Why spend the money on a power meter and not commit to learning to use it.

The short answer is "use the power meter to raise your FTP"

But seriously buy

http://www.amazon.com/...=Training+with+power

And spend a couple hours with it and you'll be off to a great start

The first 2-3 weeks with a power meter, don't even look at the numbers. Just use it to record what you are doing. Then after those two weeks (even after each ride) you can start looking at your output during the ride. Does your power drop off at the end of the ride? Stronger towards the end? Consistent throughout? Are you jumping up and down? Once you've started to see how you are currently riding you can start looking at what to improve on. My regular workouts include a long steady state piece with some harder efforts mixed (5x10min, 3x20min, 10x5min or what ever). For rides under 90, I might do more short intervals (10x1min, 10x2min or a mix of shorter 2-5min intervals).

Plug your data into Strava, Golden Cheetah, WKO+ or any of the other software and start reading about how to analyze it.

Where did I say that? I appreciate you trying to do the typical online, I gotcha type post or trying to make some point where there is no point to be made. I already mentioned that I have several recommendations and will eventually be buying the book from Joe Friel to read through. But at this point, I would rather be riding my bike than sitting in a chair reading a book. So I was hoping to get a few general ideas of what to look for and how to use power to get me up and running. Reading and learning more about this is something that I have already planned to do.

So again, please show me where I said I was not committed to learning how to use power?

Some good info here....

https://home.trainingpeaks.com/...p;searchmode=anyword

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

+1 on getting the book training and racing with power. Personally I think it's better than Friels. It's a quick read also. Should be able to get thru most of it in 1 or 2 sittings.

In the meantime, you can also strart here: https://home.trainingpeaks.com/...p;searchmode=anyword

Using TrainerRoad is another good way to test it out. Lots of good workouts but you can also create your own. Easy to use witha small subscription fee.

Good luck!

Mike

My advice is to set your head unit to 3 second or 10 second smoothing at first and use your lap button to help segment off your ride. Other than overall TSS, most of your post ride analysis is going to be on shorter segments of your ride rather than looking at the file as a whole. The lap feature makes it a lot easier to find harder efforts in your ride and separating them from your warm up, rest intervals, or cool down.

Not trying to be rude or make some point. It's my opinion that you're doing yourself a disservice by not buying the particular book I linked and reading it right from the get go. What compelled you to purchase a power meter?, for me it was to add more structure and repeat-ability to my training. Once I got a power meter and digested parts of that book I realized how LITTLE work I was really doing on the bike, the power meter and associated metrics are a real gut check (for me at least).

Trust me on this also reading this book will not take away from your training time, read it at lunch or in bed at night, you'll be fine.

There are many different ways to leverage a power meter... I know plenty of people who have bought and read books that don't use them properly. Just like there are plenty of people who have never read a book that use them very effectively. The last thing people should do is take the fun out of riding. Not every tide has to be a 2x20 workout or V02 intervals. This is why I tell all my friends that are new to power to just ride with it for 2 weeks before you start doing structured workouts. It also lets you understand how you currently ride so you can figure our what to actually improve on..

A LOT of the really relevant content from that book is in the link I posted above. There is also a whole bunch of fluff in the book that was likely "required" to make it a book, instead of a pamphlet.

For newbies just getting started w/ power, the 411 page on Training Peaks is sufficient to get them started.....and for many, that may well be all they ever need.

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

The reader's digest of all things power metering:

1. Use it to figure out approximately what you can sustain for an hour, either by doing a 40km time trial or taking ~95% of your 20 minute power
2. Do a variety of efforts ranging from 10 seconds to 3 hours (just riding around, but with intention to hit max values), plug that stuff into Golden Cheetah or WKO+
3. Look at the critical power curve and start to "know thyself" about how much you can sustain for various durations
4. Decide which duration you want to increase
5. Apply the principal of specificity to train that power band, realizing that optimizing one may hurt the others if you are very fit

I would suggest that you throw the Joe Friel books away. He is about 5 years behind everyone else on training with power.

Search for the wattage group on google groups and then the cycling physiology group. Apply to be a member and start reading anything/everything that interests you.

jaretj

Start here with this free e-book from TrainingPeaks and then look at Joe Friel's The Powermeter Handbook.

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/...ith-power-ebook.aspx

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Rodney
TrainingPeaks | Altra Running | RAD Roller
http://www.goinglong.ca

here's another quick one page to get you started


www.kurtkinetic.com/test-training-zones-i-50-l-en.html

Friel's book is a quick read...everyone else said - read the a book, Friel's or whatever book you want....but read it soon because there's a bit more to understand than just the link

Thank you for that. That is exactly what I have wanted. Short and sweet. I will get more indepth over time and read some books, research articles and blogs. But for now that gives me a good foundation. I would rather spend my limited time out on my bike riding, then sitting down at home reading a book. :)

I began here

http://www.powertap.com/pages/training

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"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"