Even pros pay attention to it. "One huge component I lacked in college and my early career was power," Stephanie Bruce, 38, pro runner with Hoka Northern Arizona Elite, tweeted earlier this year. "I'm proud that after years of strength work and heavy lifting and hills, we have greatly improved my power and stayed essentially injury-free for 6+ years." Less than two weeks after that tweet, in January 2022, Bruce won the Rock 'n' Roll Arizona half marathon in Phoenix.
Who wouldn't want to run faster and stay injury-free? Power is yet another piece of the puzzle that can inform your training so you can get the most out of every run. And now that it's more accessible than ever, it's time to tap into it.
What power tells you about performance
Imagine a sprinter's wide-open stride, and the amount of force they generate with each step. That's power. When it comes down to the numbers, though, "power is one of those metrics that you can use to gauge how hard you're going," says Chris Myers, PhD, CSCS, a coach with Peaks Coaching Group and coauthor of Triathlon Training with Power.
What sets it apart from other metrics: It gives you a real-time effort assessment. Pace and heart rate, which can be affected by several external factors, won't do that. Power is kind of like your rate of perceived exertion-but instead of subjectively rating your perception of your effort during a workout on a scale of 0 to 10, you're getting a quantifiable metric that can inform your training.
Power is also a measure of efficiency, or running faster with less energy: "If you can generate more power with every step while at a lower heart rate or faster pace than in previous workouts, that's a sign of improvement," says Colleen Brough, PT, DPT, director of Columbia RunLab at Columbia University.
How to get a power measurement
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Denne historien er fra Issue 03, 2022-utgaven av Runner's World.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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TO RUN 26.2 IS TO FEEL ALIVE
THE SUN IS rising from the east, and the waves of the Pacific crash below to the west.
LEAVE IT UP TO A PIECE OF PAPER TO TEACH YOU TO RUN EASY
BEFORE I FELL for running, I thought the hardest thing about the sport was the fast stuff: the speedwork, the sprints, and the intervals.
WHY-AND HOW-YOU SHOULD RUN DOUBLES
Those are just a few of the titles entered into my training log for the second run of a day.
FIND YOUR RUNNING COMMUNITY, ONLINE OR IN PERSON
I SIGNED UP for my first marathon while sobbing in the back of a rideshare, on my way to the airport to fly to my uncle's funeral.
FUEL WITH WHAT YOU WANT TO EAT
AS AN ULTRARUNNER, I'm all too familiar with the saying that long-distance running is an \"eating contest with a running component.\"
AT THE FERTILITY CLINIC, MY PAST CAUGHT UP WITH ME
I SAT IN the fertility doctor's office white walls, bare wooden desk, opaque window-alone.
THIS IS NOT AN ESCAPE STORY
AT 15, DARLENE STUBBS WALKED AWAY FROM A POLYGAMOUS CULT-THEN DISCOVERED A NEW LIFE AND COMMUNITY THROUGH RUNNING.
RUNNING WITH HANK
How my daughter's rambunctious mutt saved my sanity while she was lost to the darkness.
WHEN I FOUND OUT I HAD MS.I THOUGHT I'D NEVER RUN AGAIN.
I checked the pins on my bib, shimmied my spandex shorts into place, and teed up the stopwatch on my wrist.
A RUNNER'S GUIDE to sleep
Nike rocked the running world in 2018 when it released the Vaporfly 4%, claiming that the shoe could boost a runner's efficiency by that amount.