Originally Posted by
ZHVelo
I am curious as to how you think getting a power meter would change your ride on said undulating path.
That question is the very reason for this thread: to enquire whether or not power management can be used as a proxy for heart rate management for the kind of riding that I'm doing as it can in more controlled situations. I'll put you down as a "no".
Originally Posted by
ZHVelo
All it would do is show you that you keep popping out of and into zone 2. Something you already know now based on your HR. You need a route that allows for a constant effort.
Since I last posted in this thread, I've figured out how to successfully hold my zone two heartrate constant on my variable route:
1) I hold my cadence between 65 BPM and 70 BPM rather than my usual 85 BPM - 95 BPM range.
2) I hold my pedal force to the level that I seem to naturally gravitate towards when optimizing pedal efficiency. Pushing comfortably but not mashing per se.
It's basically a version of this I think:
Originally Posted by
GhostRider62
I like to amuse myself with guessing my power output by feel in my legs and surprisingly, I can guess pretty closely what my 3s Pwr is reading on the Garmin.
This has been working like I charm and I can do it quite well by feel so I probably won't get a power meter this year.
That said, a power meter might help me perfect my method even more if it could display pedal force instead of power. Is that possible? I would assume that force is the fundamental variable that power meters actually track so whether or not that is available is probably just a matter of how things are set up for display purposes.