FTP test - indoors

cruff

Just started to take my training 'seriously', having invested in a power meter a couple of months ago and putting it to use both indoors and outdoors. It's certainly made a difference to my turbo workouts - they used to be boring heart-rate based sessions staring at telly/films/the wall (if I was feeling particularly masochistic) - coupled with Zwift and fiddling about with some workout plans, I'm enthused about winter training for the first time ever.

I'm sorely lacking in a fan at the moment - having the windows open in my flat is no substitute! - and have read a lot of posts online and stuff from people using TrainingPeaks etc that say not having a fan is detrimental to your power, and thus any FTP test you do indoors without one will result in a lower wattage than you would otherwise get. The science behind it is sound (the warmer you get, the more you overheat, ergo the less power you can maintain over extended periods) but does anyone have any definitive measure for how much effect this has?

I've also noticed a pretty big jump in my FTP the two weeks I've been following a more structured approach - 20 watts (3.2w/kg), with no weight loss - but that might be a combination of returning to something like fitness after a long knee problem, and feeling like sh1te the first time I tested

Alex_Simmons/RST

When I changed from using a powerful domestic fan to a high power industrial fan, I added ~20W (~7-8%) to my turbo threshold power.

YMMV

cruff

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19757305#p19757305]Alex_Simmons/RST[/url] wrote:

When I changed from using a powerful domestic fan to a high power industrial fan, I added ~20W (~7-8%) to my turbo threshold power.

YMMV

Yikes. I'm not using any fan at all at the moment. Guess I should look at investing in one, or I may be cutting myself short.

markhewitt1978

I'm surprised if you can do any more than about 10 minutes without a fan! I've got two of them blowing on me and even then after about an hour the heat starts to get to me. It's like riding in the middle of a hot summers day in Mallorca - except without every single good part.

supermurph09

It's pretty remarkable how much difference a (good) fan makes. You can pick some decent ones up for about £25-£30 from places like maplins. If you are serious about training indoors then you simply can't do without one.