And is still fast?
Not pros, you.
OK fine, pros too.
you can be fast and not use a power meter. its just easier to quantify your training and improve systematically.
pace clock for the swim
PM for the bike
gps for the run
hr for sex
you do not need a power meter to be fast. But it can definitely be a useful tool in realizing your training goals. Being able to quantify improvement can be a huge motivator and a great asset for any athlete.
I know Thomas Voeckler doesn’t use a power meter. Most pros have only adopted power meters in the last 5 years. Some of the fastest people I know never used a power meter but instead were able to become fast through natural talent, heart rate monitors, and hard work.
I don’t use one. I think it helps people who are newer to cycling or those that can’t feel the effort as easily. In the end I think far too many people buy them and think “that’s it. I have a power meter so now I’ll be fast”. The reality is its just a tool that helps you quantify effort. If you dont know how to use the numbers they aren’t much good.
I do agree with Andrew on the improvement side things. It would be nice to see those numbers going up. All that being said if someone gave me a power meter I’d gladly give it a shot.
I don’t use one.
IMHO if you really want to get fast you would do all of your hard workouts on a computrainer.
Power meters are okay, but even they are limited by what you will encounter on the open road (hills, traffic, weather, flats, ext).
Riding on the road has a few objectives for me. One is to get faster, and secondly to unwind from work and to enjoy the freedom of the bike. I wear a HRM, but am not prepared to go techno-weenie and be ruled by a power meter.
Interestingly at kona of the top 15 woman, 1st, 3rd, 5th, 14th, and 15th used no power meter. Not sure now many of the others are paid to use theirs.
I don’t use a powermeter*. My PR’s are 1:52 for Olympic distance and 4:07 for HIM, so I think I qualify as “fast” (by anonymous AG chump standards anyway).
I have no doubt that training and racing with power would help me squeeze a few more seconds out, but:
A) It would suck all of the fun out of riding. I stare at numbers, spreadsheets and graphs all day in my 9-5. I don’t want any part of that shit on my free time.
B) They’re expensive. Every time I consider taking the plunge I think about how the cost of the PM would cover a whole season’s worth of local race entries, or entry fees and travel expenses to an out of town race. Given limited resources I’ll keep my $30 Cateye and race every weekend.
-
- I do have a Computrainer, so I’m not completely ignorant to the wattage I put out, but I only ride it in the dead of winter. March - November I’m out on the road and the CT is collecting dust.
I second both points KoopaTrooper made. I’m not as fast as he is (2:05 Oly, 4:32 HIM), but I’ll get on a podium here and there. For me though it’s all about enjoying training. When you make it all about the numbers, the entire racing experience seems to be prewritten. I don’t want to be able to calculate exactly at what wattage I will bonk or what range I need to stay in during this set or whatever… I like to go out and ride, enjoy it, and do it again the next day. I watched numbers pretty strictly before my first IM, and it just took the fun away. You know if you’re pushing, and you know if you’re not. If you have a good program just follow it by how your body feels - that’s part of the game.
And I have a crappy trainer I got on Craigslist for $25. I ride outside unless there is ice/snow. Even when I do hit the trainer I know when I’m working and when I’m not. And I don’t think having a computrainer would make me hate riding indoors any less…
Just my 2 cents.
OK fine, pros too.
There’s a few pros here w/o PM
http://www.slowtwitch.com/Products/Tri_Bike_by_brand/Kona_2011_-_Top_15_men_on_the_bike_2416.html
http://www.slowtwitch.com/News/The_bikes_of_the_top_15_women_in_Kona_2010_1766.html
I seem to remember that Chrissy doesn’t use PM either but I could not find where I read that.
I do not train with power. I am not fast. Correlation, causation or lazy. Not sure.
You could be alot faster…alot, the athletes I coach or have coached who went from no power meter to using one for training and racing improved, you don’t necessarily need to use it everyday…but I bet you could improve IMHO!
I second both points KoopaTrooper made. I’m not as fast as he is (2:05 Oly, 4:32 HIM), but I’ll get on a podium here and there. For me though it’s all about enjoying training. When you make it all about the numbers, the entire racing experience seems to be prewritten. I don’t want to be able to calculate exactly at what wattage I will bonk or what range I need to stay in during this set or whatever… I like to go out and ride, enjoy it, and do it again the next day. I watched numbers pretty strictly before my first IM, and it just took the fun away. You know if you’re pushing, and you know if you’re not. If you have a good program just follow it by how your body feels - that’s part of the game.
And I have a crappy trainer I got on Craigslist for $25. I ride outside unless there is ice/snow. Even when I do hit the trainer I know when I’m working and when I’m not. And I don’t think having a computrainer would make me hate riding indoors any less…
Just my 2 cents.
x3 on what KoopaTroopa said. In 2009 I took the full power plunge…SRM, and CT and used the powermeter through the fall and winter. I agree tha the powermeter helps quantify what is going on, but as someone who has to stare at number and technical data all day at work, it takes some of the fun out of training. My road bike that I commute on has no power meter, no bike computer, nothing and I use that 4 days per week. The tri bike is used 2-3 days per week for my intensity ride and long rides. Interestingly enough in the spring of 2010, my time at Wildflower was 1 minute different from 2007, when I raced with no power and trained without power…the splits in all three sports were almost identical with and without power.
