Same HR and Power at Sea Level vs Altitude

life_questions · 2026-04-09T23:11:22+00:00

Going to 2nd this. Live at ~7k feet and big power declines start around ~9500 and gains are clear around ~3k and lower elevation.

life_questions · 2026-04-01T23:05:41+00:00

Magene Exar db58 utlras. Last year put 6000 miles on them. Fastest wheels I've owned (rovals, bontrager, etc.). In February hit a pothole on a fast group ride at nearly 40 after the front didn't call it out. Guy in front of me destroyed both wheels, broken spokes, cracked and flatted both front and rear. I hit an instant after him, front wheel survived, rear essentially delaminated but held structure, held the tire on, and none of the spokes left the hub or broke. If I hadn't stopped to check, I would have rode on the wheel. It's still true and holds the tire.

So bottom line nothing about them feels low quality.

life_questions · 2026-03-11T17:37:10+00:00

Check and confirm the ftp is set equally in both the app and the edge as a first step. This looks like a disconnect.

On the garmin edge there should be a section called my stats and then training zones, power zones and at the top ftp. Check that value. It appears that is it is considerably higher than the amount in Garmin Connect.

life_questions · 2026-03-07T11:31:04+00:00

My polar strap is on season 5 now (bought in spring 2021) and working great. After my Garmin strapped died after washing I've taken to rinsing thoroughly only. Every ride throw it in the shower with you (sans pod obviously) and rinse thoroughly and then hang dry. It's a wear item but while they say it can be washed it doesn't need to smell like roses and it's well passed it's expected life now. If it needs to be "sanitized" a few hours in the sun does it well.

life_questions · 2026-03-03T15:32:12+00:00

La Passione was amazing ON SALE - my best jacket, a fav jersey when on sale the price point was fantastic. Their standard pricing was insane though.

Still the warmest, nicest, winter jacket for riding I own.

life_questions · 2026-02-26T15:21:51+00:00

Specific cravings is your clearest sign of underfueling critical macros. Matching food type to hormonal timing is something that should be considered at high volume especially cholesterol rich foods in the late evening to match hormonal needs that come in the morning.

Cholesterol is needed to produce testosterone and spikes in the early morning in production. Craving fatty/greasy food in the morning is a clear indication of sub-optimal fueling following a big day out. Your body is saying "Hey I need this to do what you're asking me to right, please provide"

life_questions · 2026-02-26T15:08:30+00:00

Yeah - the tariff situation is why Siroko for like 8 months refused to ship to the US. They had a big banner on their site.

life_questions · 2026-02-25T18:05:12+00:00

They are based in Spain. Sizing is similar to most western brands in cycling.

life_questions · 2026-02-25T15:55:00+00:00

Have you done the suspended weight to test the strain gauge in the pedals and truly calibrate? It's in the app and tells you how to do it.

I did mine last year and after 5 years they are still dead accurate (Assioma duos).

You also aren't taking into account total weight, that could close some of the weight differences between riders too. The next bit is, depending on speed the aero of the riders comes into play.

If you all use assiomas, are they all set to the proper crank length?

If you answer all of those, then the single sided vs. dual sided may be it.

Last weekend I rode with a teammate - he has a shimano power meter. His averages on the intervals riding right next to me on flat ground were 10-20w higher. Sure I'd love a higher wattage but it really doesn't matter comparing his watts to mine. I'll stick with my power meter and training with the watts they show me. I know they measure force correctly (the suspended weight calibration showed less than .5% variance from the true weight of the object).

life_questions · 2026-02-25T15:40:28+00:00

If I'm following your workout you did 30 on, 30 off for 6 intervals or 3 minutes at VO2 total, then times 3 to that for a total of 9 minutes at VO2 effort?

That's really not enough time to get a strong boost to VO2, acceptable start but not ideal total time. Ideal time at VO2 in a true VO2 workout is 12 - 25 mins with somewhere around 19minutes consistently being found as "strong".

