of base training minus 1.5 weeks with stomach flu, so now I'm leery of doing any testing on a trainer.