POWER METERS ARE rapidly becoming the must-have piece of cycling equipment with everyone from weekend warriors to top amateurs splashing out the considerable amount of cash for one.
The price varies but the opinion on them doesn’t; they’re the truest way to improve fitness, measure form and assess weakness.
With those benefits, it’s not hard to see why they’ve become so popular in today’s time-poor society. Consider how you could be ‘training’ for three hours but really, only be in a training zone for 30 minutes of this.
Essentially, you’ve wasted a lot of your day and may not actually have improved at all.
Anthony Walsh, founder of A1 Coaching, says power meters take away the guesswork involved in training and compared to heart rate monitors – long believed to be the best training aid, are far superior.
“Heart rate monitors the body’s response to an effort whereas power actually measures the effort,” argues Walsh, who has ridden professionally in Canada and the US.
“Power has a number of advantages over heart rate. For example, the latter can be suppressed when we are fatigued, it can be affected by climate, hydration and nutrition, caffeine intake, stress and many more external variables.
“Some days you’ll find that a Zone 3 effort, which is usually a six out of 10 perceived effort, feels more like a 10 out of 10 effort.”
Before you think this level of science is way over your head, think again.
Power is easy to understand and is measured in watts. A top professional sprinter will ‘push’ 1,500 watts at the end of a stage of the Tour de France whereas a domestic amateur might struggle to break 1,000 after a spin half the length.
To measure your own watts takes nothing more than some motivation but careful, it’s an obsessive game of trying to up your numbers on every ride, which can be counter-productive to fitness!
Training with power is one way of realising just how often – or little – you’re actually working while training. Consider a hilly route where you push ‘x’ number of watts going uphill as you battle the gradient.
Going downhill, however, you’ll most likely back off the power and this, effectively is as useful as lying in bed. Granted, rest periods are required but if you’re doing an effort/interval and you’ve three minutes of it remaining it can be hard to keep the power up on a downhill section….and dangerous too if you don’t know the road.
Like everything, there are limitations to power and some will argue that training by feel or heart rate is the best. Power meter are not for everyone and only those actually interested in analysis and number crunching should buy one; you don’t want to spend more time watching your stats than you do actually riding.
Also, you’ll drop upwards of a grand to get a good power meter, possibly even more than the cost of your bike.Thirdly, they’re highly sensitive electronic devices that need to be treated with some care to maintain accuracy and functionality. They are not fit-and-forget items so expect some upkeep and servicing costs as well.
- Next week we’ll bring you an article of how you can set your training zones to get the best out of your training.
They have been ordered by managent to focus on their remaining games eh..management really cracking the whip there! the games that clearly do not mean a whole lot to them. I think this series is beginning to lose its appeal to the public. Obviously being treated as end of season party by the aussies.shame really, it used to be really good.
It’s just a free holiday for the Aussies
Nonsense. Lions players got into a spot in a night club in New Zealand but I don’t see anyone saying scrap that series. Same with the Irish soccer team on numerous occasions. Should we disband them too? They’re young lads with a week until their next game, it happens in every sport.
Yea it’s not like the British lions were facing an Australian team that were no good ……..equally pointless jolly but more money in it and the hype from $ky is swallowed whole by the egg chasing brigade
Time to knock these test series on the head. No genuine interest in the games and they usually turn into a farce. When players like gooch and Cluxton want nothing to do with it I think it’s indicative of the whole series.
I don’t know where this anti scrap the series sentiment is coming from. For many of the players it’s a privilege to wear the Irish shirt, especially those from the smaller counties. Also, looking at the match on Saturday Breffni Park looked pretty much at capacity. So it still appeals to many of the public.
Ahh the ‘knock it on the head’ bandwagon appears… give it a chance lads, just because some people don’t like it doesn’t mean you have to copy what they’re saying. If you don’t like it, then don’t read the article, you obviously have no interest in it. I have no interest in Association Football, but I don’t go on and comment about how the players are little diving pansies.
Hoy, I see what you did there!
Who cares
I hear they were celebrating their applications for Irish citizenship coming through…
Shock horror….the boys on tour go out for a drink. What ever next….chatting up the local talent? What is the world coming to.
It’s a joke,it’s a free end of season piss up for the ozzies.
A lot of the irish players are still in club champo, and games are been
Moved around to suit everybody.
The only way interest will be generated is if it turns into a brawl with a ball… It should be just AFL no mix.
Must be a quiet day for the journo’s if this is what they call sports news!!
At least the poor indigenous aussies were’nt slumming it in dromoland castle ! They behaved in limerick tho !
“Complaints of noise disturbance by the Australian players”?
Does this not mean the Australian players were the ones complaining about the noise disturbance?
Welcome to Ireland no fun allowed
Their at the Inn at Dromoland not Dromoland Castle or at least that is were their bus is parked up. None of them about when I was in the gym. Their heads must still be sore!!
Aussie Brendan in Galway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gFZ9p9L2b4