TSS 405.2 likely

doyler78

Today I did 5hr15mins very hilly leisure ride (no flat at all). There was a ~20 min break and then a mechanical (not me but had to wait) which took another ~7 mins during it. The TSS was 405.2 and the IF was 0.879. Does that look possible. Don't do rides beyond 3-4 hours usually and certainly not as slowly as this one but that TSS just looks very high to me but as I say I don't really do rides this long so don't know

Alex_Simmons/RST

Long breaks? Long enough to have a beer and a burrito?
Then split ride file and see what that does.

That's aside from ensuring threshold power setting is correct of course.

doyler78

The threshold was what I was wondering about. Hadn't seen anything to suggest it was off but that just seemed high.

I'll split ride and see what comes out.

doyler78

OK,

The first half was 2hr39 with TSS of 225.1 and an IF of 0.924 and the second half was 2hr37 with TSS of 177.2 and an IF of 0.824.

The first half I was on my own pretty quickly as the group I found myself was in was too fast and the ones that fell off the back of that one who I came back to were going too slow so I just pushed on on my own and the second half I was in a group that was more my pace (except for a few parts where I ended up on my own but more in than out in this one).

To be honest not sure what that tells me as its not like starting a new ride from fresh. Any views.

jibberjim

doyler78 wrote:

OK,

The first half was 2hr39 with TSS of 225.1 and an IF of 0.924 and the second half was 2hr37 with TSS of 177.2 and an IF of 0.824.

To be honest not sure what that tells me as its not like starting a new ride from fresh. Any views.

Alex was thinking there was likely a feature in the TSS calculation that inflates it when there's a long break, and splitting would reveal it. You didn't though as it's made very little difference in the score.

Personally, whilst I think it's suggestive of a low FTP it's not completely out of bounds and it may not really say anything about your FTP in other types of rides - your steady 60 minute FTP may well be lower than your group ride FTP.

doyler78

Ok get you. Yeah 3 points difference. I hadn't ever thought about that before. Not had much call to. I've only ever had one 400+ TSS and that was on a 6hr50min ride with an IF of 0.77 which included a mix of hard efforts and pretty leisurely parts so seemed reasonable to me but this just seemed high.

My 28 day power distribution has a big drop off in the range of 10-20 watts higher than I have set so definitely time to test again though not for a few days.

Alex_Simmons/RST

doyler78 wrote:

but this just seemed high.

My 28 day power distribution has a big drop off in the range of 10-20 watts higher than I have set so definitely time to test again though not for a few days.

Given you've eliminated the potential for recovery augmented TSS (RATSS) inflating TSS, I think 0.87 for 5+hrs is likely indicative of too low a setting for threshold. It isn't however a way to test/establish threshold power.

amaferanga

Out of interest, do you use Golden Cheetah and if so how does NP compare to xPower?

doyler78

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

doyler78 wrote:

but this just seemed high.

My 28 day power distribution has a big drop off in the range of 10-20 watts higher than I have set so definitely time to test again though not for a few days.

Given you've eliminated the potential for recovery augmented TSS (RATSS) inflating TSS, I think 0.87 for 5+hrs is likely indicative of too low a setting for threshold. It isn't however a way to test/establish threshold power.

Had to google that though I guess the name does really give it away

Yeah I'll be doing a proper test before I change anything and if it does confirm a change is needed then I'll backdate until just before this ride.

doyler78

amaferanga wrote:

Out of interest, do you use Golden Cheetah and if so how does NP compare to xPower?

I do play about with it but I'm not as familiar with xPower as much as I am with NP. It was definitely lower as I noticed that it was in the 300 range but can't remember exactly what. I'll check this evening.

amaferanga

doyler78 wrote:

amaferanga wrote:

Out of interest, do you use Golden Cheetah and if so how does NP compare to xPower?

I do play about with it but I'm not as familiar with xPower as much as I am with NP. It was definitely lower as I noticed that it was in the 300 range but can't remember exactly what. I'll check this evening.

The reason I ask is that for races where my power is highly variable I consistently see NP that is 10-20 Watts above FTP for 90min races, where as xPower is consistent with my FTP (typically 5-10 Watts below FTP). For regular riding though I find xPower is usually only a little lower than NP. Rightly or wrongly I don't take much notice of NP from races.