AeroPod, PowerPod and Newton

There aren't really any flat roads around where I live in New England. Mostly rolling terrain so there are short burts up hill and then of course negative slopes. But there are plenty of climbs around. Coach Boyd would be familiar with Mt Wachusetts in Mass. Anyway, would the fit test be more accurate and a better indicator on a strait climb at 6-7% average grade then 20 minutes (7 or so Miles) on rolling terrain seeing there are places on the rolling terrain that ammounts to soft pedaling due to the negative slopes.

Regards,
SW

Yes, I am very familiar with Wachusett. For most people, they find that they can out out more power going uphill vs. on the flats. There are lots of theories as to why and if you should be able to hold the same wattage on the flats as on a climb. But keep this in mind for yourself. If you can average 300 watts on a climb for 20 minutes and 275 on the flats, then you are going to have a hard time with the intervals if you base it on your climbing fitness test.

Keep in mind that doing intervals on both flat and hilly terrain has it's advantages. If you only climb to do your intervals, it'll be much harder to maintain the same wattage on the flats if you were on a breakaway. . .and vice versa. It's also beneficial to do intervals on rolling terrain and really working on maintaining a steady wattage despite the terrain. If you are surging on every uphill and soft pedaling on the downhill sections, that is going to lead to a lower average wattage for the effort (and you'll notice your NP will differ from your average power).

So, it's perfectly fine to use an uphill to do the fitness test, but be prepared to do the intervals associated with that wattage number on all terrain.