Hi
I’m very new to cycling & have read some information about training with Power Meters vs Heart Rates.
My questions are
How do you get started with a Power Meter?
How do you know how to train & race effectively with a Power Meter?
Thks Tm
Hi
I’m very new to cycling & have read some information about training with Power Meters vs Heart Rates.
My questions are
How do you get started with a Power Meter?
How do you know how to train & race effectively with a Power Meter?
Thks Tm
Getting started with a power meter, this is what I did:
Ride for a week or two and play with it. Learn how to go through the options. See what you can put out for longer rides, hills, sprints…have fun with it.
Download the trial version of WKO+ and download every ride to it.
After learning all of it’s functions find time to complete a FTP test. Personally I feel that an all out 40K is the way to go but other tests are the 2X20 with 2 min easy between or 95% of 30 min all out.
Training, there is a lot of debate about that but I prefer 8 to 15 min intervals totaling up to 45 minutes 2 times a week. Depending on what kind of race you are training for you would want to do a longer ride of 3.5 to 6 hours. Another ride during the week would be useful too.
Racing, I have my own ways of determining paces. I’ll let someone else describe that.
jaretj
I think one tough question to answer with the PM is what rear wheel. This is if you have not purchased yet. I purchased mine all together in a training wheel. I now am seriously looking at buying a second PM in a 808. I still will not have one in my disc.
It sucks that you can’t really move it around from one wheel to another.
That’s a good point.
I started with a PT pro built into a Velocity rim. I added a wheel cover for racing. It worked very well.
Last year I bought a Jet 90 with a light PT built into it.
jaretj
Read the bible…
http://www.amazon.com/...Hunter/dp/1931382794
You mean the Tao (of power).
Read this for free: http://www.madvelocity.com/filemgmt/filemgmt_data/files/rcgtp1.pdf
(by Charles Howe and Dr. Andy C.)
-Scott
Read the bible…
http://www.amazon.com/...Hunter/dp/1931382794
You mean the Tao (of power).
I don’t know, I think I remember some “Thou shalt not’s” and a few “begots” in there.
I think one tough question to answer with the PM is what rear wheel. This is if you have not purchased yet. I purchased mine all together in a training wheel. I now am seriously looking at buying a second PM in a 808. I still will not have one in my disc.
It sucks that you can’t really move it around from one wheel to another.
That’s assuming you buy a PowerTap. You could pony up for a crank based system like SRM or Quark. Use any wheel you want then.
That is a great point. I did not really consider SRM or Quark when you add up that I really need three hubs now. One for disk, one for 808 and one for pure training wheel I am getting to the same price point.
But I also move my PT between my road bikes and my tri bike. I don’t know much about the SRM and Quark solution but I don’t think you can easily move it from one bike to another like switching the rear wheel.
Another negative of the PT Hub is that it does add some weight to the wheel. Luckily it is in the middle of the wheel but does add some weight.
Actually, I think moving the Quark has been deemed to be pretty easy once you get the hang of it, and the SRM not too far from that. But I have no experience actually doing either…just trying to recall what others have said here in the past.
Use both heart rate and power. The more data available to you, the more time you can waste at work looking at the neat graphs instead of working. Tim
I used a wired SRM for a couple of years and got a Quark a couple of months ago. I’ve used a computrainer for years. The two compare very closely to one another when compared to the compurainer. As far as set-up, the wireless Quarq was a piece of cake. I haven’t had any issues with the Garmin 705, and for someone who has never used a Garmin, it was easy to set up.
I honestly think that when you compare the prices of the Quarq, SRM, and wireless powertaps, the Quarq is one of the better deals right now. Especially if you figure on buying 2 powertaps…one for a training wheel and one for a race wheel. If you are ‘just’ doing sprints and olympics, then you can probably get by with just one powertap for training…but you will miss out on some good race data.
To the OP, you have to decide…
Edit: Yes, as my signature line shows, I got a ‘pro’ deal on the Quarq, but is has proved to be easy to set up, accurate, and reliable.