Is power all that it is cracked up to be when cycling?

Is power all that it is cracked up to be when cycling?

To power or not to power? That is the question. Have power meters become the new heart rate monitors and do you really need this expensive piece of equipment to become a better cyclist? We asked our cycling coach Devlin Eyden on this episode of The Ask Coach Parry Cycling Podcast.

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Transcript

Brad Brown:        You’re listening to the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast, I’m Brad Brown and with me is cycling coach, Devlin Eyden. Devlin something that’s popped up over the last few years and has become the rage within cycling circles is training to Power and using those numbers to get better as a cyclist.

A good few years ago it was all about heart rate, but definitely there’s been a big shift to Power. Is it all what it’s cracked up to be? They’re not the cheapest bits of gear but if you can afford one, is it definitely worth getting?

Devlin Eyden:       Look, you’re right there in the sense that they’re not very accessible to everyone. They are becoming a little bit cheaper, they are becoming more accessible to the average rider. The comparison between a Power meter and the heart rate, ideally you’d like to be working on Power because the numbers are really straight forward. If you need to be riding at 300 watts, you ride at 300 watts whereas opposed to heart rate, there are a couple of things that could affect heart rate on the day.

There might be a slight difference in where the training intensity that you actually should be versus what you are riding in, if you’re focusing on heart rate alone.

Power is all about monitoring the numbers

From a Power meter point of view, again, the benefit to it is, if you’re training with Power, it allows you just to monitor your racing with Power a little bit better as well in terms of knowing when you can go out hard, at what kind of intensity that you’re working at and also knowing what you’re capable of doing over a period of time.

It is a really good tool to use and it helps coaches as well, from a monitoring point of view, to see the kind of numbers that you are hitting. Again, from an accessibility point of view, the Power meter is on the bike and then there are a couple of options now with trainers as well.

You’ve got indoor trainers that you put your bike on that can read Power as well and that might not be a bad option. The one key thing to remember, there are gadgets out, being heart rate monitors, being Power meters all of that, is there’s always the risk of information overload.

Making sure that if you are taking on a Power meter and you are using that tool, are you actually getting the benefit that’s equal to the cost that you spent. Instead of just having it because it is the new craze out there and it’s the new gadget out on the market, are you using it to its full potential and I think there comes in quite key if you are working closely with a coach, that you can be handing that data over and the coach gives you an analysis of the data because there are a lot of things that you can get mixed up and it can confuse you if there’s too much data to try and handle. Rather focus on your training itself and let the coach worry about the nitty gritty of the data analysis.

BB:           If you’re looking for someone to analyse your data, you can get Devlin, all you need to do is head over to coachparry.com/cyclingcoaching, you can check out the training packages there, get Devlin to work out a tailor-made package just for you to help you reach your goal. Until next time, from the two of us here on the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast, it’s cheers.

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