8 Deadly Power Meter Sins

This podcast is brought to you by Trivelo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. I'm your host, Jordan Donnelly, and on my left is former Australian Ironman champion and head coach of Trivalo Coaching, Jared Donnelly. If you've been listening to any of our podcasts, you may have finally decided to buy the Bullet and purchase a power meter and get on board the powertrain. Or you might have had a power meter already. But how do you know if you're using it correctly? How do you know if you are getting the most out of your power meter? Do you understand everything you need to do to make sure you're getting accurate data from the power meter itself? So in this episode, we're going to go through the eight things that you need to know about your power meter and how to make sure you're getting the most out of it. But firstly, let's start with our normal section. Dad, welcome to the episode. What are you grateful for?

Thanks, Jord. Easy one for me this week had a few little complications with my body, and I'm so grateful that I've got a network of incredibly talented medical professionals who instantly helped me on the journey of how to go about it. So, yeah, really, really grateful that we're surrounded by really competent and invested people who really care. And it was just so obvious the way they went out of their way to help me. I'm really grateful for, for knowing those people. And I suppose we do say that a lot about the people you spend time with, and I just can't be thankful enough for the help I'm. I'm getting. So, yeah, some, I won't name names, but some really specific people have gone bent over backwards to, to help me get, you know, get over, you know, whatever's happening.

Awesome. My gratitude is that I'm grateful for gratitude. I think I've definitely done this one before and maybe you've done it as well. But we've been getting tons of people mentioning to us that they love the gratitudes, that they like hearing the gratitude on the podcast each week, and they might even take some time to think about what they're grateful for themselves, or they even send us a message of gratitude, which we really love. So that's my simple one this week. I love how much the gratitude is spreading among the Trivelo listeners and the Trivelo community out there. And moving on to our next segment, what has caught your attention this week, dad?

Well, as usual, I, you know, even though it's not spring in Europe, the Spring Classic, you know, one of the all famous, all time famous events, Paris Roubaix was on the weekend and I suppose it was a historic event because it was the first time that the ladies got to race the event, which was fantastic in about time I think. Over the last 20 years there hasn't been a wet day and this was epic. This was the worst conditions that it's been for a long, long time. And, and look, normally it's in April and that is spring in Belgium and France where Paris Roubaix is. And the weather has been cold, but it's not been those, you know, mud sliding, flashing, you know, unrideable cobbles that are just so dangerously, you know, like mine explosions underneath your under, underneath your bike. So, so it was interesting to have it in October with the weather being so bad and how the riders responded because you know, this generation of riders hasn't ridden a Paris Roubaix in the wet compared to, you know, the riders who were the last time it was wet in the 90s. So and, and ironically that the first three riders in the mail race, that was their very first Paris Roubaix which I found an incredible stat. So three debutantes won in the worst conditions ever. So just proves that it doesn't really matter your experience, if you're willing to handle the conditions, anything's possible.

I have to say we've experienced the cobbles a few times over there and you sent me a photo comparison of what the pro riders looked like covered caked in mud and what we looked like. Someone got a photo of us going through the cobbles and it just looks piss easy for us. It looks like we're in the, in the easiest, breeziest conditions. And to us it felt like hell, you know, and in that springtime it might not have been wet anytime of the last 20 years. And for the years that we were there, it was never wet, but it was always cold. And just the slightest bit of dew made it like an ice rink over the cobbles. And even in just the cold weather, our bikes were slipping and sliding everywhere. And you put, you know, a grenade explosion metaphor and that's exactly what it was because suddenly your bike would just pop out of nowhere. And then just to know how that experience is like on just the tiniest bit of dew and then to see how what it was for them was honestly painful to watch.

Yeah. And look, I was watching through the Arenberg Forest, which is the most dangerous section of the whole tour, whole one day race and, and the sun doesn't hit those cobbles ever because the forest trees are so high either side of that 2 meter pathway. That's all it is really. It's a pathway for a tractor. And, and we've always said, you know, they, they must have made that pathway with a tractor and a trail. And that guy just kicked the cobbles onto the ground as he was driving along to make a road because he didn't place them anywhere. They just randomly land and they're all over the shop and they're always wet. And even when we did them, you know, the four years we've done that race, they're always wet in there because there's no sun on it. So that's the most treacherous place. And watching Simon Clark riding such a great race and seeing him in the middle of the, the Arenberg forest, all of a sudden his bike just jumps in the air and he crashes like for seemingly no reason. And what was more impressive was Woot Van Aert behind him, not running over him and staying on his bike. It was, it was amazing bit of footage. It was really disappointing for Simon, but he was riding a really good race and he was right up there.

It is exactly like that though, where, you know, I remember when we do it, you're riding and you're so terrified and you just focused on just, just the next meter or two in front of you and hanging on for dear life. And there's literally guys popping all around you. You know, every time I rode that section, I saw a guy go over the handlebars next to me and you're just praying that you get to the end. And it's actually kind of comforting to see the exact same thing happen to the pros. You know, these are the best handlers in the world and suddenly pros are just popping up out of nowhere, you know, and that's just the nature of the course. Um, but what did you take away from the two races?

Yeah, look in the, in the women's race, it was, it was a complete domination. Lizzie Dagnan winning solo from so far out. And for anybody who, as a cyclist thinks that threshold training is not important, and she time trialed for I don't know how many kilometers, 70k or so, 70 or 80k on her own, just brilliant riding. Incredible. In those conditions, I was just chaper. That was, that was amazing. Um, you know, there's no, not a lot of experienced riders in that race in those conditions and not in the mail as well. So for her to, to, to, you know, and let's Face it, the heavier you are and the faster you can ride on the cobbles, the more smoother a journey it is. So the lighter you are, which is a lot of the. The females are so much lighter than the male riders. They're going to be bounced around so much more and they're not able to ride at the same pace. They're riding very fast, uh, but they're not quite riding at the same pace as the male. So it's, as you and I know, riding over the cobbles as fast as you can gives you the smoothest ride. The slower you go, there's more vibrations, um, and you're getting bumped around more. So. So I was just so impressed with, with that ride and I don't think people really understand how difficult that is, what she did.

You love it when a pro writer backs up a tribalo principle, which is threshold writing is the ultimate training.

