Welcome to my first ICA post on power training. I’ve been shocked and bewildered at the degree of dogma that has emerged from the discipline of power training for cycling. There continues to be a dearth of books on the subject, and all of them are speaking to the very narrow population of competitive athletes. Worse yet, there is a consistent “bashing” of the heart rate monitor and all the methods for training using that tool.Welcome to the first of the bi-monthly posts on power training!
Let’s Start With A Bit Of A Rant
I am interested in making our indoor winter rides as much fun and benefit as possible and as many of our cyclists and triathletes use power as their measure of work done we are looking at the best systems to use for indoor cycling where we can link people and use video and technology to enhance the in house participants but also those linking remotely. Any ideas on the best power based systems to use. I also agree that the myth of power has led to some very dogmatic approaches to training leaving out the heart of the matter quite literally meaning both heart rate efforts and also the inability to look away from the power meter and up the road ahead and feel the training.
This is especially important for the indoor “only” cyclist as well. When it comes to class retention – measurements are an ultimate revelation of the long term benefits from a consistent indoor cycling routine. Especially if there is a skilled indoor instructor using the tools effectively. Otherwise the benefits are subjective and vulnerable to whims of fitness industry fads.
What EuroD said. 🙂
Have at it Geno! I’m looking forward to your dispelling some of these myths and ideas of rocket science! Keep it real 🙂