Alternating Hard and Easy Weeks
#26
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Your easy weeks appear to be nearly as hard as my hard weeks, and your hard weeks are way off my charts. Makes me wonder if I really should be building in recovery weeks at all.
#27
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Given the definition of IF = NP/FTP, wouldn't it imply that your FTP was artificially low? I tend to record an higher IF on rides that involve repeated hard efforts with periods of recovery (e.g. Zwift races) where my NP is often higher than my steady state FTP. But 4 hours at at an NP equal to my FTP is never going to happen. I very much doubt pros can do that either, although they would get a lot closer - maybe 0.9 ish.
Just looking at some pro data, Paris-Roubaix was won last year with an NP = 341W over nearly 6 hours. I would expect Van Baarle's FTP is well north of 400W, so that would be at an IF = 0.85 at best. With a shorter 4 hour effort, maybe he could hit 0.9?
Just looking at some pro data, Paris-Roubaix was won last year with an NP = 341W over nearly 6 hours. I would expect Van Baarle's FTP is well north of 400W, so that would be at an IF = 0.85 at best. With a shorter 4 hour effort, maybe he could hit 0.9?
So it's really the artificiality of NP. My average power was only 74% of FTP, best 20' power 97%, weighted average power 90%.
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In 2020 I did a 3:15 ride with an IF of 1.00. I got a lot of flack for that back then, retested my FTP a couple times, but nope, if anything my FTP was optimistic. I happen to have had an unusual high end ability. I could outsprint anyone in the group of stronger riders I was with. The route had a lot of short steepish hills. I was on the wheel of a stronger, younger rider, and I wouldn't let him get away. So whatever the mechanism, it's possible. One just has to have that talent and the training, in my case years of chasing stronger riders on long hilly rides. I had 10 PRs, all on familiar roads, just had one of those days.
So it's really the artificiality of NP. My average power was only 74% of FTP, best 20' power 97%, weighted average power 90%.
So it's really the artificiality of NP. My average power was only 74% of FTP, best 20' power 97%, weighted average power 90%.
#29
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[Edited to add] Ah, this seems to explain it: https://science4performance.com/tag/xpower/
Last edited by RChung; 05-20-23 at 04:08 PM.
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My feeble brain remembered, it was Dr. Philip Skiba. The attached paper is a bit complicated. Essentially the recovery of W' is curvilinear despite its expenditure being linear.
I was interested to understand an observation I had in my own performance and Dr. Skiba (on ST and Wattage, IIRC) did some posting that seemed to explain what I saw doing the TransAm bike race, where lots of short punchy hills would give a high IF seemingly too high. And then after the race, I could just smash hill and hill after hill for hours and get IF over 1 like carbonfibreboy did. So, I guess it comes down to how useful the math is to describing reality. I messed with TP, XERT, and GC a lot. Somehow, I just feel GC works best for me. Or, I could just be cheap.
https://journals.humankinetics.com/v...icle-p1561.xml
I was interested to understand an observation I had in my own performance and Dr. Skiba (on ST and Wattage, IIRC) did some posting that seemed to explain what I saw doing the TransAm bike race, where lots of short punchy hills would give a high IF seemingly too high. And then after the race, I could just smash hill and hill after hill for hours and get IF over 1 like carbonfibreboy did. So, I guess it comes down to how useful the math is to describing reality. I messed with TP, XERT, and GC a lot. Somehow, I just feel GC works best for me. Or, I could just be cheap.
https://journals.humankinetics.com/v...icle-p1561.xml
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#31
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Interesting. My IF can easily be 90 or a little above on an ill-advised 4-hr ride spent trying to keep up with stronger riders, and I bet it was in that range in races, based on how I used to feel. The FTP accuracy caveat always applies, but this never made sense to me.
#32
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My feeble brain remembered, it was Dr. Philip Skiba. The attached paper is a bit complicated. Essentially the recovery of W' is curvilinear despite its expenditure being linear.
I was interested to understand an observation I had in my own performance and Dr. Skiba (on ST and Wattage, IIRC) did some posting that seemed to explain what I saw doing the TransAm bike race, where lots of short punchy hills would give a high IF seemingly too high. And then after the race, I could just smash hill and hill after hill for hours and get IF over 1 like carbonfibreboy did. So, I guess it comes down to how useful the math is to describing reality. I messed with TP, XERT, and GC a lot. Somehow, I just feel GC works best for me. Or, I could just be cheap.
https://journals.humankinetics.com/v...icle-p1561.xml
I was interested to understand an observation I had in my own performance and Dr. Skiba (on ST and Wattage, IIRC) did some posting that seemed to explain what I saw doing the TransAm bike race, where lots of short punchy hills would give a high IF seemingly too high. And then after the race, I could just smash hill and hill after hill for hours and get IF over 1 like carbonfibreboy did. So, I guess it comes down to how useful the math is to describing reality. I messed with TP, XERT, and GC a lot. Somehow, I just feel GC works best for me. Or, I could just be cheap.
https://journals.humankinetics.com/v...icle-p1561.xml
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