Yes. So it was good. So the male race, what a fascinating race that was. Oh, Gianni Moscon, you know, leading again, similar to what Lizzy did and looking like with 23k to go, he'd done all the hard bit and he still maintained the gap from, from Vanderpoel, Vanderpoel and Van Aert and all the guns. And at the end of the day, he started to get a puncture and, you know, unlucky, absolutely unlucky, getting a puncture with 23k to go when he had looked like a winning lead. And I don't know what would have happened had he not got the puncture. But anyway, he got a puncture and he changed bikes and instantly, I think they made a mistake ineos and the bike that they gave him, I think the tire pressure was too high and he started riding the cobbles like he hadn't been riding for the previous 200k. He was jumping all over the place and bouncing and that would have been so off putting for him. Brand new, fresh bike, no mud on it, you would expect him to ride better, but I think the tyre pressure was too high and he crashes literally 5k later. Yet he'd been handling the conditions with a tyre that was going down much better. And you and I know the tyre pressure is key. You know, in the very first time we ever did it, compared to the, you know, four years later, our tyre pressure went down 20 or 30 psi when we first did it, because we realized and learned lessons that, you know, you need to be having soft tires to get over the cobbles with the least amount of vibrations and it doesn't throw you around as much. So, so, you know, he crashes and then he's pretty much out of the race. I just thought, wow, you know, how can a technical thing create, you know, what was going to be his greatest achievement turned into be devastating. I really felt for him.

And yeah, it shows how important equipment is. Even at that top level, they still make those mistakes. And yeah, it cost him one of the greatest races in the world.

Yeah. And you know, he will probably win a. Win a monument at some stage. You know, the way he rode was pretty fantastic. But having said that, Colbrelli, you know, chapeau to him. Take my hat off. Matthew van der Poel's no, no slouch. And as the Italian writer said, I, I don't know who the lotto guy is, but gee, he rode well for second place. Never heard of him. Yeah, he's only a 20, 21 or 22 year old. What an outstanding ride. So the three of those guys rode exceptional and, and it was a fantastic race and everything changed within, you know, 10, 10 kilometers. Something else happened. Um, that's what I love about it. It's just got so many things happening to it. So, yeah, it was, it was, yeah, they're the two things I got out of catching my attention.

Yeah, awesome. Uh, what caught my attention recently is if you look at the pro schedule of the racing schedule of pro triathletes, it is a hectic schedule. Uh, there's athletes doing multiple 70.3 and Ironmans all year round, you know, and comes racing season that they're packing up week after week, sometimes with 70.3s and jumping from 70.3 to Ironman back to 70.3 or something similar, which is just a crazy trend and it's part of the nature of the sport. They have to. For sponsorships, for prize money to earn a living, PTO rankings, that kind of thing. But it really is an insane schedule. And something really caught my attention. Sam Long, who we've spoken about on the podcast a few times, he's a really great character for triathlon. We really love a lot of what he's about. He loves just taking things on and he does get himself into trouble with his mouth. He's very, he's the, I don't know what you call the opposite of humble and he's aware of that. But he finished the 70.3 world where he came second, which was an unbelievable achievement for him, given his age as well. He's quite young still. And all week he spoke about really quite arrogantly. I must say about how he was going to back up and do the Iron man the next weekend and how his young body can handle it, how he's in prime form. And all week he just was really shouting to anyone that would listen about how good his Iron man form was going to be. And he's going to prove to everyone how good he could be across both instances. And I'm really setting him up a bit here because he was forced to eat his words because he DNF'd the Ironman. He got to the run leg and he just had nothing. And he posted on his Instagram saying, just had nothing. Smart decision was to pull out, didn't wanna do any more damage to my body. And two things really surprised me about this. One is that he got so many congratulations from people for making a quote, unquote, smart decision. Everyone was saying, great choice, Sam. Really smart, really clever thinking, that kind of thing. Uh, and also he not only did he dnf, but he po. He had the audacity to post and say that he got the fastest bike leg of the day. Um, and those two things just really irked me a little bit. One, because if you dnf because you, you know, didn't because your race schedule is too hectic and you actually haven't, you know, managed your body properly where you can't finish the leg, I don't think it's a smart decision pulling out. I mean, at the time it is a smart decision. Cause he had to pull out. But you can't be congratulated for that because, um, I don't know if you agree with me here, but his body clearly wasn't ready to back up, both after such a hectic 70.3. And secondly, you can't claim the fastest bike like in a triathlon if you don't do the run part, you know, because anyone can ride as fast as they can if they don't have to run after, you know. So those two things caught my attention. I have something else to touch on with that, but I want to get your thoughts on that situation.

Oh, don't hold back, George. No, I look, I, I all you, what you say has got absolute merit. And I, I look, I congratulate him. Even though you don't want me to congratulate him. I congratulate him for, you know, being transparent, being honest, being upfront. And he's outspoken, he's an extrovert, and that's what helps him on his journey. And, and we can't all be, you know, humble and you know, everybody's different, everybody's characters are different and we've just got to appreciate and accept people for what they are and that's okay. And I know it does irk you and it probably irks me a little bit too but I don't want, I'd rather people be themselves and, and you know, and the good thing is he does accept that he made a mistake and, and says that. So I like that. So you know, he's got all these grand ideas and, and like everybody, we all make mistakes and so I agree totally that you know, his mistake was doing the event. I think that you know, in hindsight he wouldn't do that again. Such a high, high a race, the 70.3 World Championships and to be competing so successfully to come back six days later and do an Ironman is a bit of a tall ask. Especially if the World championships was your A race then the Ironman was just another money earning race. You know, I would be advising him to race it differently than his proposed plan which was to go flat out and ride the bike as hard as possible which I think was a mistake as well. He could have earned money by completing the race by riding conservatively on the bike and still finish the race. And, and we would be congratulating him then for being pretty superhuman to do half Iron man and Iron man within seven days. So you know, I think, I think he made a few mistakes in his execution and, and you know, I would be highlighting that more than you know. Yeah, sure. I definitely agree he should have stopped and not finished because you know, he would have done more damage to his body and not been able to compete in two or three weeks time or whatever his next scheduled race is. So he did the right thing. Not going to congratulate him for that. It's just obvious if you're not coping you need to, you know, you need to think about another day. But I would have thought you need to think about that annual race plan of the day before going into the race knowing that you've only had six or seven days rest. You know, I'm not going to flog myself on the bike. I'm going to measure my effort so that I can actually get through it and run, run super strong at the end. You know how much you can gain in the end if you're running strong. You know, just ride the ride the same, same as everybody else and try not to be a hero there and make that what it should be, which is about the run. Who's the strongest runner. So, so A lot of things you said are spot on, but that would be my take on a different angle as to what I would look at what he just did, as usual.

I wouldn't expect anything less to have such a measured response from the super coach. But I will say that don't get me wrong, I'm not a Sam hater. He has a lot of. He has a lot of haters out there. I'm a big Sam Long fan. I watch, I follow him on Instagram, on socials, I watch every single one of his YouTube videos because I really like what he's about. And he provides so much excitement to the sport, which I think his personality is really fun and it will only help the sport grow. And I think it's because I'm such a fan that I was, I saw it all unfold and I went, oh, Sam, you know, why did you do that? And I'd like to have him on the podcast one day and potentially ask him, you know, some of these things. Yeah.

