Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
The whole point of instrumenting oneself is real time information.
Originally Posted by
chaadster
Good use? You're not getting *any* use out of a power meter without a computer.
Um, so, I guess this is kind of obvious in retrospect. On several people's advice I've bought a Garmin Edge 820 off Ebay. It seems sufficiently feature-complete and there's a clear upgrade path (just get more sensors!). For now it just has to work with my phone and my Polar H10.
Originally Posted by
sir_crash_alot
If your goal is general fitness and just getting out regularly, you almost certainly don't need a power meter. If your goal is to track progress and become stronger/better/faster etc, then a power meter is quite valuable, but not the only tool you could use to do this.
Originally Posted by
john m flores
And I'm not sure if the OP has responded to the question regarding their goals.
Very helpful comments. I hadn't actually thought too much about what my goals are. I think at the moment I'm largely just trying to improve my abysmal cardiovascular fitness. That this translates to increased speed on the vehicle is certainly fun, but speed is a secondary concern for me right now. I am still getting measurably faster on my commute just about every week. Last week, for the first time, rather than seeing a speedup, I saw a lower average heart rate -- the speed is starting to get a little scary for me. I am seeking advice on what to do about this.
To sum up, I certainly don't need a power meter to hit any training goals. For me right now it would just be a way to see some neat but ultimately unnecessary metrics.
Originally Posted by
rm -rf
Strava has some simplified analysis charts, but that's kind of a sideline for Strava. The charts aren't very useful or well designed, like much of Strava.
ridewithgps can show a sidebar of averages and a chart for any section of a ride. I just drag the red elevation chart to select. That can be useful: [pic]
For interesting data analysis, I like the free, open source Golden Cheetah. [awesome writeup]
I've been using Strava for speed/heart rate/estimated power. Have read a lot about how unreliable the estimated power is, but in the absence of additional data I've been using it to ballpark.
Many thanks for the detailed Golden Cheetah writeup! The bike computer is coming in a couple of days; I believe I'll be referring back to this soon! The charts have me EXTREMELY excited. Currently my primary motivation for spending money on a meter is to have the data to plot like this.
Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
Another metric I use all the time is HR compared to power. HR/watts goes up, I'm getting dehydrated, HR/watts goes down, I need fuel.
I thought I had been imagining this. Makes sense! Of course my only way of getting power is to guess, which is why I thought this was my imagination.
My methodology for guessing power in a steady state: I've thrown my gears and a bunch of cadences into a speed calculator, and the speed numbers into a power calculator. Memorized a bunch of music with known bpm to estimate my cadence while riding. Memorized a few of the table entries. With that I can get a rough wattage by 1. looking at my current gear, 2. figuring out what bpm I'm lining up with, and 3. adjusting for the headwind or tailwind I recall from forecast.
Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
Another good metric for folks who are just getting into cycling is just HR while riding around. It starts out high and gradually comes down over the weeks as one gets into cycling condition. One doesn't need a many 100$ extra device to tell them that it's getting easier. I'm all for minimizing barriers to getting into serious cycling. I rode for decades, before power meters came into general use, and did just fine with HR. ... Just hold the wheel in front of you until the blood spurts from your eye sockets. Devices can be a distraction from the work that needs to be done. I see too many riders on here, just starting out, who spend too much time worrying about numbers, when all they need to do is ride more.
I'm totally distracted by the numbers & should probably pay more attention to spurting blood. To be fair, looking at the numbers I can get has also been a major motivator for me; seeing that I need less and less bpm to achieve a given speed is neat. And even without being able to see the number live, it's helpful to know afterwards -- for subjective difficulty calibration -- that e.g. I felt like I couldn't go harder but I was only at 90% HRmax for this segment or whatever.
I intend to attend my first ever group ride tomorrow. Will post about how much blood I spurt!!!