Reply To: Power meter?

[lizdobz]

I’ve found it to be a helpful tool for indoor training, but I don’t have any experience with using a power meter outdoors. I’ve been taking classes for about a year at a spin studio in Eastern Market called Off Road (it’s where two of the Off Season Spin sessions are held) that uses power meters on its bikes, and have learned so much about my riding from having another metric to track and correlate with my heart rate. For example, I now know that I’m much less powerful at the same heart rate on mornings when I don’t eat something substantial before spin class, and I was able to experiment with my bike setup to find the settings that consistently yield the best results. It also keeps me accountable for achieving the goal of outdoor riding (to optimize forward movement) when not actually moving forward. However, I don’t think I’m going to buy a power meter for my actual bike once it’s time to ride outdoors. I already have a bike computer that tells me MPH and cadence, and thanks to my indoor HR + power training I know what it feels like to ride at different power levels and heart rates.