But I think, I think genuinely you're. You actually want him to do better and you see the mistakes he's making. I think that's what you're trying to point out is like, you could do, you could do a little bit better if you didn't do that. And that's, that's because, you know, you're obviously, you're interested in. And you like him. So it's not. Yeah, I was just having a go at you before.

Yeah.

So, like, there's nothing, nothing wrong with everybody being open and transparent and you know you have to suffer the consequences, don't you, of making statements that you regret some stage and we've all done it, so. And we'll probably continue to do it.

Yeah, exactly. Yep. But on that note, a question for you then. What are your thoughts on age groupers, you know, trying to back up multiple 70.3s or Ironmans throughout the year? Obviously it would be a big no. No to do a 70.3 even two weekends in a row for an eight for most age groupers. But.

Yeah.

What are your thoughts on how much you can fit into a racing schedule as an age group? And we shouldn't try and copy the pros.

No. And look, as a. When I was a professional, I had this situation. My Ironman was two weeks prior to the Australian Long Course Championships and two weeks later was the Australian Ironman Championships. Really poor scheduling in my opinion, by those, those who were in charge at the time. But I decided that the Ironman was going to be My A race and I was going to do the Australian title as a training session. And. And that was my mindset. I could not think that I could do both as an A race. One of them was going to suffer. And I decided that the long course was. I went through and came out of it and had two weeks of good recovery and went on to win the Ironman. So I think that actually worked well. My scheduling. So we've got the situation in. In Australia this year, where already the 70.3 in Melbourne has been moved to March next year, which happens to be four weeks after the Geelong. We don't have many 70.3s in Australia. And here they are. They've put two races within four weeks of each other, which I think, again is really poor scheduling and I'm pretty disappointed with that. But so all of the athletes that have booked for Geelong in Melbourne, they were four months apart. Now they're four weeks apart and they're going to have to decide, in my opinion, which one's their A race. And if they go in with both being A races, they'll do okay, but they won't have an outstanding PB opportunity in either because the first one, they'll be going through it as hard as they can, and the second one, they all have fatigue and possibly, you know, could have done better if they had used the first one as a bit of a practice session rather than a race. And, you know, I think the outcome will be compromised either way. So you really. My advice is to everybody is that, yes, do as many events as you want, but want, but make sure you're prioritizing in your own mind and in your own training program that the which one is the one or I'm aiming for the A race. And on that point, as a cyclist, you know, we're watching the pros using the same example I've just watched, you know, the Olympics, the World Championships, Paris, Roubaix, and I just saw three races midweek where, you know, riders are in for them, you know, and they're backing up in all these races. It's different as a cyclist than it is as a triathlete. That was the point I wanted to raise. You can back up much more as a cyclist because you're not running. It's still brutal, it's still intense, it's still hard, it's still very difficult. But when you run, that really creates massive fatigue. After swimming and riding, let's face it, we're doing three events. So, Donna, don't think you can recover as quick when you run a half marathon or a marathon or a flat out 10k, you need more recovery time. So that's the difference between those two sports. And just like as a marathon runner, you wouldn't run a marathon two weeks in a row. Yeah, there's plenty of people who would.

But the outcome, some guys do 50 in a row. That's right.

And the outcome's going to be mediocre for all of them. So that's what the point I'm trying to get across is. The outcome is what that's more important than. Than. Than, you know, putting multiple races in front of yourself.

Quality over quantity, right?

Definitely.

All right, let's get into today's topic. And that is how can you make sure you're using your power meter to actually go faster on the bike? Because that is the whole purpose of having power. You want to use it as a tool to go faster. But how do you make sure you're doing that correctly? And there's a few important things that you need to know about your power meter to make sure you're getting it right. These are things that you might have missed yourself. You might have had a power meter for years and be missing these things or making these mistakes. So first point on the agenda is that all power meters don't read the same.

And we've been talking about power in different podcasts a lot and touching on various topics. And I really today's about detail and digging right into it and some real gems we're going to talk about today. And the first one is, I love it when people at the coffee shop and say, what's your FTP? And someone else says, oh, mine's 350. And you look at yourself going, oh, mine's only 220. But, you know, that's the point. Different power meters read differently. So if we swap bikes and all of a sudden I rode the other guy's bike, I might be all of a sudden 260 watts and he might be 300. So the differentiations change completely just by changing power meters. And the both riders are still riding the same, so the actual number is only relevant to you. So the power meter can't. You know, there's so many examples of guys we coach who have a time trial bike and a road bike, and there's no guarantee that those two power meters read the same. And, you know, that's the beauty, I suppose, of having pedal power where you can just change the pedals from bike to bike and you've got the same power meter and I think that's a good way to go if you're thinking of investing in a power meter. But, yeah, no, two power meters read the same. And that's the case I've experienced since I started using power in 2004.

And even a more exaggerated example is that your Wahoo trainer, which a lot of athletes will do a lot of their sessions on, will read differently to your road bike, which reads it's differently to your time trial bike. And to add more complexity, your road bike while sitting on the trainer stationary, you can't generally push as much power as you can outdoors and your time trial bike. Same thing when you're. If you're using your time trial by power meter, but it's indoors, it'll be different to your power outdoors. We've spoken about that in a previous podcast, but right there you have five different potential variations of power numbers to look out for.

Yeah, it becomes very complex, doesn't it? You want to make it as simple as possible. And so, you know, you've got your indoor number and you've got your outdoor number. And if you can, you know, manage to work out, which we were all doing, we're all riding our bike power meter indoor and we're riding our bike power meter outdoor. I mean, using the smart trainer for other things, it's got a power meter on it, but we don't need it. We can use the smart trainer for the hills on swift or races, but when you're training, you should be using your bike power meter both indoor and outdoor. At least that cuts out some variables. The same power meter is reading indoors outdoor. You don't race with your kicker power meter, so why would you train on it? The smart trainer has a power meter and it has other functions. And we just don't choose to use the power meter on it because I've got people who have. Just this morning, there's 10 watts difference between a person loaded both files, one using the kicker power meter and one using their bike power meter, and there was 10 watts difference. Imagine if you went to a race with the kicker power meter number that you've trained to and you started 10 watts higher in your event. How's your execution of your plan gonna go? You're gonna blow up.

Yeah.

And the opposite happens. If you start 10 watts lower, you're gonna ride too slow. So it's so important that you get that detail right.

