Originally Posted by burnthesheep

I'm not great at it, but have raced road, TT, and cross for a few years now. In a group ride or a race I don't really look at the power, maybe once in a blue moon in a TT to check on pacing. I can get a 1.01 or so IF for a TT on feel alone. I say that to say that I've tried to do intervals outside with power and personally unless you're really really good at it or have a nice steady slow long climb to use, I don't find outdoor intervals that easy to accomplish within that tight target window of power. Our roads aren't long enough, stop signs, etc....

So the on-bike meter largely tracks training stress and is a convenient check once in a while on what you're doing.

If I had to own ONE thing, it would be an indoor smart trainer.
If I had to do my idiotic ideas, I'd do both by getting the smart trainer new and just a cheap left-only crank meter for outside to track rides as "good enough".

Especially as if you plan to Zwift, smart trainer. I tried it with a dumb trainer and my on bike meter......so freaking boring. The resistance changes of terrain is what makes it more interesting.