As I have raced in both XC skiing and running where you have to get a sense for the sustainable intensity that your body can hold over all distance with no numerical feedback, I don’t think the powermeter really helped my performance much beyond what I could already do by feel. I’ve done 100K XC ski races, where my times per 25K loop have been within a minute of each other and fairly even paced over 6 hours of racing, so I don’t think the power meter really changed my triathlon results “much”.
Right now, as I recover from an accident and some motor control issues in my left leg, I have found that riding an indoor spin bike is much healthier mind set where I just go by feel. When I get on my CT, I just end up chasing wattage numbers that my body is not really ready for.
I also agree with the others. I look at the numbers on my CT but train by HR.
Have had good success not using it.
You could be alot faster…alot, the athletes I coach or have coached who went from no power meter to using one for training and racing improved, you don’t necessarily need to use it everyday…but I bet you could improve IMHO!
It may be that for some athletes, racing in triathlons is not all about optimizing performance (even though they enjoy going fast). As many age groupers have to optimize performance in their professional lives, some may prefer the break from having to constantly keep the gas on the pedal at work and unwind on the field of play and not treat the sporting side of their lives with as much pressure for pure performance.
Also, I think the faster and more experienced the athlete, the less they need to rely on various meters to get half decent performance out of their bodies. The less experienced an athlete, the more these tools will help them as they are not as finely in tune with their bodies.
One other item to consider is that once you have used a powermeter for some time in training and racing, you’ve probably permanently altered how you attack (or don’t) different parts of a race course and then whether you have the powermeter on the bike or not, you’re riding as if there is one on the bike.
For those who don’t have a powermeter, probably the most useful thing you can do is get rid of the speedometer and just go by feel. Riding into a 25-30 mph headwind at 12 mph we tend to go way harder than we should simply because we see a low number on the speedometer. When we get rid of the speedometer, we end up riding based on effort rather than trying to jack up the low speed number…likewise on the tailwind…no need to slack off when you see 25-30 mph on the speedometer because you may just be soft pedaling at those speeds.
Completely agree on ditching the speedometer. If going strictly on feel, what about having a cadence sensor and keeping a constant cadence (combined with feel of course)?
Yes, I’ve done that too. In 1997 Lothar Leder broke 8 hours at Roth with no wrist watch, and no powermeter (not like many triathletes had powermeters then). At IMLP 1999, my speedometer pickup croaked and all I had was cadence, and that race turned out to be quite good. In 2007, I just did IMLP with nothing (no wrist watch, no cadence either) and it was my PB performance in an Ironman.
One nice thing about racing with power is that it is easier to let go of people, knowing they will blow up. It’s almost like secret weapon knowing something about your competition that they themselves don’t know if. At IM France in 2010, I was riding the long 20K climb at ~210 W (3.3 W per kilo) which is a still a bit high, but I knew there is 45 minutes of coasting on the downhills. There were guys who clearly outweighed me by 50-70 lbs blowing by early in the climb…a quick calculation suggested these guys wer climbing in the 300-350W range. Since they were not Torbjorn nor Stadler, there was certainty these guys would blow up riding that hard on a long climb, and even if they pulled it off, they still had to run a marathon in 35C heat. So in fairness to the powermeter proponents, even if you a good feel for yourself, it gives you confidence to stick to what your “feel” tells you is the right pace and not get sucked into the silliness of competitors who are destined to blow up.
In my first iron distance race this year, the magnet for my computer fell off (had it taped to a rear disc) after a little over an hour, so I had nothing but my wristwatch. It was super windy that day, and turned out to be a good thing because I know I would have been obsessing over how slow I was going into the wind. Turned in a really solid performance (for me) on the bike, and haven’t really used a computer since! It just makes riding so much more enjoyable. People ask how far/fast I have gone, and I can honestly say “Dunno!”
I’ve had my best training sessions with powermeters and my best races without them. Maybe a mind thing but it’s the facts. So for this year, I’m selling one of my PT wheels and just buying a nice disc wheel.
I am thinking of doing the exact same thing. Trained and raced this year with a PT and did not notice any difference other than an increased fixation in looking at data…
Willing to trade a wired PT w/ disc cover for a clincher disc…
You could be alot faster…alot, the athletes I coach or have coached who went from no power meter to using one for training and racing improved, you don’t necessarily need to use it everyday…but I bet you could improve IMHO!
It may be that for some athletes, racing in triathlons is not all about optimizing performance (even though they enjoy going fast). As many age groupers have to optimize performance in their professional lives, some may prefer the break from having to constantly keep the gas on the pedal at work and unwind on the field of play and not treat the sporting side of their lives with as much pressure for pure performance.
.http://app.entertainment.comcast-spectacor.com/e/es.aspx?s=691&e=128032&elq=216b090a4c5c4d9cac2ce4bc579322f1
I agree with everything except the above . That is a load of baloney Dev!! Agegrouoers who optimize their performance at work can’t help to try to optimize their performance in a race. It is in their DNA. Unfortunately being fast For some (me included) is not.