Yeah. And on that note of what you're saying before, in terms of comparing the two people, this isn't necessarily about power meter. Itself, this is more about power in general. But when people compare their FTPs, it can be irrelevant because one person could be 60 kilos, one could be 120, you know, so it's when you get out on the road, your watts per kilo, so your weight compared to the power you push is much more relevant than just the FTP number on its own. You know, if, if you say you've got 350 FTP, I've got 300, it means nothing until you compare your weight and see how you actually use that number out the road.

Exactly right. And if you went, you know, head to head and you're both trying to ride 40ks an hour, and for you to ride 40ks an hour, you have to ride 300 watts, and for me, I have to ride 250. So what does that mean? We both got the fastest time at 40ks an hour, but I rode 50 watts lower. So does that say I'm a worse rider? No, it tells me I'm equally as good as you. Except the power number is just the power number. It just doesn't relate to the result.

Yeah. Next thing to point on about knowing power meters is basically, to simplify it, two distinct types. There's pedal or crank base, and as you said before, advanced slight advantages and disadvantages of both. And we just want to quickly touch on this and say that we get. One of the most common questions we get asked is, what power meta should I get? Guys, what do you recommend at Trivello, pedal or crank based? And our answer is always the same.

Yep. You know, at the end of the day, what are we trying to answer here? Joe, just hold that. What is the answer?

Answer is we don't care. It's whatever's available to you.

I thought you were going somewhere there.

The answer is like, we don't mind.

Either one as long as it works.

I guess our answer is it's like the vaccine thing, whatever's available to you the fastest. So what is the answer?

Well, the answer is get the power meter that's absolutely ready and available for you to purchase within your budget, one that is reliable and will read the same every time. And that's a big ask because some of them have technical issues, but you just want to make sure that you know you are using it as quickly as you can. So get what's available. Just like as you said, the COVID vaccine. Get that as quick as you can and take what's available.

Yeah, the government keeps saying the best vaccine is the one available to you. Now and it's the same as a power meter. I guess the point of why we joke about this question is that we never recommend pedal based over crank based or vice versa. It depends on and what's available to you, your price range. Both are fine, both have advantages and disadvantages. So we just really have to make that clear. But once you get your power meter, there is one thing that you need to do before every single ride. And it's a massive common mistake that people do where they end up reading their power wrong because they forget to do this one thing. Yep.

And calibration without that. And, you know, Liam, your brother has been riding, you know, two months without calibrating his power meter. And, and some sessions he can do, some sessions he can't. And it's been perplexing to me as to what, you know. Why is his heart rate so high on this recovery ride? Well, he didn't calibrate his power meter and it was reading 15 to 20% too high. So therefore he was riding a recovery ride as a tempo ride. And that's how much it can sabotage you. You know, some of the brand new power meters don't need calibration, but I don't trust that I'm going to calibrate every single time. It takes literally 15 seconds. You turn your Garmin or your Wahoo element bike computer on or you watch, you turn it on. It says, do you want to pair the power meter? You say, yes. Do you want to calibrate it?

Yes.

Takes 10 seconds. And you should know what the number of calibration comes up on the screen and it should be close to that. And if it's not, do it again until you get something that's similar. And they're the steps that you have to take. And that takes all of 30 seconds every time. If you're riding outdoors, calibrate it outdoor. Don't calibrate it indoor and go outdoor. If you're riding indoors, calibrate it indoor. If you're, if you're going to do a training session indoor, don't calibrate it outdoor in different temperature. Bring it in and calibrate it in the temperature you're going to ride in. That's important as well because weirdly enough, it has.

Temperature has an effect on the, on the power meter reading. Yeah.

Well, you know, most of the power meters have a strain gauge and some of them are metal and, you know, temperature affects metal. So it will read a percentage out.

Yeah. And I, I've gotten so ACD with this where I've tried to go out in some rides where I'm not gonna look at power. I'm just keeping my heart rate super low on a recovery ride and the power doesn't actually matter. I just know if my heart rate's, you know, a hundred, one hundred ten, really low, then I'm achieving the ride and I just can't do it. I just can't start the ride without calibrating it because I just don't want to see an incorrect number or the potential for an incorrect number down there, even when it doesn't matter. And so it's. I've become so OCD with it that I just have to calibrate it every single time.

I think it's a really good thing because it can sabotage your training if you don't take that is. That is such a key thing to do and people, you know, don't think it's important. It is absolutely important. Otherwise you're training the wrong zones.

Yep, yep. Once you've got your power meter and you've obviously got something to read the power, which is a black computer, a garment of some sorts or any other brand, the next most common question we get is what, what should I be looking at? Should I be looking at the instant power, the three second power, the average power or the lap average? And which one is the most appropriate?

Yeah, when we have different screens for different training purposes. So for race day, I'll have slightly different screen set up on my bike computer or watch or whatever you're using to give you the feedback on a training day. I might have completely different screen, but the common thing is the average lap power. That is the one thing whether you're doing a 90k effort or a 5k effort or a 1 minute effort, you need to be looking at your average lap power for that 1 minute, 5 minute or 90k. If you're looking at instant power or 3 second power, that's just giving you the raw number literally per pedal stroke. And that can jump from. So you're trying to say, you're trying to average 200 watts and every given pedal revolution, you could be at 205, then 196, then 210, then 215 if the road keeps up, kicks up a bit. But the constant thing is the average lap power while you're doing those fluctuating instant power pedal revolutions is the lap power stays constant unless you spend two or three minutes way above the range you're trying to hit before it goes to two oh, one to two oh two. Do we want to have a running tally of how we are performing from the start to the three minute mark or the five minute mark in a, in a five, five minute effort? And that keeps us in the range that we're trying to race at or train at. And the same with a 90k, you want to have your average lap power and you might want to be pushing lap on certain sections of the course into the headwind, push lap, into the tailwind, push lap, coming into a corner, push lap, you know, so you're, you're keeping an eye on the average lap power of whatever segment or section you want in a race. And so that's really important. But you've got that set up and not just go by the average power or 3 second power of the actual ride.

And that's a really good point. I want to clarify one thing quickly is what's your preference, instant power or three second power in terms of. Because if you've got your lap average pair, that's great. But you also might want to be looking at the current power. So it's instant or 3 second.

