Cycling without a power meter

Most amateurs have no power meter on their bike. It is expensive, and many people do their first season without one. The TriCoo plan works without it. Below is how bike sessions are set in that case, how their load is counted and how to find your threshold.

What bike sessions look like in the plan#

Without a power meter you have no FTP, the threshold in watts. Then bike sessions go by feel, on a scale from 0 to 10. An easy ride is 2 or 3: you can chat comfortably. A tempo ride is 5: you can talk, but in short phrases.

There will be no threshold intervals or intervals above threshold on the bike. They cannot be described precisely by feel, and a mistake here costs a lot. Instead TriCoo sets tempo work or gives the hard session to running or swimming if there is a threshold there. For an amateur that is fine: the core of training is easy work anyway.

Speed is no use for this. Wind, hills and road surface change it more than your effort does.

How the load of a ride is counted#

Every session has a load score. TriCoo uses the best thing the recording has.

1. Power. There is none, so move on.
2. Heart rate and your own heart rate threshold on the bike, if you know it.
3. Heart rate and your heart rate threshold from running. On the bike the threshold heart rate is usually lower than in running, so TriCoo subtracts 7 beats. This estimate is only for counting load. It does not become your threshold and disappears as soon as you have your own bike threshold or power.
4. Your rating of effort. An hour's ride at 7 out of 10 gives about 100 points.

Heart rate needs a good recording. TriCoo counts load from heart rate if heart rate covers at least 80% of the ride. It does not count an interval session by heart rate: heart rate cannot keep up with short efforts and underrates them. Then your rating of effort helps. Add it after every ride, it takes a few seconds.

How to find your threshold without a power meter#

An FTP test does not work without a power meter. FTP is calculated from watts, and the recording has none. TriCoo does not yet know whether you have a power meter and may offer an FTP test. Decline it on the card. The offer may come back in four weeks, then decline it again. There is no point doing that test without watts: it will not count.

There are two ways.

A running test. 30 minutes of even running give you a heart rate threshold for running. TriCoo uses it to count the load of your rides, as described above. The steps are on the Threshold tests page.

Your own heart rate threshold on the bike. If you know it, enter it in settings, in the Thresholds section, on the bike heart rate threshold card. You can find it with the same ride as in the FTP test, the steps are on the Threshold tests page. Record it as a normal session, not as the test from the card: without watts the test will not count. Keep the main part even, on your own, on a trainer or a flat loop. The threshold is your average heart rate over the last 15 minutes of the main part. Do it in a normal week, not while ill and not during a taper. If you are unsure about the number, do not enter it: TriCoo will count load from your running threshold.

A chest strap is better. A wrist sensor on the bike is often wrong.

If you have a smart trainer#

A smart trainer measures power by itself. If the session recording contains watts, an FTP test on it will count, and your bike sessions will get targets in watts. Turn ERG mode off for the test, otherwise the trainer holds the watts for you.

More about how zones work is on the Training zones page. Why zones and load rest on the threshold is explained in the help article Thresholds and zones.