Training with Power?

Winter will be here before I know it and I'm starting to plan my indoor winter training. I'm thinking of getting an indoor trainer (compu trainer) that measures power output. Anyone out there done much training using some sort of power meter? Any pointers to articles or books that talk about how best to incorporate this in a training program would be appreciated.

I'm mostly a fitness rider but I started doing time trials this year and I really enjoyed it. Now I want to get better. I came in second in my age class at my first TT but my time was about the same as that of a (very fit) 68 year old fella recovering from hip replacement surgery.....I've got lots of room for improvment!

Cheers,

traveller

http://tinyurl.com/bw9vr

This is a link to the Carmichael Training System site. It's pretty expensive, I think $40/month for the cheapest prgram. It has power meters 15% off if you join by September 30th though.

http://tinyurl.com/b6pem

When I searched the Dan Empfield site for "power" I got 403 hits. Here's the first. It's a tri training site at http://www.slowtwitch.com

Nanci

Thanks Nanci,

I read a couple of the introductory articles on training with power from the Empfield site and they were quite helpful.

Do you measure power output as part of your training program?

t62

I don't have power now, too much info input at this point (HR, Cadence, etc). I plan on getting a power tap at some point in the next year, but as the cheapest one is something like $600, and the computrainer is double that, I'm going to wait until I can really justify it.

Check out the Training Bible, Friel discusses power at length.

No, I don't. You've gotta be a rich guy to do that! BF is dying to get a power meter, though, and I think he would really benefit from that info, if we could afford it.

Nanci

Yes, it looks like any option will be very expensive! But I'm a data geek. I love downloading the data from my HRM at the end of a ride and analyzing it. Don't worry though, I love the riding more than the data :) .

I ordered the Friel book. Looks like that will also be an excellent source of information on this topic.

Cheers,
T62

Joe Friels work is def worth the investment... readable and yet still well grounded in medicine, research and anecdotal evidence.

Enjoy