We all love a good gadget, but do they really make us better runners? Does all the new technology and information contribute to maximising our performance? Today, Coach Parry shares his insights into the most important gadgets and if you could only buy one gadget which one it should be.

Coach Parry also touches on power training for runners, a concept widely used in cycling, but is fairly new in running. And how this can be beneficial for runners.

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What's the most important running gadget you should have?

BRAD
Welcome to this edition of RUN with Coach Parry. I'm Brad Brown. We've got the coach with us once again. We're talking gadgets on today's show, I love my gadgets, not that I get as much out of them as I probably shouldn't be getting but gadgets are cool. I think a lot of people are using gadgets just for the sake of gadgets. But we're going to talk about what some of the sort of must haves are and what you should be looking at getting out of a gadget on today's show as well. Lindsey Parry joins us once again, Lindsey, welcome back. Thanks for joining us,

LINDSEY
Good to be here. One of my favourite topics, I sometimes think that maybe if I lost some of my gadgets, I'd be able to run a little faster,

BRAD
Might be a little bit lighter as well carrying all the gadgets. Lindsey, let's chat those gadgets now. What's the most important, like if you had to buy one gadget, what should it be? And what information should we be focusing on with the gadgets that we are using?

LINDSEY
You asked me a tough question there Brad, which if you could only afford to buy one gadget, look, I'm pretty bias at the moment, because of the gadget that I'm using but I would actually go with the power metre. But unfortunately, to have the power meter you first have to have a pretty good watch. So I'm not going to go there.

I think a really good GPS unit, preferably with heart rate. But yeah, I think a really good GPS unit is really what you need because it keeps you honest, it keeps you honest on both sides of the scale. So when you feel like you're having a really great training session, it'll give you the kind of feedback that lets you know whether the session was as good as you felt on that day. But very importantly, on the flip side of that is that on the days that you feeling really good on your easy runs, it will rein you in and it will make sure that you actually are running easy enough on your easy runs. So I would say that that's probably the most valuable information that you can get out of any gadget.

Of course, similar, you can use a heart rate monitor to get similar results. The one sort of shortcoming, if I can call it that, that I find with heart rate monitors though is that when you live in a place with very variable terrain, there is a little bit of a delay, 45 seconds to a minute before the heart rate catches up with what's actually happening in the muscles at a cellular level. So often by the time your heart rate lets you know actually you're running too hard up this hill, you've already done a lot of hard work.

Then unfortunately, most people, instead of adjusting for that, and actually then over compensating and slowing right down, go I'm going to slow down a bit here. But they almost want to defend the pace that they're running as they're going uphill and that really means that you're training way too hard when you do the climbs alone. Even if you only have a few climbs in your room, means that your total workout was not really in the zone, or prescribed or the actual purpose of that training session wasn't accomplished. So your feedback from GPS and from power is instant.

With heart rate, there's a bit of a delay, however, heart rate is a really great tool to use to get a sense of where you are on the let's call it the overtraining or overreaching spectrum. So by using a heart rate monitor, you know, if you have two or three days in a row where you can tell on an easy run, you're now getting elevated heart rates, or even worse, when you're running really hard and giving it everything but you cannot get your heart rate up, those are both signs that you are overreaching and that you need some extra recovery. So look, there's many ways that we can use gadgets and there are loads of cool gadgets that you can use but I think a GPS with a reliable heart rate monitor is probably a great combination for getting started.

BRAD
I'm not going to let you go without talking to us about that power metre. I know it's something you've been using for a while now, I've been meaning to ask you, tell me a little bit about it. I know for guys who've got a bit of a cycling background know all about cycling power, but running power? Tell me more.

LINDSEY
Yeah. So look, it is an indirect measurement of power so there is always some inaccuracy in that but having used it now for a good almost eight months, I can tell you that it's very reliable and very repeatable. So even if there are some miscalculations in the actual absolute power, the measured number, they are very comparable and by doing tests, 8K time trial, 10K time trial or doing a power test or threshold test, you can work out what in the power speak is called critical power, threshold power, doesn't matter what word you use. Then you can base all your training, your race plans, and all of that, around that power.

The thing that I like the most about power is that when you're running uphill or downhill, there is an immediate adjustment and feedback. And whether you're running 240 or 50 watts on a flat road on a hill or downhill. It's an accurate measurement of what you are doing. And its immediate, you cannot fool yourself. So five metres into the hill, you can see okay, I'm supposed to be on a 260 watt run here but I'm now sitting in 305 watts. And if you ignore it, it'll only be another minute before you're really feel that fatigue. So for me, it gives you It gives you much better control to ensure that your whole workout is actually in the zone that it is supposed to be. So that has been the number one win for me.

The only shortcoming that I've been able to find in a power metre over the last eight months is that if you are running into or with a very hard wind, it doesn't factor that into account. So I was doing hill repeats in Port Elizabeth, not too long ago, and for a start I couldn't really find a decent hill but I found one, it was straight into the teeth of th wind and try as I might I could not get anywhere near the power zones that I was supposed to be in, yet I know very well what it feels like to run at those powers. So that's really my only criticism of the unit, but keeping you honest on track and making the workouts extremely specific to the goal outcomes you really can't beat getting a power metre.

BRAD
Well brilliant stuff. Lindsey thank you very much for that.