Yep. For a triathlete, I'm talking about here, and this is important for cyclists who are just doing cycling events as well. But in triathlon we're trying not to burn matches. So we do want to have instant power on the screen. And why? Because it will show us that we've got a spike of. We come out of a corner, I'm in a triathlon doing a U turn and you try to get the bike to accelerate quickly and all of a sudden you push the pedals, you know, out of the seat really hard and you're doing 5, 600 watts. And that'll show on your screen. You're better off coming around the corner and, and easing into the power, not losing two or three seconds by doing it too slowly, but not smashing it by doing it at 500, 600 watts every time you do that. If you're on a course that's got 10, 15, 20 turns, you're burning matches 20 times at 600 watts, that's going to affect your run, you know, as a cyclist in a criterium. Yes. Go out of the corner hard, get a gap on people. So depending on the actual event you're doing determines what you're prepared to push. And so the instant power will give that information. So I'm really conscious of, if I look down, I'm coming out of the Corner, I see 400, I'm just go, oh, easy. I want to get it back down to 300 because my average is 260 and here I am riding at 400 for two or three seconds. So the instant power on the screen is important, but it's not the be all and end all.

It's.

It's actually to stop you from, from burning matches as a triathlete and spike.

And the big advantage of 3 second power is that you're not overreacting to instant changes.

Yes. Yep. So they are quite different because three seconds is an average of the last three seconds, which is quite a long time. You know, there's a 1 1000, 2003, so it can fluctuate, whereas instant power is exactly what you're pushing every single part of the pressure of the pedal. So yes, average lap power is the key. Having instant power and three second power as an option is also important. And that's on the, that's on my screen. There's no doubt about that. And of course, you know, we, we're wanting to have other factors on our screen which we've talked about many times in other podcasts. But, but you know, the average lap power is the go to power. And um, and that along with your average speed is probably the two most things that I look at. You know, and then cadence is next and then, and then I'm looking at heart rate last. But, but you know, on a hot day I changed my mind with heart rate because if it's hot, I can't push the same power but the same heart rate. I know that I'll have to drop the power because my heart rate's going to go into the red zone. So the temperature will determine how much I look at heart rate. So we're talking today about power. I don't want to talk about the other things. But that is just a side note that on hotter days you have to actually adjust your power according to your body temperature and you don't want it to overheat.

You spoke about then a really cool and a bit more advanced tactic and that's pressing lap some part of the way through the effort. If we took that example of that tactic in a 90 kilometer time trial, for example, at 70.3 the bike leg of a 70.3 or any long term trial for a cyclist, you might have on one screen your average power for the ride and then a second screen have your lap power. And so there might be a 5 minute climb or a 10 minute climb or something in the race where you want to click lap power at the bottom of the climb because you know, the power that you're trying to hold for that five or ten minute effort and it might be higher than the average power you're trying to hold. Your average power might be 220 for the 9km, but up this section you're trying to hold 240 or 250. So you press lap and you can really look at that for that 10 minutes. But on the other screen you still have your average power to refer back to. But you wouldn't be looking at average power in a training session for example, because you've got your warm up, your cool down or your rest periods. And that's just, it's basically irrelevant in a training session.

Yeah, it's a really good point you make in the race. And you know, just as average power and power is going to stop us from overcooking ourselves and fading, the, the lap power function is so much more advantageous because as you said, if you just looked at average power for the whole 90k, when we use that example and you go up a hill, it would. It takes three minutes for your average power on that hill to go up 1 watt. Even though you've written 10 or 15 watts, you know, over four minutes higher than, than your average lap that you wanted to ride. So having the lap button, you can instantly ride at the power you want to for that five minute climb. Say you want to ride 200 for the whole ride for the average and you want to ride the climb at 210. Then if you're looking at your average lap power, you can see that you're at 210. But if you're just looking at your average power for the whole ride, you actually don't know what you're doing. So you need to have pushed that button for, for particular sections. And that's a really good point you've made. And a lot of people are not quite understanding what that's about. And you may need to re listen to what we just said then because, because there are sections when you're in a headwind or an uphill where you want to be above the range that the average power of the entire 90ks is. But if you're just looking at average power for the entire 90k, you can't see what you're doing. So that's put the lap power function buttons for and the opposite.

If you just had lap power and you kept pressing lap, you didn't have average power anywhere, you'd lose what your average power was for the ride and then you'd have no idea how you're performing. You know, you know how you're performing this section, but you don't know what it means.

Overall, it sounds complicated, but once you just think through that and then get practice in training, not just wait for your race to experiment with this, you know, practice in your, in your weekend endurance ride where you're supposed to be doing three by 30 minutes at 80 to 90%, you know, here comes a hill, Right? Let's, let's try the lap power button and see, see what I do? Here's a headwind. I want to be just above, you know, 90% here, or here's a tailwind, you know, push it again. I want to be at 80%, you know, and have your average lap power going at the same time. And if your average lap power for the whole ride is, is dropping out of the range you want to ride at, then you need to reconsider what you're doing in those laps. Um, so it's an interesting one, it's really important, but I think people just have not thought about that at all. And it's such an weapon that you can use to your advantage.

Yeah. And don't get it wrong. You're not saying that, you know, every single time you turn a corner into a tailwind, you're pressing lap 40 seconds. Then you turn another corner ahead when you're pressing lap for 30 seconds. That's not, that's not the purpose. We're not asking you to press lap 300 times in 90K. You know, it's more biggest sections.

No, definitely not. And before a race I would be, I'd be identifying the areas that I want to actually think about controlling my power above the range and that that would be the only time I would use it. And I take note, you know, if we're doing 90k at 45k, I'm taking note of what the average power is at at 45 without even pushing lap. I can see it, you know, it might be 260 and I'm happy with that. And if it starts to go to 261, it means I'm obviously riding fractionally higher than 260 now. So I just gotta be careful that I'm trying to match it. But not to not go over too much because I've still got to run.

Yeah. The next more advanced metric to look at is a thing called normalized power. And this is actually a really important piece of data to look at. So what is it and why should we pay attention to it both in actual performance and more importantly, in post race event or training analysis.

And sometimes it's a hard one to describe what it actually does. And if I gave the example of a rider who two riders, rider A went out and did, and I asked him to do an average power for his ride of 200 watts, and rider B, I wanted him to do an average power of 200 watts as well. And they both came back with 200 watts. And I looked at the file and opened it up and one rider had normalized power of 200 watts and an average power of 200 watts. I go, great. He's ridden very evenly. That's really good, good riding. It might have been that he was on a dead flat pancake course that, that he couldn't do anything different. He could have been riding in undulating hills, but rode very clever and rode equal pressure on the hills, uphill and downhill. But it still tells me that he rode very evenly, which is very hard.

To, it's very hard to get you normalized power the same as your actual power in hills. But continue. Yeah.

