MultiSport: Should a Power Meter Be At the Top of Your Wish List?

Written by: Lance Watson, CTS Multisport Head Coach

Santa's making his list and checking it twice, checking to see if you have been naughty or nice. And, if you have been nice, you just might get that power meter you have been dreaming of. So much for sugarplums, lately it's visions of watts and strain gauges that have been dancing in your head.

Power meters are on the tip of everybody's tongue these days and are making quite the appearance on wish lists. With increasing popularity and commercial availability training with a power meter has become quite cost-effective and they are appearing on more and more bikes. But really, what is the big deal with power?

Power is a measure of the amount of work completed in a given amount of time or the product of force multiplied by velocity [pressure at the pedal times cadence]. Taking this into account, you can increase power by either increasing the force on your pedal or by increasing your cadence.

Power meters give you the ability to measure real time work, work at the moment as it is actually occurring, unlike heart rate. Power is here and now, heart rate is a physiological response to the workload imposed on the body versus the actual work output. With highly sensitive indicators, power meters are able to measure your workload instantaneously and measure every second of your workout; if your work output drops, the wattage will drop immediately, without lag time. However, there is a lag time in your heart rate response to the power drop. Your body has to respond, response takes time, power is a measure, and it's there or it isn't. Power has become the latest and greatest training tool, with heart rate falling to a second tier measure.

But what is wrong with heart rate? It has been the basis of training for so long; it is cost-effective and seems to correlate with my training loads. Heart rate does correlate with loads, but is a response to the workload imposed on it, not a measure of it. Heart rate responds in a linear fashion with work and power output as it is imposed upon the body. This is the problem. It is a response to intensity but not a measure of it. For an effort less than two minutes, heart rate is not an appropriate measure. And for longer efforts, heart rates may increase due to cardiac drift, even though power may be the same or even lower.

Aside from being a response system to the training load imposed, your heart rate is also a response system to everything else around you. Other factors such as fatigue, illness, medications, hydration status, caffeine, altitude, heat, daily stress, arousal and diet can all affect your heart rate, altering the intensity and efficiency of your workouts.

With power meters becoming more and more cost effective, power training is undoubtedly the most accurate and precise training tool for bike workouts. Power meters allow you to maximize your training time by monitoring your work output and setting intensities determined from field test and race data. You can measure loads imposed and improvements on the bike during racing and training. By carefully analyzing your workout and race data, you can compare your current level of fitness to where you need it to be during a race for optimal performance on the bike. You know exactly where you are and what you need to reach. And while power meters may add a bit of weight to your bike, the data obtained from rides more than makes up for any added weight.

Power meters also allow you to measure and compare specific workouts and efforts. The data provided allows you to determine whether you have improved from your last workout with the same exact effort. You no longer rely on sticking within a heart rate range, but you can now determine exactly where your power stands for the day. With heart rate, you may reach your target range but to maintain your heart rate within that range you might have to drop your power down.

You are no longer improving your power output but imposing a workload that will allow you to sit in a heart rate range that may be affected by other factors as well. Power training not only allows you to truly train at the same intensity day in and day out, but it also gives you the benefit of pinpointing and training all three of your physiological systems, as well as monitoring fatigue and improvement.

The benefits and practicality of power training have been proven through professional elite athletes all over the world. Power meters provide on board feedback, measure real time work and eliminate junk miles; they allow you to monitor actual workload without other variables affecting the data, to pinpoint and train each physiological system, to improve the efficiency of each workout, monitor fatigue, identify improvement and measure sport and race specific demands.

Santa is smart, he knows who has been naughty and nice, he also knows what is dancing on wish lists and floating in the dreams of every triathlete. Dreams full of power meters, wishing and hoping to start 2004 out with the latest training tool and the advantage of the newest technology. A power meter should be at the top of every wish list, and is the wave of the future for training. Santa knows power is important, Rudolph doesn't fly a sleigh around the world in one night without power, and I'd certainly like to see his power output!

Visit Carmichael Training Systems at: TrainRight.com.