How will I know, why should I care?

Much of what follows was already covered in prior posts. The powermeter incurs my wrath only because I would rather talk about training than about bikes and equipment. That is not to say that I don't like debating about bikes and equipment. Despite my possessing skeptical retro-grouch tendencies, technology interests me as much as it does the next person. However, riding bikes, and racing bikes are a lot more fun than just owning bikes, or working on them.

The problem is, you can't talk about training any more without a lot of science and physiology entering the discussion. This is all well and good, as certainly the application of scientific methods to training has undisputable merit. Science works, although in many cases the scientist tries to understand and explain what the practitioner already knows. Training to be a bike racer, especially an amateur, a hobbyist, is really as much an art as a science. If we approach the problem of building a faster bike racer from a purely scientific point of view, then we would quickly eliminate all outside distraction, focus on the job at hand, and proceed to build what would essentially be a professional bike racer. I'm not about to do that, so no matter what kind of training program I come up with, any outside expert would have no difficulty coming up with a scientific basis for why I could improve more if I changed this or that. I have no problem with this. I am not a know-it-all, I just know everything. :o)

Heart rate monitors, power meters, and even simple cyclometers all do the same thing: gather data and present it to you. What happens from there is entirely your decision. The utility of one device or the other is completely dependent on if, how, and why you use the data. As I have stated ad nauseum in the past, the issue I take with those who propose that training without a power meter amounts to a waste of time is the assumption of the worst when it comes to interpretation of any other data an athlete might use, specifically heart rate data.

Measuring and recording work allows the power meter to provide the most direct and complete comparison of one day's efforts to another, at least in terms of output, or what you did. It doesn't really tell you much about how you got there, or how you felt along the way. Here is an example. Nineteen years ago, I rode the 40K district time trial, this was 1987, so I was "cannibal." My time was 1:02:04. Last year I rode a similar event, on a similar bike (yes, different course) and my time was 1:01:30 or something like that. For our purposes, let us assume the outcome of these two rides was essentially the same. Same bike, same size rider, same speed = same power. No, I didn't have a power meter for either ride, but believe it or not, the watts are there whether you measure them or not. I mean hey, if you don't have a speedometer, that doesn't mean you aren't moving, does it?

So let us say my average power on these two efforts was 275 watts in each case. That is nothing more than a guess. However, in 1987, as a lad of 26, my average heart rate was over 180 bpm, whereas the middle-aged me last year only clicked out 164 bpm. Think about that. If we had power meters and no heart rate monitors, I could look at these data and conclude that absolutely nothing had changed in 19 years. Yet clearly my body sees the situation differently (never mind that my eyes don't see well enough to read the power meter or the HRM!). For these reasons I know that I am not done learning. I have no experience training a 45 year old rider. I have lots of experience training a younger guy, but all that is useless to me now...

"I am not a robot"
    -Tom Boonen

Someday I am sure I will own a power meter, but right now the expense of outfitting multiple bikes, obsoleting all my back wheels, and adding weight to my race bike doesn't make sense to me. Like HRMs, PM's will undoubtedly become more reliable over time. I don't need my rides compromised by some finicky electronic nightmare. The HRM is cheap, can be used on (and off) every bike, and it does my training diary for me. Maybe it doesn't let me accurately measure my ability, or compare day to day, but I can manage without that. Like I said, the watts are there whether you measure them or not. You don't need a power meter to train with the concept of power. You just need a hill or even a trainer with a rear wheel speed pickup. The faster the wheel is turning, the more power you are putting out. For that matter, I doubt you will find too many graphs where power output and heart rate are going in opposite directions.

In the end, it is all just data. What it is worth to you is all your deal. After 20 years of using heart rate monitors off and on, I think I can interpret the numbers quite well and find the data very useful. It is still not telling me what to do. How you feel, yes PE, ultimately determines what you are going to produce. *Your body sends lots of distress signals at crunch time during a race, and no scientist will ever be able to fully explain the incredibly complex process of what separates those who rise above them and win and those who capitulate and give up.


* This sentence was inspired by a passage from Tom Doughty's Complete Book of Long Distance and Competitive Cycling (Simon and Schuster, 1983). The complete quote was:

"In fact, it is the mental aspect that often decides who the sucessful racers are. For example, often there are riders in the field who aren't really competing. For various reasons they know they can't win, so they race for other goals--for training, for experience, for fun, for the feeling of accomplishment in completing the distance. They may be good cyclists and they may take an active part in the race as it progresses, but when the crunch comes they can't or won't disregard all the painful distress signals their bodies are sending. Other competitors, though, will react in the opposite way--they realize that when the going gets tough it's time to get going. They excel when a challege is thrown at them, when attacks begin late in the race or a really hard part of the course looms up. This test of a rider's ability to repsond when it would be so much easier to let up is what bike racing is all about."