Not every ride can be a yardstick to check in on your training. We need to enjoy our training, enjoy the rhythm and experience of it. If all you do is look at your headunit and your power numbers you will be missing out.
Don't take it from us. Marc is a very fit Master's rider. He used to do the typical FTP based training, riding his club rides, and racing on the weekend. A few years ago he was questioning whether he still enjoyed riding his bike and needed to find a new approach:
Marc's new approach
One of the biggest changes to my training is how I gauge my efforts for workouts, especially endurance and tempo rides. I used to pay attention only to power and would spend a significant amount of time looking at, and fretting about, my power. But, developing a broader sense of training intensities and incorporating heart rate, breathing and perceived effort as feedback has improved my training in a couple of important ways.
Firstly, by paying attention to these other metrics, I am doing proper intensities for my endurance and tempo rides (the bulk of my training). Some days, based on heart rate or breathing, I may have to back off a little. But I know that I am not going too hard for that session, whereas when I trained only by power I would never adjust my days, always staying in the prescribed range (and usually at the top end of the range).
Secondly, and more significantly for me, I'm no longer stressed about my watts on rides. And this has changed the experience for me: I settle in, enjoy the ride and don't worry about my power.
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