yes of course and it works fine. For those of us in our 50's who started in out 20's, we could bore you with stories of our first cyclo computer that actually worked, hear rate monitors that clamped to the earlobe and cost a week's pay and casio watches that even had a lap function.

And guess what? Races were just as freaking hard. I broke 33 for 10k using nothing but a watch and notebook, now I'm 10 minutes slower with all my gadgets.

They are fun for me to fiddle with and it keeps me motivated to train still despite my getting slower. You do NOT NOT NOT need any of that baloney. Or even a logbook or even a watch. You do need shorts though.

yes!
writing down hours is nearly as advanced as TSS

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

The further out from the race the more I train by feel, especially for the higher intensity stuff (although will still try to record). Some of my friends who are much better at short distance than me race entirely by feel. I couldn't imagine doing an Ironman race with no power targets however.

Knowing your RPE is still one of the best methodologies for racing and training. :-)

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Graham Wilson
USAT Level III Elite Coach
http://www.thewilsongroup.biz

Think jroden said it well. I race by feel only. (never had a power meter) , may record the race info but never look at it.

It's my favorite way to train & race. Unless you're FOP &/or earning money with this, then it's supposed to be a hobby & it's supposed to be fun. If you can't go for a bike ride without a powermeter, heart rate monitor, GPS & cyclocomputer for cadence then you're doing something wrong. Get your head out of the gadgets, listen to your body and for the love of God look around & enjoy the scenery. If you're so intent on a specific number or speed, then what the hell are you going to do when it all goes to pot in a race?

Remember the simple, stupid joy of riding down a hill on a bike, or running through the woods on a trail or even swimming in a lake (or pool). Live in the joy that you even get to attempt these things & have the guts to do so...many don't or can't. Don't mess that up & take it for granted. It's ok to have benchmarks & to use the things some of the time - if you're lucky enough to have them - but there's a whole different level to be gained by just doing/racing/training at the level you're capable of, not the measured level you should be at.

Some of my best performances (and those of my friends) came when the battery died or they forgot to hit the button & just went.

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AW

The watts are my trees, heart rate my babbling brook, cadence my pastoral view, tss my sunset.
Get outta my face.
:)

thats me, just a watch on rides and runs, nothing in races. My speedo on both road bikes died a couple of years ago and i've never bothered to replace em. I do pay sick attention to watts on the spin bike 2x/wk, but hell, nothing else to look at. I am FOP when i race.

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some days you're the windshield some days the bug

Absolutely, and I feel like a rebel because I'm younger and don't buy into the "power" thing. Numbers are great, but it doesn't help if you feel like shit on race day.

I mostly train by RPE however I record and analyse everything. Races are with power meter and heart rate but training I go out to enjoy myself, on days where I am feeling great I let myself go and review the numbers when I get home.

Come race day I have enough data to set accurate targets to ride and run to but don't let myself get caught up too much in them, they are there so I don't head out at 400watts for the first 10min with the excitement and freshness of tapered legs. I see people on here say the reason the blew up in a race is because they were 3 or 4 watts over their NP for the bike. Fucking bullshit.

If you're not enjoying training then there is no point in doing it. If you feel great one day but can't let your legs explore because you are riding upper z2 for the day there is no point in doing it. If you come home feeling like shit because you couldn't hit your goal wattage for the interval there is no point in doing it. We train far more than we race so enjoy the training.

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I learned a long time ago that the only pertinent information you offer is found within the last sentence.

This. I always work on the basis that power and HR should be added to RPE as methods of guiding your training not replace it. It's common in other sports to do analysis using RPE and there is a fair bit of research out there and it works well with a good protocol and an experienced user.

I've always viewed power and HR as a tool to help make up for a lack of experience. If you can judge your effort exactly then the need for the tool is diminished. I pace my efforts based on feel and then if the percieved effort puts me in a different power zone than expected I know there is something wrong. If the power is higher I likley need a retest but if you were going on feel alone this would be fine you've automatically adjusted your level. If it's low I correlate with HR, morning resting HR trend and overall training load up to that point to see if I'm overtrained. Once I've spotted I'm overtrained I can normally look back and realise at what point I should have first picked it up by feeling. If you have a good deal of experience you could notice this first time round just based on being aware of how you are and hence wouldn't need PWR or HR.

