toolonglegs wrote:Ok I honestly can't rember difference between Av & Norm.... but that looks like a damn good effort for the RR.
Silly question..but if you saw that your av power for a RR was higher than your ftp would you readjust your ftp to that?...or is that very unlikely (you could go on a 20 minute attack I suppose).Reason i ask is because I suppose a big part of setting your ftp is too make sure you are motivated enough in the first place...and nothing is more motivating than commiting to an attack!.
Average Power is pretty straightforward.
Normalised power is just a clever way to account for the fact that the strain we experience is not linear with intensity (power). Hence variable effort rides, while they might have lower average power than a steady paced ride, can be just as, if not more taxing (e.g. a crit might have quite a low average power compared to a TT but a rider will often say that it was really bloody hard). Normalised Power accounts for that non-linearity.
If you have a 1-hour
Average Power > FTP, then FTP is set too low since by definition FTP is best 1-hour average power (normally from a quasi steady state effort though).
If you have
Normalised Power from a hard 1-hour ride > FTP, then it's a sign FTP
might be too low but not necessarily. If 1-hour NP is <=105% of FTP, then not much in it but if 1 hour NP > 105% of FTP then that's a pretty good sign FTP needs retesting.
My FTP was previous set/estimated at 275 watts.
Looking at the numbers from my races:
My 39 min TT had a normalised power of 276 watts, so that's about right. Remember that in a TT position you can sacrifice a little power and I've had very little chance to ride that bike.
In the 2+hr road race my highest 1-hour NP was 286 watts, which is 104% of my estimated FTP, so still within the bounds of a 275W FTP.
My prior experience has been that NP from hard 1-hour races was often a little over my FTP.