The holiday season has come and gone and you’re looking to justify the extravagant purchase of a power meter. You’re trying to convince yourself that it’s a good idea to spend more on your crankset than you did on your first car. If that’s the case I’ve compiled this handy list to push you over the edge and help you plunge into the abyss of training with a power meter. As if cycling wasn’t expensive enough, here are the top 5 reasons to drop even more money on a power meter..
5. Because they’re awesome
The modern cycling power meter is a direct descendant of the old school cycling ergometer previously found almost exclusively in exercise physiology laboratories. If you stop by the Sacramento State Human Performance Lab you can give one of these old birds a spin. In order to calculate the wattage of a rider the laboratory assistant estimates the RPM’s, records the mass in the weight basket at the front of the bike, then uses a formula taking into account the resistance on the flywheel to arrive at the power being produced on the bike. Did you catch all that? That’s what a power meter used to be. Today’s modern power meters are mobile, weather proof, crash resistant, exercise physiology laboratories imbedded in your bike that wirelessly transmit real time power numbers to your cycling computer for immediate feedback and post ride analysis. That is completely awesome.
4. Hold your coach and/or yourself more accountable
The beauty of training with a power meter is the objectivity through which it displays and records your progress on the bike. One thing is clear, you’re either getting stronger and faster on the bike or you’re not. If you’re paying for coaching a power meter can serve as an insurance policy to assess the effectiveness of your training plan. If you’re putting together your own training plan the evidence of your progress (or lack thereof) is equally clear.
3. Maximize available training time
If you’ve got a limited amount of time to train, no tool has a bigger impact on your training than a power meter. Whether you’re shredding indoors on a trainer or blasting out a quick workout during your lunch break, a power meter helps to bring focus to every minute you spend on the bike.
2. Bring added meaning to race performance
Racing with a power meter not only gives you an unbiased account of every second of a race, it also allows you to address previously unanswerable questions such as;
“Was that race really hard or did I just have a bad day”?
“What power output do I need to attain in order to stay with the leaders on that climb”?
“Do I have a better chance of winning in a break or a bunch sprint”?
Questions previously left up to conjecture can now be answered with objectivity and precision. You now have the data to pinpoint exactly where you need to improve in order to be more competitive on the bike.
1. Have more fun
The best reason to purchase a power meter is that it makes training and racing more fun. Immediate feedback while you’re riding coupled with post ride analysis make it possible to capture personal bests and other training milestones. This in turn makes training more fun while strengthening your motivation to get faster and stronger on the bike.
So there you have it. My top 5 reasons to break out the plastic and throw down on a power meter. Check back for my next post where I’ll outline the top 5 reasons to NOT buy a power meter.
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