Finished Downward Spiral without too much trouble. I think things are going well for me. I’ve only been back on the bike for 3 1/2 years after 20 off. I’m not very strong, but I’m working on it!
I’m happy with my suffering capacity and stubbornness. The strength is just sooo slow to get back. I will prevail, however!!!
I hope everyone else is having a good Tour as well!
Awesome. Glad it’s going well. I do DS tomorrow.
Doesn’t matter if you’re strong: it’s all about putting yourself out there and suffering. If you’ve got that down, you’re strong where it counts and the rest will come when it does.
Doing the Get Me Through It level again this year. I noticed that The Model has a reduced FTP but MAP is at 100%. I wonder if this is correct?
If you finish and can stand then yes, it is correct. Good luck. 
I noticed that as well even though my plan is to do that ride 100%.
The focused option has it at 100.
My rider type is Pursuiter, I remember reading somewhere that the reductions are partially based on rider type.
I’m planning on doing Focussed, but I could imagine that reducing FTP will make the recovery sections feel more like recovery–especially early on. That will probably make a big difference in how the workout feels. At least from the profile, the brutality of Model is in the fact that the recovery intervals start out so close to threshhold.
I will find out in a few hours, my plan is to do it 100%.
Downward Spiral: DONE. When I get over my cold (and don’t have The Model the day after), I’ll try it at 100% (I did Focussed with MAP at 90%).
After experiencing the wrong kind of suffering knee pain at the end of Stage two, I made some adjustments to cleat position (I have new cleats) and saddle fore/aft. Made a huge difference. No knee issues, although I’ll need to do another grinder to really know if I’ve solved the problem.
Also, I tried out my new Garmin Rally pedals to compare SYSTM power to pedal power. As expected, pedal power is about 10% higher. I was hoping to learn more about my pedal stroke with Garmin’s Cycling Dynamics data, but I connected the pedals to my headunit the wrong way (BTE instead of Ant+) so didn’t get the data. I’ll get that tomorrow.
I tried single-sided Rally pedals back in early December, and the readings were surprisingly close to the KICKR - within 2%.
Hmm. I have the double sided. I wonder why mine are 10% higher and yours are about even. Maybe I need to clean my drivetrain again. I’d expect some power loss through the drivetrain and 10% didn’t shock me, but the variation is odd.
Well, hopefully my left leg is not 20% weaker (or stronger!) than my right one!
I did try to pedal very evenly during my test. The single-sided was the SPD shoe model, and is destined for my gravel bike. I’m still waiting for the dual-sided SPD-SL version destined for my road bike (ordered back in March, but distribution woes are impacting this - first world problems…)
Rob
Hadn’t thought of that. After I set up my pedals right tomorrow, I’ll share my left/right balance. It seems plausible that some of difference could be due to your left leg being weaker, but I have no idea. I also don’t know what the normal range of left/right balance is.
A 1 to 5% difference (i.e. up to 45%/55%) is considered relatively normal. But it’s something that can be worked on.
Rob
Let us know how it goes. I have Garmin dual Rally XC200 pedals on one of my bicycles. I would be interested to see how the pedals compare to SYSTM power. I have never used the Garmin Cycling Dynamics.
Curious how people have been getting along with the Garmin Rally’s and SYSTM. I also have the Rally XC200’s. Mine were definitely reading high in SYSTM and I couldn’t find an option to calibrate them within the SYSTM software.
I ended up loading up TrainerRoad and they have a calibrate option. I did this and then the watts felt accurate during a short ride in TR.
Anyone have any suggestions for calibration when using SYSTM?
you may want to create a new topic in the Equipment category Equipment - SYSTM Forum @Kuttermax. Putting your question in this old thread might not get you the traction you are looking for about your pedals.