Ok, I really want to get better on the bike. I’m going into my forth season and have always trained by HR. I’m intrigued though, by the power meters. I have a friend who I rode with last year and for that particular ride, his coach had him keep his meter around a certain number even on the hills. Midway through, I was feeling it, but he seemed ready for more. Am I missing out on “the” way to train? Also, if I do get one, I can’t afford much. I read your threads and other articles about ibike power meter. They seemed to have made improvements over the years and they’re more in my price range. Any thoughts on the newer models? Or should I just save for another year and go for the traditional meters?
I’ve tried last year’s I-bike and it’s about as reliable as heart-rate…Don’t waste your money on it.
Buy a Powertap or better, experiment and study how to use it. You will get faster if you use it intelligently. If you don’t learn it, it just becomes a very expensive bike computer.
Just ride more. If you want to buy a PT go for it but don’t break your budget on it. I don’t train w/ a PT. I too was carefully looking at them last year and decided that just riding more/harder was the way to go. You have to really want to dig into the details of the numbers and chart your workouts (w/an appropriate computer) to get anything out of it. In the end I made my decision based on two things:
I race on heartrate because it is indicative of weather conditions and I don’t want to get involved in being a slave to a number and then blowing up on the run.
I didn’t want to deal with crunching the numbers, reading the books and fooling with another piece of gadgetry…this was the biggie for me.
These are just MY reasons and I’m sure there are plenty out there that will disagree. In the end, it’s your money and time. I wouldn’t compare one day of training with another person for your need to get a PT. That seems like apples and oranges to me.
Just bought a sl 2.4 this weekend so I haven’t used it outside yet. I went through the same question sequence that you are experiencing. After asking around I decided to go for it. Worse case scenario you can sell it on ebay for a small loss if you hate it. FWIW- I am into numbers, logs, and tracking devices so this seemed a natural fit. I agree going harder is the key but if you can go harder and smarter than you are going to get even better faster. Also if your budget can handle it- go wireless. Its easy to set up and you can take it with you on any ride without any problems.
Even if you arent a numbers geek and havent heard of TSS, it will still be an excellent investment because you can do key workouts and track improvement. By doing test sets or time trials every so often, you can monitor the increase in power you are able to maintain. On the other hand, your heartrate will remain about the same even as your fitness improves so it is impossible to tell how good any particular workout was. Think about it in terms of running and swimming. In these sports, you can tell that you are getting better by replicating the same workout and monitoring your times (ie 5x400 in the pool or 5x1600m on the track). As your speed increases, you know you are getting faster. In cycling however, too many variables affect your speed that the correlation between speed and fitness level (or power output) isnt close enough to see the margin of improvement you’ll likely be looking to monitor. Power, on the other hand, is not affected by these variables. Therefore, by doing the same workout week after week you can not only track improvement but you can really push yourself during the workout and know instantly whether it was a good one or not rather than having the ambiguity associated with speed and HR only.
I’ve been training with power throughout the winter on a computrainer, and just ordered a PT SL 2.4 (hasn’t arrived yet). Training using power on the computrainer definitely helped me. In my opinion, if you have a good plan with target wattage, and can work the wattage numbers, this is an actual measurement of the work that you do whereas training solely by heart rate is training to your bodies reaction to the power worked. Where I noticed this the most would be if I raced the day or several days before and then got on the bike. I could push the wattage no problem but my HR would be depressed from the previous day’s work. If I had been going by HR alone I would have thought I had a terrible workout because I could not get my HR where it needed to be when in actuality the workout was great. Personally, my improvement curve has been faster training with power and my wattage per kg is going up while staying at the same relative PE/HR.
I’ve been using the iBike for about 8 months now and have found it a reliable very functional tool. Get the wireless version with heart rate and cadence and everything works great. My personal experience is it feels very close to the accuracy of a compu-trainer.
Training by power helps, but not as much as just riding more. Now riding more and training with power is a great a combo
I think the best way to improve is buy a computrainer and not necessarily a power meter. Not because you should train any differently, though the hardcores on here will disagree with that (i.e., with a power meter and computrainer), but because you’ll probably train more, and equally as important, you will be able to track improvements over time (also creating incentives to train more). As someone else posted, heart rate levels don’t change much even with improved fitness, but watts do. Think of increases in power as the same as increases in pace on the run. As your pace becomes quicker at the same levels of heart rate, you know you are more fit. Same with power.
"Training by power helps, but not as much as just riding more. Now riding more and training with power is a great a combo "
When I got a powermeter, I cut my weekly hours riding from 8-9 to 6-7 and took my HIM split from 2:43 to 2:31 on the same course from 1 year to the next.
Well I would warrant a guess that if you kept it 8-9 but rode with the extra intelligence that a power meter provides you would have cut your bike time by even more.
“Well I would warrant a guess that if you kept it 8-9 but rode with the extra intelligence that a power meter provides you would have cut your bike time by even more.”
This is no doubt true. However, if I had gone from 8-9 hrs to 10-12, but hadn’t changed the format of my training, I seriously doubt that I would have seen the improvement that I did.
This has very little to do with the power meter and more to do with the fact that you were not training properly before.
The PM helps those who dont know how to train and who dont know their body’s very well, to train better.
This has very little to do with the power meter and more to do with the fact that you were not training properly before.
The PM helps those who dont know how to train and who dont know their body’s very well, to train better.
Really? I beg to differ. The PM helps my coach understand my body better and helps him develop workouts for me that overcome any weaknesses and properly prepare me for peak performance. Also, given that he receives my HR and speed data as well, it helps him recognize if I am overtraining, have hit a plateau, am ill, etc., and allows him to adjust my workouts accordingly. After all, isn’t that what I am paying him for?
I like my Powertap. Plus they have great customer service if you have a question or any issues, but it’s well built so that shouldn’t be a problem.
You can likely search ST and find a lot of info about the iBike. My LBS might start selling them and you can get an affordable PM for outdoors (iBike) and maybe look at a trainer with a power option for any indoor training (if you live in a colder climate).
You have options, just do your research if you go ahead with a PM. ST has lots of posts on Powertap, Ergomo, iBike, etc.
Gavnums, does your iBike work in the aero position…in other words, does the aero position interfere with laminar airflow hitting the “pitot tube”/wind intake sensor?
“This has very little to do with the power meter and more to do with the fact that you were not training properly before.
The PM helps those who dont know how to train and who dont know their body’s very well, to train better.”
Well, without putting words in the OPs keyboard, isn’t their question: is a PM the better way for one who doesn’t know their body well to learn to train properly?
Yes, I set it up so it actually sits a little below and forward of my hand positions using a Toppeak bar extender. I’ll try and remember to go snap a picture of it this evening.
On my road bike I just use the wired mount as normal.
Thanks everyone!
After reading everything, I’m convinced that getting a PM is the way to go. Recommended reading for it??
Amyfit
“Training and Racing with Power” by Andrew Coggan and Hunter Allen.
I second the reccomendation of the Coggan/Allen book. I have been using power as a training guide seriously for the last four years and despite the fact that I am now in my 40’s, had been cycling for a long time and thought I had plateaued I have been able to significantly improve. What it has made me do is make my hard workouts harder by giving a clear indication of effort and to make my recovery rides easier. I can also tell when I am fatigued and shouldnt do a workout. If I cant get to my target watts regardless of what my HR says then that workout is done.
