Power Training Masterclass

If you're serious about making every bike session count, a power meter's a must-have. Here's how to extract the most from your wattage analyser...

- By James Witts. Photographs by Getty Images

Riding by power's arguably the greatest training evolution of recent times. Why? Well, it's down to a power meter eliminating variables and calculating exact work done, and so delivering data that's standardised whether you're facing a headwind, riding downhill or simply cruising on the flat. This differs to training by heart rate, which essentially tells you how hard you're working but not how much work is done.

As our sister website BikeRadar reveals, “It's also faster to respond than heart rate. That's down to the delay associated with heart-rate response. This is particularly pronounced with repeated, short, high-intensity efforts that often elicit only a small change in heart rate despite the workload being comparatively high.”

As you'll discover, power meters come into their own when prescribing training sessions and zones for physiological and performance adaptation. Which is all well and good, you might ask, but they're not cheap. You're right - they are another expense. But as the market's broadened, they have become more affordable, with power meters starting from under £300. That said, the gold standard remains the original from SRM, which comes in at nearly two grand. Strain gauges within the spider of the crankset measure wattage.

As the market's matured, you also now have a multitude of further ways to calculate power, including pedal-based and hub systems. Across the board, accuracy's key and, as usual, the more you pay, the more precise the data.

For power afficionados, you can of course run by power, too. This is an increasingly ubiquitous feature on top-end multisport watches, although accuracy's not yet up there with their bike brethren.

Right, now it's time to get onto helping you weave your magic with wattage...

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