So rider B, he still ended up with average power of 200, but he's normalized was 2:30. And I would say straight away he's ridden a very hilly course. And normalized takes into, takes into account the wind, the terrain, the amount of times you're not pedaling, the amount of times you're pedaling hard. So it's a more indicative indication of the effort. So they've still got the same outcome. They both rode 200 watts average. But the normalized tells me the guy who rode 230 normalized had a much harder day. And his intensity factor will be, you know, 0.75 and the other guy will be 0.7. Yet they still rode 200 watts, which is what I asked them to do. So that, that I try to explain it like that with that example. And, and then people can get an understanding of, oh, now I understand what normalized power is. It's, it's a, it's someone taking into account the terrain and the wind.

It's basically an equation, you know, for our example, training peaks, or, you know, your power meter reader or whatever can actually calculate it on the go. So you can look at normalized power as you're actually riding and basically has its own algorithm which comes up with what the power feels like. Pretty much, you know, you're riding at 200 watts because it's hilly. It actually feels like you're riding 230 watts. And the same thing happens in running, you can get normalized pace in running. And so if you're running up at Hill at 4 minute K pace, that's your actual speed, but it'll give you normalized pace that might say three minutes. Because it's basically like if you were running this pace on the flat, you would actually be running 3 minute per km pace. And so the same in reverse for normalized power. So it's a little bit of a funny one, but you're right, it is. The arbitrary definition is basically kind of what, what it feels like you're riding at when it, if you take into account the hills, etc.

Exactly. The word is taking into account the hill and also taking into account when you're not pedaling downhill. It takes that into account as well.

Yeah. And so in your example, you have to imagine that the two people are actually the same person. Same weight, same power means the same speed, et cetera. But more importantly, why is normalized power so important?

I think that the normalized power is definitely giving you in a race situation a more accurate data returning piece of information about how hard you're riding. Even though the average power is telling you you're in the range, if you're normalized is way above the range, I'm telling you you're riding too hard. Um, so I don't want that to happen. I want in a race situation as a triathlete time trialist, which is different to a cycling time trialist, I want, I want that normalized power to be as close to your average power as possible. Um, which means you're riding very evenly. And pressure on the pedal.

Yeah. This ties into our next point, which is what's the story behind the numbers? Because the numbers that appear on a screen are just numbers that don't mean anything unless you understand the context behind them. And you've got a really clear example of you've gotten riders to do a time trial on an undulating course and attack it two different ways. And can you explain that concept and what happens with normalized power compared to average and the end result of that?

Yeah. So on a flatter course, the goal is to get your normalized and average really close so that you're riding evenly and you don't have any choice anyway, because unless there's a headwind, it's quite difficult. But on a hilly course, there is so many opportunities to ride it differently. So my advice has always been ride evenly, keep the pressure on the pedals so that you normalize an average of very close.

So don't ride. That means don't ride the heels too hard.

Too hard.

Yep.

And ride the downhills hard, harder than you would normally. So you keeping the even, keeping the power even. So there's no spikes. The reason we're doing it so we don't want to have spikes in our power to actually burn a match to prevent us from running. That's the reason behind what we're talking about. So as a, as a person who wants to really ride very fast on it and has no possible issues with running off the bike, they're just doing a time trial. The example I'm going to give is we've got a local circuit in, in Melbourne Q Boulevard which is really undulating rolling hills and it's an out and back course. And I've had riders ride even power over the course and I've had them attacking the hills. And the, the, the results are outstanding. For attacking the hills is a better way to ride and therefore your normalized power is so far away from your average power. But that is going to give you the best result and I'm encouraging you to do that because you don't have to run. It's okay to spike but not over the top. Spike, spike enough that you can still ride properly. So a rider who's going to ride a normalized on that course of let's keep using 200, he's normalized is 220 and he's average is 200 and he's ridden 39ks an hour and his time is 32 minutes 20. The person who's actually ridden properly, like I would tell him as a triathlete, he's going to ride 32 minutes 50, 30 seconds slower. He's got his normalizing average dead together. But he's got a worse result because you know you can still ride it faster by, by pushing where it counts. And we've said this many times in time trialing when the bike's going slowest, that's the time to push the hardest within reason and not blowing yourself up. Obviously I'm not talking about go and max out on any hill you come to. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying riding within your limits but at the top as high as you can and therefore you, you know you're going to get a faster result that way. But that's okay if you don't have to run, but it's not okay if you're trying to run afterwards. So we're talking, talking about two different examples here. But the point I'm trying to get across is you can ride faster by doing one method over another and understanding the result and then making decisions about, you know, am I just doing a time trial or am I a triathlon?

And you might decide to ride it that second way if you're just a cyclist. And you might decide to ride really over on the uphills and not push so much in the other sections. And so there is a gap between your normalized and average. But as a coach, you would probably look at gaps and assess whether it was too much. You know, if that rider suddenly was 250 normalized 200 average, you'd say, oh, you were just way over. There is a line there where you'd say, nah, you're doing it too much, you're surging too much. And it's actually a detriment to your overall time. Yeah.

And there's a tipping point. And there's no right example because we don't have a course that has exactly the same length of hill on every course. So if every course had a 2 minute 30 hill, we could tell you that you need to write at 110% on that 2 minute 30. We don't. We have courses that go for 32nd hills, 4 minute hills, 92nd hills. So you've got to look at the course before your event, find out the time that you think you'll spend on the hill, and then you work out appropriately how much percentage you would ride over your threshold on the hill. And that's why recon is so important. You can practice that in your recon and do a time trial. Practice on the actual course, riding properly, and you get really good data to go back and look at and go, right, Bonna, ride faster. I can actually push it a little bit more. I didn't blow up riding at 250 watts on that hill. I could possibly go to two sixty without blowing up. You've got to find your limit and that's what's gonna make you better each time you do that same course. Look at what you did last time. What were the numbers I wrote on the hill? I didn't blow up. I still was strong at the end. Right. I'm gonna push it a bit more and then find your tipping point. And you'll still get improvement by, by doing it. That you know, that detail will enable you to be a better, faster rider.

That's why we call it the art of time trialing, because it is such an art form of cycling. And that's why we love it. And you really have to. Yeah. Turn up to each event and. And treat it as its own unique race, because it is. And you really have to figure out the art of how you're going to execute it according to the race. And that's why we love watching the pros. And especially, you know, the Olympics course where the time trial was decided by 5 seconds. The podium, you know, and how did they write all. They all would have written that whole course slightly differently and somehow ended up at that end within five seconds.

I know the World Championships were decided by five seconds. The Olympics, the winner won by Rock, which won by a minute. But second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth was three seconds or four seconds between all of them.

Yeah.

