What good is a power meter for a noob?
#51
just another gosling
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I only got a PM in 2019. I had a lot of rides up on Strava using HR as the only metric. After I got the PM I redid them in similar conditions, i.e. not windy, and got PM results very similar to those previously estimated on long steady climbs. The Garmin updates position from GPS fairly frequently, but it's not continuous, so it has to be a climb with a steady slope to get a good estimate from GPS data. And of course you have to have entered very accurate data of your clothed weight and operational bike weight.
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#52
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HR/watts going up can also mean fatigue is increasing. Some increase is normal, but a big increase may indicate it's time to dial down the pace.
Last edited by terrymorse; 04-30-24 at 06:33 PM.
#53
Perceptual Dullard
Yup. You don't really need a PM to make relatively good estimates on a long steady hill. A PM's strengths show up when the course isn't steady and speeds and efforts are variable. Its value is larger when the course, like life in the Middle Ages, is short, nasty, and brutish.
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#54
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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!!!
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#55
It's a little simpler when climbing a steepish hill because you don't have to worry quite so much about aerodynamic drag -- when climbing a steep hill, there's a rule of thumb that gets you close to the right watts/kg.
For a steep hill, multiply the hill's gradient by your speed in km/h, then by 3. If you measure your speed in mph, multiply by 5 instead of 3.
For a steep hill, multiply the hill's gradient by your speed in km/h, then by 3. If you measure your speed in mph, multiply by 5 instead of 3.
My typical rides around Boston haven't yet taken me up any meaningful hills. Been meaning to seek some out. (Looking at the map now, I see some surprisingly tall hills in Brookline. I didn't know! Looks like enough to soak up a solid hundred kilojoules of output. Substantial for me!)
#56
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I looked at a 2019 ride, the last big ride I did, 154 miles, 9000'. On the last big climb, 2300', my average power over the last half dropped by 7% compared to the first half - I was going by HR, kept it steady, upper Z3 while power was lower Z4. It was a warm day, but not hot, ~80°. Hard to say, tired or dehydrated or both. I had a 2L Camelbak, didn't run out. I was well fueled and had a good ride for me, 10:16 saddle time. OTOH, a few years earlier I'd done a 10,000' climbing ride when it was 105° on the last long climb. My HR got up to 120 stopped and sitting in the shade. That was dehydration!
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