Heat and FTP.

zaskar

Anyone here experience lower FTP in the outside heat? my FTP has been lower since May and this is when temps soared. over 100 everyday and in the 90s in the AM. i don't know what else to blame it on.

meandmybike

I was reading about Floyd's off day last week and apparently in very hot weather your body is using more blood to try to cool your body so there's less blood available to carry oxygen to your muscles.

Sounds logical.

RapDaddyo

My MP/duration curve is definitely affected by the air temp, especially from 1 hr and longer. I can't quantify it, but I know it is affected.

SolarEnergy

Same for me.

I experimented an interruption in improvement curve that lasted 3 weeks. It ended yesterday as a matter of fact.

Though I recognise being slightly affected by the heat during training, sleep disturbance during hot nights is probably the primary cause.

Spunout

1HR and longer, yes because of the cumulative effects of heat and dehydration.

If you do a 20 minute test your power output should not be that different.

RapDaddyo

Yes, that has been my experience, that my power is increasingly affected (by the heat) beginning at ~30mins.

tigermilk

Most definitely. I had an abyssmal state TT effort Saturday due to the heat. It was in the morning and already 85 degrees with a dew point of 75 (72% humidity). My power was down over 10-15% for the 40k compared to what is usually is in cooler conditions. For me humidity is the killer. Just a few days before in nearly the same temperature but much lower humidity, I hit my power goal within a few percent for a shorter TT (almost 12 miles). I've even had to change a VO2 workout into an L6 workout due to the heat. With a THI over 100, I just wasn't able to generate any decent VO2 power.

AndROOb

What a relief!

For several weeks, I've been witnessing a drop in FTP, and did not understand why. I was speculating about overtraining, mental attitude, to name a couple of things, but this could be it.
Any UK posters will know how hot it is here at the moment, and there's more to come. Roll on the autumn. I did my PB in the late spring in very comfortable temperatures, although I was under the impression from speed/power calc software that the body is capable of higher power output with higher temperatures. How does this figure?

Spunout

Higher temperatures as opposed to 5*C and raining!

Once your core cannot cool down sufficiently, heat starts to be a problem.

AndROOb

So does that mean there must be an optimum temperature?

zaskar

Yea my 20-30 isn't to bad, but when i take a short rest to do another 20 i feel to hot and power drops. all my PB have been just before it got hot. looking forward to winter now.

tuney

I did some university studies for heat and cycling performace over 1h.
The studies were performed on a kingcycle in a heat chamber with a set humidity. We did about 6/7 tests at different temps.

Performace for most of us had the same curve, where ~21C was the optimum temp for performance. This dropped off as the temp got higher, the curve was non linear as the temp got higher meaning that over 25 and 30C performace significantly reduced for the hour power output.

20 min power was OK though as I think the body could just about cope.

The worst thing was getting goose pimples at 32C as your body tried to cool itself down, wierd! I was about 10-15% down on power for @ 32C in comparision with 21C

Tuney

zaskar

Its that time of year again. I suffer more from the heat then the workouts I cant complete. CTL is dropping fast

jbvcoaching

http://www.jbvcoaching.com/documents/60VN16.pdf

http://www.jbvcoaching.com/documents/61VN16.1.pdf