

Whether you want to create your own training plan, work with a cycling coach, or use one of the many indoor cycling apps and training software packages to get a head-start, a power meter can help you get the most of your sessions. Above this threshold, fatigue accumulates much more quickly than below. Power-based training is most often prescribed as a percentage of your threshold power, where Functional Threshold Power (FTP) and Critical Power (CP) are often used to determine this threshold.īoth broadly represent the maximum power that can be sustained for an extended duration – typically between 30 to 60 minutes. Using a power meter will enable you to target the specific intensity required to fast-track your fitness in a particular area. These goals might include improving your endurance on rides lasting several hours, increasing your VO2 max or boosting your threshold power. TrainerRoadīy using different combinations of training intensities and manipulating the duration of both the work and rest intervals in your workouts, it’s possible to stimulate the specific changes in your fitness needed to achieve your goals. Structured workouts are key when training with power. Having the ability to measure your power output offers several major benefits for a focused cyclist who wants to train with data. Due to the delay associated with heart rate response, short, high-intensity efforts often only elicit a relatively small change in heart rate, despite the workload actually being comparatively high.Īs a result, using heart rate can often under-estimate the strain of a given training session, whereas a power meter can help you capture more detail about your ride. Power is precise and fast to respond in comparison to heart rate. Both are valuable training metrics but measure different things.

This differs from heart rate, which measures internal training load, or in this case how hard your cardiovascular system is working. it tells you how much work you’re applying to the pedals each second and the mechanical energy you’re generating in the real world. Your wattage is an objective measure of your external training load, i.e. Power (measured in watts) is a combination of the force (or strictly speaking ‘torque’) applied through the pedals and cadence. Training with power is more accessible than ever, with a wide range of on-bike options alongside the fast-growing popularity of smart trainers.
