What everyone said up above. Personally I find a PM quite motivating.
Another book along the same lines but an easier introduction to Power Meters (and a lot cheaper if you have a Kindle or Kindle software) is "The Power Meter Handbook - a user's guide for cyclists and triathletes" by Joe Friel. It's only about £6 on Amazon.co.uk at the moment and reads quite easily. Only published fairly recently.
Cheers.
Training with Power - useful or another way of spending £'s?
Moderator: Moderator Team
-
- Posts: 96
- Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 11:45 am
- Location: Bristol, UK
- Contact:
One of the horrible things about training with power is that it knows when you're not putting enough effort in.
You'll be there pedalling along thinking 'this is a bit hard maybe I shouldease up a bit' at which point your powermeter output starts mocking you because it knows full well what you're capable of and that you're just not trying hard enough. It's also usually right
You'll be there pedalling along thinking 'this is a bit hard maybe I shouldease up a bit' at which point your powermeter output starts mocking you because it knows full well what you're capable of and that you're just not trying hard enough. It's also usually right
Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓ Broad Selection ✓ Worldwide Delivery ✓
www.starbike.com
First step: training plan. Save the group rides for weekends or racing. I personally use a Wednesday hammerfest as a hard workout with the Cat 1s. If I can hang/pull with them and kill myself in the process, it makes for easier racing. I've been using Friel's book fairly successfully for the last few years.roadiesean wrote:Hi
I'm sure this has been asked a million times, but I'm looking at buying an SRM, but am I wasting my money ? I am a late 40's sportive rider, who does some races and loves riding his bike.
I want to get fitter and better at all aspects of my bike riding, especially in the mountains - the thing that would help the most would be getting skinny I'm sure.
I have an HRM, but really just use it to see how hard its banging when I'm working hard, I don't want another screen to look at just for the sake of looking at it, but if training with power is the business, then it make sense.
Any thoughts guys ?
Cheers
Sean
Step 2: learn to ride according to your HRM. Easy days = easy. Hard days = truly hard. LSD rides should be within a certain range. etc.
Step 3: power meter. This is the spot where I am. I just don't have the $ for one just yet, so I make do with the HRM.
HTH
M
-
- Posts: 96
- Joined: Fri Jun 01, 2012 11:45 am
- Location: Bristol, UK
- Contact:
If you're not sure it's worth it for you and you have a turbo trainer(+laptop,speed/cadence sensor,ant usb sitck)) try http://www.trainerroad.com/ It's not totally accurate +/- 30 wattsish but it is consistent.
Power meters are horridly expensive if you don't use it.
Just bought a PoweCal combined HR and PowerMeter. It uses an algorithm to calculate effective power rather than actual crank based. I've done the research and its 2-5% of a PowerTap or SRM do, as a training tool, I think that's not bad.
At $100 AUS it's a lot better way of learning how to use it than $1800 and never use it properly. Might be relatively useful for IRTTs although the lag in the computer means its probably not going to work for sprint efforts. Lucky I cant sprint to save myself!!
Just bought a PoweCal combined HR and PowerMeter. It uses an algorithm to calculate effective power rather than actual crank based. I've done the research and its 2-5% of a PowerTap or SRM do, as a training tool, I think that's not bad.
At $100 AUS it's a lot better way of learning how to use it than $1800 and never use it properly. Might be relatively useful for IRTTs although the lag in the computer means its probably not going to work for sprint efforts. Lucky I cant sprint to save myself!!