Lower power ride beat higher power rides

[Mighty Malc]

Today on my Computrainer I rode Lago Diseo (flat course)at an average of 184 Watts.
Slower than usual after a cold. I knew (and checked later) that I had done it previously at averages of 224W, 209W, 206W, 196W so expected to be thrashed by most of my previous goes.
But I was faster than all previous goes [5 majenta, 5 yellow, several orange) both on the flat and on the (minor) climbs that occur on the course.

My power of 184W is very consistent with latest rides in VeloReality and other Apps so I believe the power is correct.

Bike settings have not changed.
Weight has, and initially I wondered if that explained it. But my calculations show that on a flat course v far higher power rides the power difference is far more significant than the weight difference. And anyway I was gaining consistently on the flat sections.

I have only done 7 rides on this course so can have purged at most 2 if 5 are left. So maybe I have accidentally purged some best rides and lost the 224W and 209W performances. But the other faster ones must still be there in the 5 displayed on screen.

Is there any chance the parameters passed to the Computrainer have been changed (aerodynamic drag or friction)?

[admin]

There were some changes in regards to Computrainer code, some problem was discovered and then fixed. The approximate date range is from 2017_12_10 to 2017_12_20. That may have affected you. If not then nothing else I can think of as no other changes to Computrainer's code were made.

[Mighty Malc]

That's helpful.

Just looked through my training diary since December and I have been mainly on new rides, not competing against past performances.
I do remember thinking on one of the few against past performances that I seemed to be doing better than expected but did not think too much about it. Until today when going slowly I had evidence there was almost certainly a difference.

So I suspect some change was made in December that has had the effect of making computrainer performances appear better than in the past. This may not be a bad thing as I felt my speed on indoor computrainer rides was a little slower, for the same power, than I actually saw out on the roads.

If that is the case, I guess I just appear to improve for a while and set new 'bests'. Then things settle down. No problem.

Many thanks for looking at this and being so honest in your answer - I now understand why there could be a difference and can get on with riding.