And that's just, you know, that shows you how the detail is important. And every little downhill, every little uphill, every little corner, they're all significant. Every U turn, you know, am I spending too many matches? You know, can I sustain it? Can I come home strong? Am I riding hard enough where it counts more when the bike's going slowest? Oh, there's so much to think about. It's. It's quite exciting. And I, you know, the. The more technical the course, I'm just loving it. The more advantage we have over our competitors because they haven't thought about this. They are just gonna ride the same power no matter what. The course is hilly, flat, technical, you know, wind. They're not gonna change. Because I've heard so many times me say you should ride, you know, even power. Well, that's true. That's lesson A. But lesson B is let's dig into the detail. And. And there's. It's not normal to ride even power, you know, Cause no course is gonna be pancake flat with no wind and no U turns.

Yep.

So. So that's why, you know, lesson B is the detail.

Yeah. And the last thing we want you to know about this and we need you to understand about power. And this is, again, continuing this more advanced theme of understanding how you can use your power meter best, is if you understand normalized power, then you can look at what's called your variability index. So your VI score. And that is basically a score representing exactly what we're saying. How close is your normalized power to your average power? And the closer they are, the more you'll get a score closer to 1, exactly 1.1.00. The further away they are, that score might be, you know, if they're 20 watts apart, for example. This is completely arbitrary, but it might be 1.05 you know, or if it's 40 watts apart, it might be 1.1, and if it's 60 watts apart, it might be 1 point 3, you know, and so further away you are from 1, the less evenly you rode and the less efficient you rode. And that's really important because we've spoken a lot on this podcast about race plan and race execution. And the goal for a athlete might be to finish their 90 kilometer time trial at an average watts of 2, 20. And they might get to the end of the time trial and they've ridden 220 watts, stuck to their plan and thought they've ridden a really good race. But if they go and look at their variability index score, their VI, it might be 1.3, 1.4. And that shows that they've actually ridden horribly. They've actually ridden really unevenly. Their normalized power is way different to their average power and therefore they've burnt matches like you said, and they're going to suffer for it on the run.

Yeah. And again, we've got to clarify that we're only talking in that particular example as a triathlete, where you're trying to ride 90k or 180k, where you're not trying to burn matches so you can run. But as a cyclist, there would be examples like we just gave that Melbourne course where your variability index will be 1.8, 1.08, and that's absolutely okay. So, so how do you work that out? Well, it's just the difference between, you know, subtracting normalized from, from average. That's exactly how you work it out. You don't need an app to work that out. You can just work that out yourself. The apps all show variability index and some people are going, I don't know what VI means. Well, all it is is the subtracting the difference between your normalized power and your average power. So, so we want as a triathlete to have our variability index as close to one as possible. And I know that there are many courses out there in triathlon world that have got massive amount of hills like Kona, massive amount of wind like Kona, just to pick an example in one course. And it is hard to have a variability index close to one on those courses. But that's what should, that should be your goal, to ride, you know, steady state power, where you're at the top of the range for the headwind and the uphills, and that you're keeping the pressure on the power at the bottom of the range, on the downhill. So your variability is the same, so you're evenly putting the pressure out so that by the time you get off the, off the ride you've burnt no matches. You know your fatigue levels are where they should be. You've ridden in the ranges you've trained to and therefore you'll be able to run so much more effectively. So variability index is one of those things that people go, I don't know what that means and, and it's just too complicated for me. But that is something you need to do post race, check it out and you know, it's not something you can see that in normalized, while you're riding, you can see your normalized number is too high. So you know, stop, stop guessing it on the hard bits and be more evenly distributing your effort throughout the whole ride regardless of the course. And you've seen plenty of my files, Jordan, where I've been on hilly courses and I've still been able to get my variability between 1 and 1.01, no matter how difficult the course was because of the way I've trained myself to ride hills and wind and on the flat. It's a piece of cake. You know, you ride the headwind where you should be and you ride the tailwind where you should be in the power, the power range that's set and it ends up being the average that you want. But if you delve into it in the headwind you've ridden way over your average and in the tailwind you've ridden way under and same on a hill, uphill, downhill, but it pans out to give you the average of what you're aiming for. And people just look at the average and not see the detail how you got it. And that's what we're trying to get across here. How do you get that average to work in a race? And you should be practicing that in your, your intensity sessions during the week, your endurance session on the weekend. Any opportunity you get, try to ride the power as a triathlete like that and as a cyclist, you know it's okay to practice riding, you know, on your limit and then recovering and trying to keep riding threshold average the same way. So your variability is used to riding with a big normalized differential between normalized and average power. So you know it's specific to your event.

I guess that's the summary, isn't it? Is that it's the story behind the numbers which is so important. That's why we start looking at these things, we start talking about bit more complex power numbers like normalized power, like variability index. But it's all just more data to give you a story behind what's actually happening. And I guess a follow up question on that is what situations would you personally have normalized power on the screen in a race?

Definitely on the hilliard courses I would have normalized power and a course that's technical, that's the most important situation where I would have it and I would not be ignoring it on that course.

How hilly does it have to be or how technical?

Yeah, look, there's not a lot of really hilly courses in triathlon. There are a few, but the majority of them are reasonably fair. I look at Busselton, it's got lots of roundabouts and left turns and right turns and U turns. And you do that repeatedly. So on one lap you might have six to eight. I've gone through it, I can't remember what it is now. But you know, if you do two of that, 16 if you do, you know, three laps, it's four laps, it's 32 turns. So you know, you got the potential to gas yourself every time you come out of a roundabout, every time you do a U turn, every time you do a left turn, right turn. You know, there's potential here to burn matches too many times. So they're examples of situations where I'm paying more attention to it. You know, I'm not going to, you know, throw my plan out the window. I'm going to keep referring to my power numbers as I go as reference once I've set my race up. So power number is helping me at the start, keeping the range. And as we've said many times, if you're fresh, you feel like you can go harder and the temptation is cause everybody else is riding past you. Follow your race plan and then you will use the power meter to its most effect. And then as you feel confident that you want to push maybe a minute or two faster than your previous ever pb, then gently push the pressure up. You know, don't go crazy in a triathlon. I'm talking here. Go crazy because you've still got to run. But you have the potential then to continue to push the power to do better in the second half than you did in the first half, within reason. So that doesn't affect your running. But that's important to know as you're going along the journey. So the power meter can be put in the background once you've set your race up and you can keep glancing at it to see that you're at I'm a little bit too high here, so I pull back a bit, but I'm still feeling good, I'm feeling confident. I think I can ride a bit. A bit faster. So there's. They're the times to not pay so much attention to the power meter, but still have it in your mind that I still need to refer to it so that I don't actually cook myself by getting carried away because I'm riding so well and I feel so good in the second half. And that's an easy thing to slip into.

Do a Sam Long and dnf the run because you did the bike too hard.

