Originally Posted by
Cycletography
Thanks for the thorough response. I'll definitely wait until I get the new bike with power meter to sign up for TP. I didn't expect a learning curve for understanding the power data, but thanks for pointing that out. It's probably wise to allow myself to adjust to it and get familiar with it before starting to train with it. Like you, I expect it'll add to the fun rather than making my rides feel like work.
OTOH, I trained only with a HRM on Premium for years. Worked well. PM works better, but it's a good idea to be able to associate HR with power levels and body sensations. Then when training with power and you see your HR go up or down more than it always did before, you'll know something's up, either food or hydration.
IME, doing long rides at an optimal pace is more a matter of HR than of power. For those rides, one looks at physical stress levels, which are better reflected in HR than power. That said, once one knows how long one can hold a particular power without getting one's HR above one's comfort level, one can mostly pace by power instead of HR. Having done it both ways, I find that it's easier to screw up trying to hold a particular power than a particular HR. When I switched to power, I was able to easily find my preferred power for various things by matching power to HR. It was also perhaps easier to build my workouts using power because I knew about what TSS I wanted from each workout. I also had current CTL, ATL, and TSB to build on. I started with Premium in May 2012, added a PM in July 2019. Starting with TP Premium, it took me a while to get a feel for what the Performance Manager numbers represented in terms of how my body felt. I'd been using a HRM since 1997.
IME the sooner one has these digital tools to use in training, the better.