IIRC, you recently got a power meter? You figure out your power zones and all that stuff? Reason I say, is that I'll pay attention to the relation between my HR and my power. I'm kinda in tune with what my HR normally is for a given power number. If HR is either elevated or suppressed, that's an early sign that I may be overtraining. I used to just go by what my legs felt like, but they deceive me sometimes...I'll have days where my legs feel tired at first, but then warm up. Also have had the days that I thought I was going out to crush it, but the legs said "nope" on the first climb.

Strava actually does a pretty good job at tracking training metrics IMO. It's pretty bang on for estimating my FTP and fatigue...although for me, the fatigue is more accumulative rather than acute. I.E. I don't feel tired following one hard ride, but will start to tire out if I don't throw in a recovery week every once in awhile. The Garmin app is all over the board for me and not something I put much faith into. I'll go do a long zone 2 endurance ride, then it tells me that I need to do more low intensity and then it'll try to lower my FTP. I do like some of the sleep and heart rate variability metrics of my Garmin watch.

Yes this is week 2 with it. On my Saturday ride it unexpectedly dropped out and had to reset it. May be an issue with Ant+.

Very interesting observations on the differences between Strava and Garmin. Since the PM is new to me it will take some time to sort it against heart rate and how the legs feel. The temptation is to ride just below FTP for an hour on the flats to see if it is accurate, but also know that it will take too much out of me for the next day if I do. If I can cruise at 18 at 145 Watts that’s just fine. Just rambling.

I will take your advice to heart and make a matrix with ave HR, Zones, ave power, and how the legs felt against Strava, which I never paid much attention to before last week for recovery time. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out. Thanks for the insights, much appreciated.

36 miles, 5300' gain, and a Strava KOM by the skin of my teeth(1 second.)

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I rode 25 km with nice weather in Thailand.

26 quick miles with a piddley 500’ up. Manage my very first KOM (on a 1.5 mile segment I established and appear to be the only human on earth who rides it. Looks like I might hold onto it a while.). Took a quick break from the winds today.

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40 mies. Sunny but 29*f for most of the ride. Not many times that hapens here in late november

Whereabouts? I ride a lot at Rama IX Park, Nong Bon, and sometimes Skylane? Happy & Healthy Bike Lane.

34 miles in 34*F with 500’ up. (Two hills). Had to stop and warm the toes at a cafe where I slammed a coffee and scone to help. Averaged 191 Watts to keep warm-ish. 😀. Ave speed nearly 18. Tomorrow and all the rest of the week and weekend -> Rain. :mad: Back to ZWIFT since homey don’t play dat.

Maddie-Lion, post ride lap warmer:
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32 miles 24f at start and got up to 26f sunny and well sunny.
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Congrats to you and your teeth skin on the KOM! Well done!!

And you sir are hardcore award winner today.

I ride in Saimai, Klong Luang, sometime Skylane, Chon Buri bridge (Chalomkhawithi), and Bangsaen beach

26 miles while temps fluctuated from 19°F to 25°F.

So I took a few days off this week as my birthday is Friday and have plans to ride my age Friday as well. It was quite cool on Wednesday and I just could not mentally force myself outside yesterday as I was looking at my smart bike in 70F inside temps, so I got in 28 flat miles. Temps much more comfortable today, but I got a call my boss and there was a server that died and she wanted me to cover for her on a call as she had to take a family member to the hospital. So I did 62.7 fake flat miles inside while I listened to a bunch of people discuss what needed to be done that I, or my boss don't have any control over, and have no idea why we needed to be on this call.

62 miles indoors is impressive!

Was all set to do a FTP test, while my wife was away, so did a nice 20 min warm up and then started the test. Rode the first 20 mins of ‘warm-up’ included in the test. then got into the 9 minute mark of the test running a constant 300 Watts (I’m old and pathetic) when all of a sudden I heard a loud bang somewhere in the house. I called out to see if my wife was home, no response. Gasping for air I called two more times with no answer. Getting concerned, stopped the test and got off the bike and then she appeared. She said she dropped her phone and replied to me but I couldn’t hear her over the trainer. So I did a 45 minute zone 2-3 as consolation. 😪.

If you do manage to hold 300 watts, that's a respectable number for anyone, regardless of age. I know guys 1/2 your age that would kill for that number, so keep it up.

Another thing, trainer watts feel harder than road watts to me. The direct drive trainers are way better than the old wheel-on trainers in this regard, but it's still easier for me to crank out higher road watts.

Totally agree. My Kickr is making weird noises so it may be affecting the stats.

Thanks, I was quite happy with it, 22.2 mph and avg 195 watts for 2 hrs and 49 mins with one 30 second break to get a new bottle. I asked for my domestique to get me a new bottle, but she was on a business call and blew me off. I need to find better people to support me on these long rides inside, the one I have is lacking in dedication to the team leader.

Hilarious! . I understand George Hincapie is looking for a gig….

I've got a Garmin/Tacx trainer. As far as effort, it's mostly a mental thing with me. That being said, it has an annoying power dropout issue on Zwift. It's a fairly common issue with no good resolution...basically I'll be in a hard effort and it will suddenly lose most resistance, drops the power down to 150ish watts, and then suddenly come back after a few seconds. It's enough of an issue, that I think it may be worth a few watts on an FTP test. Mostly happens at around 90-95 rpm, which happens to be my preferred cadence.:bang:

Props to you for being able to spend that much time on the trainer. My upper limit is about 2 hours and even then, it's only because there's a blizzard or torrential downpour that's keeping me indoors.

I'll hit him up.

That would drive me nuckin’ futz. Maybe you will burn it out soon and get something else.

It got windy and warm today...but got in 61.4.