You can schedule and manipulate training load over a time period using predicted RPE uch as you would using TSS as well.

Iain

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Does anyone train and race entirely by feel with no power meter or heart rate, computer, Garmin, GPS - just a watch?


When I raced IM races, I never used a power meter, HR monitor, garmin or GPS. Later, I did a solo bicycle tour around the world and only used a real compass and maps. I did get "lost" a few times and those were some of my most memorable times. There is way too much emphasis on things that make you look down while riding a bike, not nearly enough looking up and enjoying the journey, and that applies to racing triathlons or just getting out on your bike for fun.

Do you mean something like the Cateye Solar that worked great when you got it but then the screen turned black if you left it in the sun too long?

I had the Huret that ran off a rubber band, it worked nicely, then I upgraded to one called "The Push" that seldom worked but had a slew of Avocets that were pretty cool

Plis I had gold Gali brakes and a badass white Cinelli hairnet

Only use a Garmin 310XT so I know what time it is and how far I've run. All bike rides are on the trainer and I ride for time only. Swim, I use a cheap Timex watch and swim for time. I don't keep a training log.

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My business-eBodyboarding.com

Yes, I also ride a round tube 30kg steel frame, wooden rims and wear a leather helmet.

That is impressive. What was your route across Russia or Asia?

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Yep. I used to use heart rate but I think all I did was make myself paranoid every time it went up and I couldn't explain why. I like my workouts and want to focus on things like looking at the scenery, watching birds, enjoying the sound of my feet when I run, so numbers distract me from the reason why I do this sport in the first place.

Chrissie Wellington and Chris McCormack are two others who train with only a watch. I think I read somewhere that Chris McCormack didn't even wear one for some of his runs.

Does anyone train and race entirely by feel with no power meter or heart rate, computer, Garmin, GPS - just a watch?


Trained my entire running and triathlon "career", to a moderate amount of success, without any technology other than a wrist watch chronograph.


After a had quit triathlon, I did win a nice Polar HRM when I won a 5k running road race. It was fun to play around with, and my findings were interesting. I did all the tests and sorted out max HR and my zones. ALL of my bench-mark training sessions, fell exactly into the proper and appropriate HR training zones! :)


In other words, I had been doing it right, all along by feel and PE!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I never wear a watch running. I use a gps on the bike because I have a Strava problem, but am caring less and less about KOMs and more about how many miles am I riding per month. I hate the pool because it takes away the adventure that running and riding are, oh and I am a piss poor swimmer.

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Pactimo brand ambassador, ask me about promo codes

My wife felt like shit for one of her TTs in a stage race last year. She wanted to go home, and drop out of the race she felt so horrible, she was distraught.

I told her that it was only going to take about 8 minutes, to just do the watts we planned and don't worry about you feel.

She did the watts, won the TT.

Obviously you wouldn't be able to "just do the watts" for longer durations if you are legitimately sick, but I have found that varying types of "I feel like shit" issues, from lack of sleep, or from being sore from a hard effort the day before, etc, don't have much impact on how much power you can do. Learning what does and doesn't affect your own performance is one of the nice benefits of having a power meter.

the hypothetical robot who just obeys the power meter without question, yes, that is stupid, but you can operate smarter than that.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

It is interesting, I find that most people thinking about using a power meter or new to using them (myself included) think that the most important/best use case is for staying in your zones when training.

Over time I've learned that is probably the least useful thing about them. Tracking training load, monitoring progress, and pacing are far more useful I think.

For instance right now my wife isn't really progressing over last years fitness, despite more training load.

That we actually *know* she hasn't progressed, and we *know* she has more training load now, means we know that something is wrong we need to fix, and narrows down what those things could be. We know the answer is probably not more volume, for instance. So maybe a rest period is called for, or a change in training structure (firing myself as coach!?). If we try that, to no effect, maybe we look at nutritional issues, and so on.

Being able to know if you have gotten stronger with a resolution of around 5 watts is amazing, and you can't easily do that with just a stopwatch.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Jack,


Good stories on how the technology can work for you and be an advantage - I don't disagree.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

For intervals recently I tried just telling Kat "just go as hard as you can" but she wasn't having it.

=)

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter