One way of looking at power meter training might be the following analogy. How much would you spend to get a 15% increase in gas mileage in your current vehicle? If you drive about 20,000 miles per year at $4/gallon (might go much higher this summer) a 15% increase in mileage would save you over $500 per year. Remember that number.
Since starting training with a power meter on July 28, 2011, coached by Carmichael Training Systems’ Expert Coach Clayton Feldman I’ve gained nearly 15% in my Functional Threshold Power (FTP) – with much of that training performed indoors in good old SoDak. Defined as the average wattage produced at Lactate Threshold (LT), FTP is the Gold Standard for power meter testing.
Impossible to fake, FTP is your base aerobic fitness level and the only way to increase it significantly is by structured interval training at or above your LT. The only efficient way to interval train is with a power meter. Likewise the only smart way to train with a power meter is to hire a coach from a reputable organization and follow his workout instructions exactly.
Do these things: buy a power meter, hire a coach, follow his instructions and prepare to be amazed. Add in motivation, commitment and nutrition, all parameters within your sphere of influence, and you have derived the equation for personal improvement on the bike. Now, if you also happen to possess two genetically-determined variables, namely Talent and Trainability, you have all the ingredients necessary for a successful bike racing recipe.
So what does all this have to do with gas mileage? You can think of power training as analogous to improving your vehicle's gas mileage -- for the same amount of effort, i.e., heart rate, you get more power as measured by the power meter quantitatively in watts. An instantaneous read out on the headset conveniently mounted on your stem keeps you training in the proper zone for the prescribed time to achieve optimum results.
