The Power Meter Handbook: A User’s Guide for Cyclists and Triathletes

events, the 6-hour Ironman ride, for example, require you to put out a steady butrelatively low intensity for a long time. In contrast, the 45-minute criterium race fluctuates between extremely high and low intensities. Training with the same intensity for both of these events simply won’t work. Your key workouts must reflect the exact levels of intensity demanded by the event in order for you to become fit for it.
    Without a power meter, you’re just guessing at how hard to make your key workouts. If you guess wrong—either too high or too low—you’ll have a poor performance. With a power meter, you’ll know exactly what the intensity demands of the event are so that you can replicate them in training. Then over the course of a few weeks, you can make your workouts increasingly like the goal event by training at the precise intensities needed. On race day there will be no surprises. Your body will be ready to meet the demands of the event.
Pace Steady-State Races
    To be successful in steady-state events such as time trials and triathlons, you must expend your energy in a well-calculated manner. This is called “pacing.” It’s hard to get right, even for seasoned veterans of the sport. Most go out much too fast at the start and pay the price in the second half of the race by significantly slowing down. This is the most common mistake made in steady-state events. I see it happen in every race. It can be easily fixed with a power meter in a much more precise manner than with a heart rate monitor. In fact, your heart rate monitor is probably setting you up for poor race pacing. (You may be shaking your head at that idea, but it’s true. I’ll come back to it later in this chapter to explain why.)
    Proper pacing goes well beyond the common problem of going out too fast at the start. It also has to do with energy expenditure on hills, including tiny ones; in headwinds and tailwinds; and over the entire course so that you finish strong. You will learn in Chapter 4 how your power meter makes this simple.
Know and Increase Your Limits
    There is a similar problem, but with a twist, if you do variably paced races such as criteriums, road races, and mountain bike races. Here the challenge is that other riders often dictate your pacing strategy. There are brief episodes, such as breakaways, sprints, and aggressive hill climbs, in these types of races that often determine the outcome. They usually last less than two minutes but are critical moments. If for these episodes you are able to stay with the leaders, then you will make the “selection” and can place well, perhaps even win.
    The key is knowing what to expect in regard to the intensity, duration, and frequency of these episodes. Armed with a typical race power profile from similar races, you will know exactly what you are currently capable of doing when they occur—and better yet, you can train to respond to them. You can even train to eventually become the rider who initiates them, putting the hurt on others. We’ll discuss these concepts in much greater detail in Chapter 4 .
Organize Your Season
    Planning your race season is called “periodization.” You’re probably familiar with the concept since it’s been around since the 1960s and is still used by nearly all elite athletes around the world. I wrote about it in some detail in my Training Bible book series. In a nutshell, periodization involves manipulating training volume and intensity to produce high levels of fitness at times in the season when you have important races—what I term “A-priority.” With a power meter, you can use something called “Training Stress Score”™ to organize your season around A-priority races. This method is much more precise than using weekly hours or miles and estimates of intensity. We’ll get into this in Chapter 7 .
Measure Fitness Changes
    There are two questions athletes want answered throughout the season. The first and most basic is “Am I becoming fitter and faster?” The second is “How do I compare with my competition?” The “competition” could be you from the same race the previous year, or it could be the other athletes whom you expect to show up. The answers give you insight into what to expect in a race. With your power meter, you can answer both. I’ll show you how in Chapter 6 .
Other Power Meter Benefits
    The five benefits I list above are just the beginning. There are many more that will be discussed throughout the book,