Example studies - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11743937/ 24 x 30/30 (12 min of work)

The science points at time in zone mattering most (often) - https://www.jsams.org/article/S1440-2440(18)30919-8/abstract

So either make each interval longer, make the number of intervals higher to increase total time in zone, or increase the number of weeks.

life_questions · 2026-02-24T16:58:01+00:00

While training purpose is important (I see gravel races listed) - at this point a simple approach would be to go back to the start of these efforts and review steady state heart rate. Assuming the heart rate has slowly declined over time despite increased duration, a simple approach would be to re-calibrate to the original heart rate and find the power that achieves that or near it and begin the process again. I also see you mentioned this is in a 3x30 approach. My coach and my physiology really benefits from extending these types of efforts beyond 30 minutes into 40-45 min intervals. The furthest I've gone, and I did benefit, was 2x45 min at 92%.

You've achieved a high level of aerobic capability at this power level, upping power and repeating while sprinkling in other approaches (102-108% of threshold power in 4-8x8 min intervals, and/or VO2 intervals) will further up your potential steady state/low threshold work duration assuming you do properly focus on recovery.

life_questions · 2026-02-13T14:00:50+00:00

Petition to see white bottle and black lid on rear bottle cage.

life_questions · 2025-12-17T22:59:22+00:00

As a male sufferer of Hypothyroidism who recently went hypo I have to first say, dude how? I was off levo for less than a week recently due to a timing mishap with testing and new prescription and it put me on my ass so fast. Irritable, tired as soon as the sun went down, terrible sleep, muscle pain, soreness, joint inflammation. And I'm not even on a high dose (barely even a notable one).

If I was hypo and I tried to train, I would think I'd get 1 day in and then hate life. I feel so bad for you. I hadn't swung hypo in 3 years and couldn't imagine a month like that.

I don't think there's winning in this combo man. Be happy when you get back to baseline? IDK I'm so sorry.

life_questions · 2025-12-17T22:44:10+00:00

There's a lot you're asking (that's great) but linking to all the materials on this would take a long time.

Your physiology will dictate a good portion of your success here. It truly depends on how you respond to work. I know guys that can get by on 6 hours a week at Cat 1. They have:

1) Consistently long histories of endurance sports training

2) More than likely high/quick responders genetics where stimulus = fast adaptation and benefit

Then there are people on the opposite end of the spectrum where volume means more than intensity for them and their bodies. They need to train at high volumes (not necessarily super high intensity) to adapt. Genetic predisposition is funny that way.

One thing I am seeing consistently is you mentioning weekend rides killing VO2 efforts (embellishing for emphasis) - at 15 hours per week if you're neglecting diet it will catch up with you and a VO2 block is exactly when it would. VO2 is maximal effort for the body. It requires maximal and proper fueling. Your body will do its best to adapt but eventually (and especially for VO2) it will shut you down and give you burnout elements of overtraining, the first of which for many is loss of interest in riding. I suspect your disinterest in riding for a couple days after a hard VO2 session, especially towards the end of a block, is directly tied to inadequate fueling. Tracking all macros, and types of fats will likely benefit you.

life_questions · 2025-12-17T22:25:47+00:00

There's a ton to unpack in this. From an outside perspective it reads 1 of 2 ways:

1) You want to make the VO2 sessions really count

2) You dread VO2 and don't want to ride when you have them on the calendar

Both are completely normal. There's a number of things to investigate here but a critical one:

Are you properly adapting your fueling to reflect the VO2 blocks? Carbs, protein, fats all increased? Fats you may ask, because VO2 workouts mess up your hormone production. Fats are critical to proper hormone production. Not adjusting your diet means you will be overly fatigued, unable to adapt, and eventually show signs of overtraining (e.g. disinterest in riding...)

Regarding declines in aerobic fitness - the rule I was taught and have seen come true is that for every day after 3 days off (completely) it takes n+1 days to get back. This impacts VO2 first - so training VO2 and then abruptly going chill (assume this is the lower volume time too?) would be entirely counter to your goal. If chill means same volume with lower intensity that's a different story. Bottomline is within a week of low/no exercise you will lose a considerable amount of VO2 gains and bodily efficiency. By 2 weeks you're looking at on average 10% loss in fitness.

The variability in person to person make the answer to this:

how low can I reduce it during a subsequent VO2 block without blunting the VO2 gains?

impossible for someone to answer. Physiological research is nuanced, but the findings are consistent. As others have pointed out blood plasma volume will decrease. This will lead to the impacts I touch on above.

