New to power training and putting together winter/spring training and planning to be pretty attentive to CTL, but have one issue. I am training to race MTB and keep at least one day for MTB specific training (no Power Tap). Does anyone have a rough estimate of TSS ( or any way of determining) per hour? I realize effort is the key so lets say pretty solid effort which if I had to guess in an effort to convert to road watts ( and this is a very rough estimate ) I would say around 200 - 220 watts for endurance pace and I will be putting in some harder efforts which might eguate to 300 for 20 min intervals. I also realize that the effort will be much more up and down then on the road and will effect other numbers.
It depends on the terrain you train on and the length and intensity of the ride... Most of my MTB rides with a PowerTap are much easier as measured by TSS and AP and NP versus any road ride, however the perceived exertion is much higher.
When I first got cyclingpeaks, I'd play 'guess the IF' before every download. PE being pretty reliable and all, I was (and still am) usually within a couple hundredths.
Here's how I do it: For typical mtb racing and race pace rides I figure low end of L4 for power (91% ftp). For fast training rides I figure low end of L3 (76% ftp). For easy mtb rides like with a group of slower riders with lots of short breaks and easy spinning I use low end of L2 for power (56% ftp). For something really intense like a 30 minute short track race use 100% of FTP. So TSS would work out like this: Short track race: 100 TSS/hour mtb race: 83 TSS/hour solo training ride, endurance pace: 58 TSS/hour Group ride with slower riders and lots of stops: 32 TSS/hour
It depends on the terrain you train on and the length and intensity of the ride... Most of my MTB rides with a PowerTap are much easier as measured by TSS and AP and NP versus any road ride, however the perceived exertion is much higher.
Woofer - interesting statement and something I was wondering about. I limit my MTB training as I never seem to get the conditioning benifit when I do 2/3 days on MTB bike even though my technical skills improve.
Others - thanks for good feedback, it is the intensity factor issue that I struggle with as the percieved effort is higher. Anyone have thoughts on NP effect?
