Why I Train with Power

 

Many of my triathlon and cycling friends know all about power meters. But some don't. I decided to write a quick post about the pros of training and racing with a power meter for those people who have not looked into it or who may have never considered it. Much has already been written on the subject so rather than go into lengthy explanations, I will provide a few links to some of the articles written about power meters as well as my own personal take on it.

First, we need to define what a power meter is. Here is a snippet from Wikipedia about cycling power meters:

"A cycling power meter is a device on a bicycle that measures the power output of the rider. Most cycling power meters use strain gauges to measure torque applied, and when combined with angular velocity, calculate power." -(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_power_meter).

Using a power meter, a cyclist can get instant feedback by way of a handlebar mounted computer. The computer can display exactly how much power a cyclist is producing at any given moment as well as provide an average over time. Unlike speed, power is not affected by hills, wind, terrain, or other environmental factors. For instance, lets take a hypothetical situation. None of these numbers are real world numbers. I am just making them up to try to get my point across.

Let's say that my training has lead me to be able to bike at 200 watts steady for 1 hour before I am too tired to continue. Let's say that I go for that one hour ride on a Sunday and push 200 watts the whole time. After the one hour is up, I find that my average speed was 20 MPH. The following Sunday, I go for the same ride and I again push 200 watts for an hour. But this time, it is very windy and after I am done with the hour, I find that I have not traveled as far and my average speed was 16 MPH. In this example, I was putting out the exact same effort on both days but my speed was affected by environmental factors. In cases like this, average speed does not truly measure the amount of effort being exerted. However, watts are watts. No matter what the environmental conditions, my work rate can be measured accurately regardless of wind, road conditions, hills, etc. 

So why is this important? In the context of racing, pacing is racing. When we race, we want to be able to put out the maximal sustainable effort. If we go too hard at the beginning, we will bonk and slow down towards the end and our results will suffer. If we go too easy, we may end the race with excess energy that could have been used to go faster. An athlete who is experienced and intimate with his or her capabilities will be able to measure out the proper amount of effort throughout a race. Using a power meter can quantify effort accurately independent of environmental factors.

Perhaps equally or maybe even more important, the power meter is an crucial part of training. Training with a power meter can sling shot an athlete's performance on the bike. Using power zones to create a specific training regimen will shorten the amount of time needed to see performance gains. Again, a lot has been written on this subject and I am not here to explain it all. In fact, I am very fortunate to have a coach who knows it all. My coach gives me very specific workouts all based on power. And when I am done, I can upload my power file for him to analyze. He can then use this data to inform my training plan and measure performance gains. Together with my heart rate data, my coach can use scientific principals to design workouts that will give me the optimal training stressor which will lead to performance gains.

Before I provide you with links to the experts, let me just tell you that my experience with my PowerTap G3 power meter has been amazing. Using the PowerTap is easy and there are just a few things to learn about it. It is really a no brainer. I have gotten so much faster and stronger over the last 10 months by using power data to guide my workouts. Granted, you have to put in the work. But if you follow a well crafted training plan based on a valid power test, improvements will happen and they will happen fast.

Not only will you get faster but training with power can be fun too. Functional Threshold Power or FTP is a key measurement that is used to create your zones. It has been fun to watch my FTP climb throughout the last year. And it can be even more fun to calculate my watts per kilogram which is a precise measure of pure cycling ability and can be used to compare oneself to other athletes. When I did my first power test on April 1st, 2014, my FTP was 190. After a solid 10 months of training, my FTP is now up to 220. Of course there is a limit to how high I can build but I am a long way from reaching that ceiling and I know that with more training under the expert guidance of Dave Luscan at DLMultisports, I will continue to get stronger and faster.

So why do I use a power meter? Well, it is an excellent tool to get faster on the bike more quickly than I could without the power meter. It also introduces some fun metrics to track. If I want to podium in my age group, I need to get faster. Using a power meter, I will get there faster than without one.

And now, as promised, here are some links to the experts who know more than me and who write better than I do. If you want to learn more, check them out. And check out powertap.com if you are interested in stepping up your game.

http://www.powertap.com/pages/science-of-power

http://www.peakscoachinggroup.com/Articles.aspx

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/how-to-interpret-power-data-and-what-to-do-with-it

http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2012/01/why-you-need-a-power-meter.html

And of course, you can just google for more information if you want to read more. Thanks for reading. Comments always appreciated.

PowerTap Grassroots Athlete

It's a new year with new challenges and opportunities. This year, I decided to apply to be a PowerTap grassroots athlete. Instead of reinventing the wheel, here is an explanation about what that is from PowerTap.com.

"PowerTap is proud to support and sponsor athletes at all levels of Cycling and Triathlon disciplines. Our goal is to support the exceptional athletes who support our brand through racing and training using our products. Our grassroots level sponsorship allows athletes access to discounted product to help them pursue their competitive goals."

Applying to be a sponsored athlete simply required submitting a one minute video. It was hard to keep it to one minute. After running through it a couple of times in front of the computer, I felt like I was getting nowhere. I came across as stiff and it looked like I was reading the text I had written for the video. It was also hard to cram in all the necessary required information and still sound vaguely interesting. Finally, Melissa offered to use my phone to make the video. I scrapped my script and wrote out bullet points. We did one take and it was good enough. Here is the video below.



And you know what? It worked! I have been accepted in the PowerTap Grassroots Athletes program. What does this mean for me exactly? Well, it simply means I will be promoting PowerTap and PowerTap products as I train and race in triathlons and other events. I have agreed to forward promotions, sales, new product announcements, etc to my friends and to represent PowerTap at events. It is going to be fun. In return, PowerTap will give me up to 25 percent off of items in their online store. That is a huge discount considering the products they sell are not cheap. I happen to be in the market for new trainer so I will be able to put the discount to use sooner than later. Mostly though, I think I will have fun using social media to promote the PowerTap brand. It will be a learning experience and will be one more training tool for me. Getting excited about promotions, products, and events will inject additional fun into my training and racing schedule. Plus I can represent Richmond, the Richmond Triathlon Community and DLMultisports.

I will be attempting to blog more as that is part of the deal. So you might see some shorter but more frequent blog posts from me. I appreciate you reading and if you want to learn more about PowerTap or CycleOps, please check out their websites and see what they have to offer. In my next installment, I will describe how my PowerTap G3 power meter has helped me train smart and get faster and stronger in a short amount of time. Thanks for reading. As always, comments are appreciated.