Setting my CP and W’ - historical and moving forward. v3.3

[James Bell]

I know that this question has been answered several times, but for the life of me, I still seem to be having a mental hurdle on how best to approach what I need to do.  It is probably because I have been learning more and more about what I am looking at but still not feeling comfortable with it all.  My goal is to be less reliant on what the FTP “tests” are telling me and more reliant on what GC is telling me.

I performed the 8 min FTP test on trainer road for an FTP of 200.  Fine, not my best work, but I was a slacker for the last 6 months.  I essentially am ok with that since it is just setting the zones on TrainerRoad.

Here is where I start to get confused.  My CP model for the last 3 months shows a CP of 164W with a W’ of 26.5 kJ.  However if I set my CP to those numbers, almost all of my rides show either **Minimum CP of X** or **Check W’ is set correctly**.   The numbers from the minimum CP rides range from 179 to 198.

I don’t know if the CP model is low since I have very few 20 min + MMP efforts.  I live in a hilly region so we may get 10 minutes of climbing and 10 minutes of decent and repeat.  So I know I need to do a solid 20 min MMP effort.  That being said, should I just ignore my CP chart (until I properly test a 20 min MMP) and go with what the suggestions from the ride stress data?

The second part of the conundrum is determining how to set my historical CP so that I am getting accurate feedback on my PMC chart.  While I am using the Coggan ATL/LTS/TSB I just see them as relative numbers and I don’t care if they exactly match my FTP/TSS.  Should I just set a CP for the beginning of the month and then look at all of the rides for that month until I see my W’ Balance going negative and readjust?  I would also assume that I should leave my W’ number relatively untouched?

[James Bell]

So I performed a 20 minute test last night.  Average Wattage was 210.  This brought the CP model numbers up, verifying that it was indeed the fact that I had not performed any solid 20 MMP efforts.  

The extended model shows a CP of 194 with a W' of 18.8 kJ.  The 2 parameter model shows a CP of 195 with a W' of 17.7 kJ.  Since I don't think I could have gone another minute at the same effort, I plugged the new numbers from the 2 parameter model into my athlete info and adjusted the W' until at the end of the 20 minutes so that my W'bal was as close to zero as I could get.  The end result was a CP of 195 and a W' of 20150 J.

I would still love some help getting my historical CP accurate for my PMC feedback.

[Mark Liversedge]

On Friday, 17 June 2016 15:53:42 UTC+1, James Bell wrote:

I would still love some help getting my historical CP accurate for my PMC feedback.

The CP History tab in trends view will show how CP/W' have varied over time based upon the rides/performances you did. That would be a good place to start.

Mark 

[James Bell]

Thanks Mark. Not only for responding to my question but also for all the work you and the others do on this software.  You all transforming the way I approach my cycling in a very positive way.

Did my described methodology above  seem rational?  The confusion for me is which dial to adjust (either CP or W').  As I am learning I am not sure where the reasonable range for W' values lies...do I have more power with fewer reserves or less power with a huge reserve?  Since I didn't have a good 20 MMP prior to last night, the values shown on the CP History tab tend to be rather low and I would have to have a ridiculously high W' (50+ kJ) to not have W'bal go into the negative. Thus, I tend to say to myself (correctly or incorrectly) if my W' is above 25 kJ or below 18 kJ, I should probably raise/lower my CP and reassess. I tend to think of 20 kJ as the baseline and much deviation from that means that your CP is off. 

If I am on the right track let me know.

Is there even something like a conceptual range for the low and high ends for W'? 

[Mark Liversedge]

On Friday, 17 June 2016 20:00:48 UTC+1, James Bell wrote:

If I am on the right track let me know.

Is there even something like a conceptual range for the low and high ends for W'? 

Doing tests to see how you are progressing is the best approach, using a method you are happy you can repeat.

There are some posts here from Nathan Townsend that are full of great advice.

Don't get too hung up on nailing W', I find its most powerful when planning and reviewing interval sessions: did I recover enough before that interval? could I have gone deeper? etc...

Mark

[James Bell]

On Friday, June 17, 2016 at 2:38:20 PM UTC-5, Mark Liversedge wrote:

There are some posts here from Nathan Townsend that are full of great advice.

Don't get too hung up on nailing W', I find its most powerful when planning and reviewing interval sessions: did I recover enough before that interval? could I have gone deeper? etc...

Mark

Yes, I have been reading many of the posts by Nathan, Mark (excited about the Veloclinic Plot) and yourself...I may have a bit of paralysis by analysis but at the same time I want to make that I am not lying to myself by incorrectly skewing the data.  I feel good about how to move forward and now it's just trying get myself to a reasonable satisfaction with the old data and call it a day.  If you can't tell, I don't generally have the "good enough" type of persona.  I'll get there...maybe before v4 throws me for a loop!

Thanks for all your time!