Beginner Power-Based Training, Day 3:HR & RPE Relativity on the Trainer

I was about to do my first outdoor ride with power but after I put my contact lenses on, I checked the sky and it had some darker spots than what I had seen a little earlier. Even with a little blue sky poking out, I retreated and went back onto the trainer.

I did a two hour ride with no intervals...just some efforts into my endurance zone and on the border of tempo. I'm getting an idea that my FTP could fall in the 240's? Which would be a little over 4 w/kg. That's a rough guess so it's useless plus it's on the trainer. But it doesn't hurt to play the guessing game to see how far off I am!

In addition I'm also seeing some relative power numbers with HR even without knowing my FTP. I mostly get this from practicing pacing, holding a range of wattage for 5 or 10 minutes. For instance, I told myself to hold 180w for some time, I think around 10 min. Then went up to 200w. Those two wattages were definitely aerobic endurance intensity. My HR was at 146bpm which is still Z1 but probably because I was on a trainer.

Overall, on my 3rd day of seeing power numbers without testing FTP yet, I've been able to get a basic glimpse of the relativity with HR in terms of my Aerobic Endurance intensity, and I've also practiced wattage-based pacing to learn how accurate my RPE is. So far, it's pretty close but most of the times that it's wrong, my RPE stays the same but wattage drops about 30w or more.

I'm referring to Low-Z2 intensity, by the way.

Trying to do my first outdoor ride with power, tomorrow.

-- DB