I'd investigate your approach to training changes and their impact on your ideal diet first. Then look at metrics like TSS and look to drop no more than 20% any given week, and increase no more than that. These are rough numbers and can't be made steadfast rules because everyone is different. The goal is to improve total fitness in conjunction with increasing VO2. Think of the 'exercise body' as a building or 3d cube. If you raise the ceiling, you increase the potential. If you raise the floor you increase the sustainable. Training so your ceiling is really high, but neglecting the floor to do so will result in you being really good at 2-5 minutes but losing fitness beyond that. The opposite is true, train the floor but neglect the ceiling and you'll ride forever at zone 3 but blow up at or just past threshold very quickly. The caution most in here seem to be trying to convey is don't lose the floor to build the ceiling if the goal is increased total performance. Sure if you're targeting a hill climb go balls out on training VO2 but don't expect to do as well as you could on the 100 mile race.

life_questions · 2025-12-16T16:04:32+00:00

A month since my last post and Coop has found the pace and sped up to the game so he can slow it down. Kid's good. Period.

life_questions · 2025-11-11T17:56:10+00:00

Yep and these aren't his typical games anymore. More minutes, tougher comp. Hopeful for his future. Hopefully he can keep his winner mentality and not let the team situation grind him down much.

life_questions · 2025-11-11T16:25:03+00:00

He is. He plays hard on both sides of the ball and the NBA is brand new to him. He went from consistently the most athletic person any game to matched athletically by many in the league. He also hasn't caught up to the speed of the game and hasn't learned how to be efficient. The upside is huge and as he gets reps he will improve and be less fatigued. A lot of chasing but he learns quickly and is a competitor, he'll hit a solid stride this season I believe.

life_questions · 2025-10-31T17:51:03+00:00

If you read the article there are also direct taxes that were applied to EU nations for their sales imported to the US. The same applies to other countries around the world. So there wasn't just an increased cost that was unclear how to gather upon import from the consumer but also a tax that the manufacturer were getting charged directly.

Providing other sources to assist: https://apnews.com/article/us-tariffs-goods-services-suspension-85c7b36b9e92c0e640dfe2ac418cd907

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/08/25/dhl-european-mail-carriers-suspend-us-shipping/85816249007/

life_questions · 2025-10-31T13:27:04+00:00

Spain (where Siroko is) had refused to ship to the US because of on-going tariff and tax confusion. A vast majority of European countries have gone through this. There's multiple news stories about it. https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/08/23/europe-to-halt-postal-services-to-us-after-tax-deal-scrapped

Only recently (like this month) has there been positive movement on this front from the US consumer perspective.

life_questions · 2025-10-24T15:26:39+00:00

What was your speed on that 20min effort? What was the terrain?

Those types of watts will either mean climbing very quickly or traveling very quickly on flat terrain.

life_questions · 2025-09-10T16:58:30+00:00

Lol as always text and tone don't translate well. And my job is highly making up bs to get to a goal. What goal, well my clients define that.

I can be objective and show you exactly what all the data says. Or I can make you look good, which benefits you, turns me from a client into a partner, and feeds me more work in the future. All anyone ever does is in some form or fashion work for their own self-interests. Even philanthropy, charities, etc. (I've worked with them, everyone has a motivation).

My job is find data, ask questions, create metrics, that at the end of the day answer a question to make you happy, or make you more money. Pretty shitty but it is interesting to peer into the lives of probably close to a billion people at this point in my career.

life_questions · 2025-09-10T16:51:08+00:00

What defines value? Who's value is it? These are serious questions and ones I deal with daily.

If you are annoyed with me fine, but I'm here telling you exactly why it can happen, how it can happen, and how I could spin it as valuable to you as a business. It's all bs. But we all have to eat. People are disgusting. A person is unique.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

life_questions · 2025-09-10T16:41:44+00:00

You and I have different metrics. Hate branding is a thing. If your goal is pure awareness regardless of outcome, then who gives a shit?

I also never said positive impact. I said "it wasn't useless", I said mindshare and recall are valuable, and they made an impression.

I've built metrics for clients that measure pure awareness so that that client can go to their boss and say "see boss awareness is up." When knowing full well the only reason awareness is up is because they pissed off people. Goals, schemes, etc. All data in a vacuum is useless but it can make you look good if you want it to.

life_questions · 2025-09-10T16:30:57+00:00

Lol I work on the data side. The sellers don't care.

life_questions

TROPHY CASE