I bought a powermeter....now what?

[cougie uk]

You need to train with it. Best doing this on the turbo so head indoors.

Plenty of training plans available. Zwift. Traineroad etc.

Train hard indoors and you'll feel the benefits outside.

Any Garmin will record and show your power but it's not much benefit outside unless you're racing flat out.

 

[straas]

I still fail to understand power meters as I don't produce any electricity when I ride. I only use cadence and mph, the two things I can relate to. Watts are only for light bulbs and electrical appliances as far as I am concerned, not my legs.

cadence is only for washing machines, not my legs.

 

[rivers]

Any Garmin will record and show your power but it's not much benefit outside unless you're racing flat out.

I would say my power meter is a great benefit outside. It allows me to see that I'm keeping my easy rides easy. It's not so much a problem on my winter bike, but when I'm out on my summer bike or TT bike I have a tendency to not take it easy when I should be. By having power meters on those two bikes, I can make sure when I'm supposed to be staying in zones 1 and 2 as per my coach's instructions, I am.
When I'm TTing however, I don't even look at my power meter readings. More just concentrating on the race.

 

[fossyant]

Is the OP planning on racing ?

 

[cougie uk]

I would say my power meter is a great benefit outside. It allows me to see that I'm keeping my easy rides easy. It's not so much a problem on my winter bike, but when I'm out on my summer bike or TT bike I have a tendency to not take it easy when I should be. By having power meters on those two bikes, I can make sure when I'm supposed to be staying in zones 1 and 2 as per my coach's instructions, I am.
When I'm TTing however, I don't even look at my power meter readings. More just concentrating on the race.

A HRM would tell that for a fraction of the price.

 

[Cycleops]

Here’s what GCN think are the benefits:

View: https://youtu.be/GhEyCYzB2gA

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

A HRM would tell that for a fraction of the price.

It would not.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I would say my power meter is a great benefit outside. It allows me to see that I'm keeping my easy rides easy.

You can tell if a ride is easy by paying attention to your breathing.

 

[Milkfloat]

Any Garmin will record and show your power but it's not much benefit outside unless you're racing flat out.

Not totally accurate - not all Garmin's handle power, for example the Edge 20 and 25.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The Garmin etrex series won’t show power either

 

[HarryTheDog]

@Cycleops that GCN video is fairly accurate plus I would add as a person who is succeptible to putting on weight its very good at accurately measuriing calorie expenditure, part of my "training" is balancing food intake on training and non training days which can vary by well over 1,000 calories on some days.

 

[Cycleops]

I’m sure they are very good for ‘serious’ cyclists but not for Pootlers like me, especially considering the cost.

 

[bobones]

Take a look at Xert. It's a truly innovative tool for making sense of your power numbers and improving your performance. I'd also recommend a Garmin head unit such as the 530 or 830 since it can run the Xert ConnectIQ apps to get real time data from Xert and enables you to run workouts out on the on the road. No FTP tests ever either. Xert also has a bike computer apps for IOS and Android phones or the Karoo Hammerhead 2 head unit.

Just riding around looking at your power numbers will get boring very quickly.

 

[ColinJ]

You can tell if a ride is easy by paying attention to your breathing.

No you can't!

(Your breathing can only tell you that you are finding it easy, not how hard the ride actually is.)

 

[si_c]

No you can't!

(Your breathing can only tell you that you are finding it easy, not how hard the ride actually is.)

If you're finding it easy, then surely by definition it is easy. And vice versa