Oh looky here…

PowerTap by Saris

Yeah, that’s right.

Power meters.

Not one, but TWO power meters.

Before you call me a hypocrite, let me state that my decision to start training with power is based solely on scientific principles. I never saw the value in using a power meter because I had no way of determining what my zones were for training with power. For years I have resisted the use of power meters because I felt that without hard numbers, they are simply a measuring device and could not guarantee to enhance my training or fitness. Sure, the power meter people like to say “If you’re not training with power, you’re not training”. But that is like saying you cannot lose weight unless you own a scale. And let’s face it – we know of lots of fat people who remain fat despite owning bathroom scales. Simply measuring something does not mean that you will improve it. And it seems that a lot of people buy power meters because they think it will make them faster, but then they never actually use them to train properly.

I avoided them for many years because I saw no point in riding around staring at numbers that meant nothing to me. Without any way of validating the data or interpreting it, I had no idea what my ‘critical power’ was or my power at lactate threshold.  I chose to continue to use heart rate and RPE as my primary methods of gauging training intensity. I guess it’s because I came from running originally, and in running the only measure is the clock, and the clock is pretty reliable. Time is moot in cycling training, but I had made some decent progress using heart rate, so I saw no reason to change.

Last fall I had the pleasure of being a subject in a fellow grad student’s research study. I had a lactate threshold and VO2 max test done on my bike, using a Powertap to measure my wattage. I also had blood sampled and O2 and CO2 levels measured, in addition to heart rate. After that bout of testing I had real hard numbers that related all of these variables together. I now knew what my power was at threshold, I knew that the numbers were accurate based on the levels of lactate in my blood. No guess work with HR, no worry of cardiac drift or hydration status or any other things that might render a traditional HR based Conconi test useless. I had real data. And suddenly, I saw the value in training with power. Knowing my real power zones meant I could use it effectively. Interestingly, my HR zones tracked perfectly with the actual blood values for lactate, indicating that the HR I had been using as my target zone for years was indeed accurate. So I guess despite not having a power meter over the last decade, I was training effectively.

Go figure.

Now  I am not a big time number person. I am not fascinated by charts and graphs and training data. But, the fellow grad student who tested me is. And he is an endurance sports coach. He developed a masters thesis that involved the use of a Power tap and he tested me. It seems only natural that he should coach me. I have been self coached for the last several years, because I was balancing my training and racing between a full time job teaching high school, several months coaching track and cross country, and a commitment to both running and cycling competitions. I felt that no coach would understand the demands of competing in indoor track in the winter and cycling in the summer. I didn’t feel confident that anyone would know how to prepare me for a fast 5k, a half marathon, and a full season of elite level road racing all within a 9 month time frame, so I coached myself. It worked, for the most part, and I had a lot of success in all of my events in 2007.

I decided to use a coach for cyclocross season for several reasons. One was that I hadn’t raced cross in a while and I had never trained specifically for cross – I had just coasted into the season on residual road fitness. Cross used to be my favorite season, but it has become increasingly clear to me over the years that cross represents all of my weaknesses combined into one event. I cannot sprint, I have low power output, and excel at long races with steep climbs. A forty five minute event that starts with an all out sprint off the line and continues at a highly anaerobic intensity for the duration is not exactly my forte. I also lacked a properly designed cross bike that fit me. The bike issue was addressed when Terry Precision designed the Valkyrie Cyclocross Bike based on my input. With that problem solved, I needed to fix the fitness aspect of things, and Jay Francis seemed like the perfect coach for me.

Which leads me to where I am now. Jay is coaching me for cross, and Jay likes to work with Power. So,  I am now training with power. And because power output in cyclocross events is not often analyzed, Jay decided that I should use the Power meter in some races to get some data. Most people would just buy one Powertap and switch out the tires from road to cross as needed.

Not me.

Why? Well, I ride 650c road wheels, and 26″ cross wheels (yeah, they are technically a mtn bike wheel, but I use them on my cross bike). I cannot train on my cross bike on the road because I can’t put road tires on it. So, we decided to get two Power taps – one for each bike.

I’ve only had them since Friday, and this is a rest week, so right now there is nothing special to look at. I promise that I will not turn into one of those people who posts their power files as a blog entry…ok, maybe I will, but that is only to show you the ridiculously low numbers that I generate. Jay thinks it will be interesting to see my power output in a race, especially something like a crit. Given my size, we know the numbers will be low – but just how low? That is the question.