As both triathlete and triathlon coach, I rely heavily upon power meters when it comes to training and racing on a bike. In simple terms, a power meter is a device that allows a cyclist to track the amount of power, measured in watts, that they are producing when riding. Utilization of a power meter allows both the coach and athlete to remove variables such as course grade, tire rolling resistance, aerodynamic drag, etc. from the equation and base all efforts upon clearly defined “wattage” based training zones.

For instance, if I determine that my athlete has a power output of 300 watts at functional threshold (also commonly referred to as “lactate threshold” or the effort that a runner or cyclist could sustain for about 1 hour), and the day’s workout is calling for a set of 4 x 10 minutes at 2 – 3% above “FT” power, the athlete can clearly and effectively dial in their effort from the first few pedal strokes and focus on one thing and one thing alone: Attaining and sustaining their goal power output. Being able to train with a high degree of precision in turn increases the overall effectiveness of the workout and leads to bigger and better training results.

Although no one has yet to create a “running power meter,” a treadmill, in many ways, is the next best thing. Much like a power meter, a treadmill allows an athlete to train with an incredible amount of precision. By establishing pace-based training zones, an athlete can dial their workload in and ensure that they are running at the exact paces that they need to when engaging in any type of workout, be it a hard interval session or an active recovery run.

Fit Phrase of the Week: Treadmills allow athletes to train with precision. @landicefitness http://ow.ly/12QVR

What about heart-rate-based training you say?

Paced based training is vastly superior to heart rate based training for a wide variety of reasons a few of which include:
1. Heart rate, at any given speed, can vary by as many as 15 beats per minute from day to day depending upon a number of variables that include, but are not limited to:
• Stress levels
• State of hydration
• Fatigue levels
• Weather conditions
Some studies have even shown that your HR will spike by as many as 3 – 4 beats per minute when the sun is shining directly into your eyes while running!
2. Unlike pace, which you can precisely control on a treadmill, heart rate takes time to “drift” into a “zone” that is supposed to coincide with a particular pace or effort. Case in point: After completing the warm up segment of your run, your heart rate drops down to 130 bpm as you jog slowly for 3 minutes. Upon beginning a set of ¾ mile repeats at your open 8k race pace, you might notice that it takes your HR nearly 2 minutes to crest 85% of max! How in the world can you expect to effectively pace via heart rate when you’re dealing with that kind of lag time?!
3. Unlike pace based training, HR is not precise. Even once HR drifts up to a zone that starts to coincide with a particular effort, you cannot use it to clearly define just how hard you are running or should be running. For example; although there’s a BIG difference between running at 100% of the pace that coincides with your velocity at VO2max and 95% of that pace, your HR won’t be able to help you really differentiate between the two. This being said, for the serious runner, HR based training is nearly obsolete.

My next advanced training tip will dive deeper into the importance of establishing your pace based training zones and how you can go about determining them on your own.

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