Yes. Yeah.

I'm joking. I'm not. That's another shot at Sam.

Yeah, but, you know, the point we're trying to make is, you know, it's not going to dictate to you from the minute you start to the minute you finish. You should be referring to it to help you from making mistakes. And the more you understand how the power works, the better informed you are and the better decisions you'll make during the ride. So that's what I'm trying to get across here is, you know, I don't want everybody fixated on just looking down at their power. Now you've got to use it to control your execution and still ride with the intent of doing better than you did previous race, but using the data to help you do it. And we're giving you all these detailed information, things about the screen setup and looking at different aspects like lap power, average power, normalized power, when to use it, when the bike's going slow, when the bike's going fast, when it's an uphill, when it's a downhill. There's so many details here that we're, that we're giving, and it sounds complicated, but you need to consider them all to ride better and eventually to run better. And the bike has got so much to do with your run leg. And I can't emphasize that enough that if you disregard the fact that you just go flat out on the bike and expect to run normally, that's not going to happen. And let's not use Sam Long too many times, but that's exactly what happened to him. Um, and, and at the end of the day, it's a triathlon, not the fastest bike ride. Um, you, you got three legs. So.

So on that note, triathletes, basically, in summary, need to always keep the power numbers in mind and be using their power meter because they have to run after. But this is the final question I wanted to ask, and that is for cyclists, there's something they need to know and that is that there is a time to put the power meter away.

This is the fun part as a cyclist. Absolutely. So you use the power meter, as I just said, in the last five minutes, setting your, setting your race up, controlling yourself early so that you don't blow up with 10 minutes to go in your, in your time trial, you're not running. So set your race up, keep the, keep the power in the ranges you want to, and then start to race. Other riders you can see sometimes races a 32nd rider up in front, a minute up in front, sometimes it's two minutes up in front. Your goal is to try and get that, that man in your sight and then, you know, almost disregard the power, but still measure your effort. If you've got eight minutes left and you can see the guy's 25 seconds ahead, you could work towards getting, you know, right behind him and, and trying to pass him. So, so they're, they're examples of when I want to, I want to race, I want to concentrate on going max out and getting the best possible result and not being dictated by, oh, I've got to stay in this range. That's what my plan is. No, use the competition to your advantage and chase people down once you've got your race set up, and you should be practicing that, and we do that in Trivalo in our B and C races, on SWIFT or on outdoor time trials where we have practice time trials amongst the group where we are absolutely putting people 30 seconds apart and I'm doing that intentionally so that they can either blow themselves up by chasing them too early and then ruining their race, or getting passed by someone and changing their race plan to follow that other person's race plan and blowing themselves up again, or they concentrate on their numbers early, set themselves up properly and then start racing the competition.

Any other final notes people need to know about power meters using power.

It's funny you mentioned a discussion you had with one of your running mates. I think that was a really, really good thing. And you asking him, he's a really good runner and he uses his watch and runs to pace and heart rate and has all his life and he's just taken up the bike and you were asking him about power and he was sort of dismissing it as, you know, not that important. And you asking him, would you run without a watch? And the answer is no. So would you ride a training session or a bike race without power? Categorically no.

One last thing we'll touch on, which we won't dive into, but a point that has to be said is that power meters are bloody great when they work, but you've had this experience a lot where you have to have a backup for when they don't, and you have to know how to race and perform without them. Even though you'd much prefer to perform with them, you do need to be able to have a backup. Yep.

And we've just spent the whole podcast telling everybody how. How important the power meter is and, and you can't do it without it. But there have been so many situations where my effing power meter or the Garmin or some technology hasn't worked. I've had one time trial in a cycling time trial where it wasn't a triathlon. At the. On the starting ramp, my garment turned off and wouldn't start. So I had no data. It was like I was back in 1988 doing a. Doing another race with no data. I knew that it was five minutes to 12, and that was about all I knew at the time. So I totally had to ride by feel. And it was interesting that, you know, looking at the Strava segments, because that was all the data I could look at. I absolutely faded. Rode too hard.

Yeah.

And all the things I. I use the power meter for, I did the opposite too. Even though I pride myself in being a really good measured triathlete, but taking the data away from me, you know, I really, I really realized how important it was. And you need to have other things, such as we talked about. You know, average speed is good if you're doing an out and back repeated, but average speed is no good if you're doing one direction into a headwind. That's not gonna help you either. Heart rate's good after you've got over the lag period. So after five minutes, the heart rate is still continuing to creep, but at about the 15 to 20 minute mark, then it's sort of stabilizing to where it should be. But you could have blown yourself up in the first 10 minutes waiting for it to get to where it should be. So there's so many other things that can assist you, but they're not as good as a power meter going by feel. And that's why we really encourage people to use the power meter and try to get a sense of the feel of what 200 watts feels like. What does 250 watts feel like for five minutes? What does 300 watts feel like? And I encourage people not just to be blindly looking at the power and going that's what it is. And have a think about how it's feeling at this. And sometimes you should try and cover your power and and mid training session and see if you're doing five by five. I've done this to myself many times where I've absolutely tried to see do it by feel and I'm not that far away from holding the effort evenly to what I can see the power meter. Now I can't see the power meter. You should be trying those things so that if it does happen where technology's abandoned you for some reason you, you actually can go to the old style of, of racing which is by feel. And don't dismiss by feel. It it is important because how you feel will change how you execute anyway. You may have a plan to ride at 200 watts for the race. For some reason you feel crap. There's no way you can ride 200 watts. You actually have to go by feel and drop it.

I guess the, the whole garment turning off is the most extreme example and if that happens then you really, no matter what backup plan you have, you just have to go by feel. But a more common scenario would be power meter is not calibrated and it's reading lower or higher and that's where you have to go. Okay, well normally I would hold 40ks an hour in my time trial for 300 watts. Right now I'm pushing 270 watts and I'm really struggling but I'm still holding 40ks an hour. So the power straight away, logically you'd say okay, it seems like it's reading about 30 watts lower. 270 is my new number. Start writing to that power. You know, and that's, that's an example.

Yeah, yeah, that is spot on.

Yeah, I know. I will leave it there because otherwise we'll dive too much into this because there's so much as always to go through. That's why we wanted to do this topic with power. We really hope you've enjoyed this episode. As always, if you enjoy the episodes, leave us a five star review and a positive comment in your podcast app. We really appreciate that in the podcast description you can join our free Facebook group. We post concept tips, articles, things in there to help you train smarter and race faster. There's also links to follow us on any social media platform and if you want access to any of our programs, got links in the description for you to check out our travel coaching programs. Again, thanks for very much for listening and we'll see you next time.

Sam.