New toys

I've been using power as a training metric for exactly one year now. I have no idea how I managed to go so long without it. Training without a power meter now would seem as alien as doing a running session without a watch. I found myself avoiding using any of my bikes that don't have one, even just for an easy ride.

Originally I only a power meter on my time trial bike. Then I met the good people from Power2Max at Eurobike late last year. I'm now delighted to be able to use a power meter on all the bikes I use. The second great thing about these meters in particular, after the fact that they're less than half the price of the an SRM(!), is that you can change the chainrings without any need for recallibration. So, I was able to use small chainrings for cyclocross, then put on bigger chainrings for time trialling. On my road bike I've kept a semi-compact set of chainrings. One power meter, three different gearing options. Brilliant.

As a training tool they're invaluable in recording effort and ensuring you train at the correct intensity.  Here are some data for two ostensibly similar races. They both lasted about 45 minutes and on both my average heart rate was about 150 beats per minute and my average power output was around 300 watts. So, using time, or heart rate or perceived effort would suggest that these races required the same type and level of effort.

The graphs clearly show that isn't the case. The one on the left is a cyclocross race, that alternated bursts of high power output coming out of corners and climbing hills, with very low power output during technical sections. The graph on the right shows the sustained high power output of a time trial. The two types of racing require different approaches to training and a power meter helps to replicate the same type of effort that each type of racing needs. 

What I find them most useful for though is pacing, especially in time trials. It's all too common to go out too hard at the start and fade towards the end. Using heart rate as a guide makes this worse, as it takes a while to achieve a high heart rate and it stays high even while you fade.  An optimal performance requires staying within a narrow range of power for the whole duration. Having an objective measure helps to hold back early in the race to keep something in reserve for the end, and then to push hard at the end when perceived effort may be higher than actual effort.

Power2Max recently released a version of thier power meter for mountian bikes. I received mine last week. I'm particularly happy as it'll help me with pacing during the Finale Ligure 24 Hour race in May. I know I definitely went out too hard when I did it last year. Happy days!