Training & Nutrition - The next training tool

So I've finished my first year of cycling.

Roughly 6000 miles, 9 centuries, 40 lbs. lost and I've become a decent recreational cyclist.

My last ride of the year (I'm going out of the country this Tuesday) and I decided to ride with the race group during one of their harder training rides and I was shown how much more improvement can be had.

So with that in mind I was thinking of getting serious with my riding next year and grab a power measuring tool. From searching the boards/net and considering my financial ability here are my findings :
- I have campy so Powertap is out
- Sram/powertap is too expensive
- breifly considered hac 4 but apparently their measurements are estimates based on speed
- I'm looking at the polar 720 (as the 725 seems to have no autostart feature but otherwise it's the same features)


Here are a few questions:
- For those with the 720/5 instead of using the polar precision software can you upload to the web based polarcycling.com website? If so does it display the same stats (atitude, watts etc) as the PC based software? I've been using the CS 200 for the last few months and may keep it on my everyday bike so uploading to the same tracking software would be a nice plus
- power meter doesn't seem to be as accurate as the powertap or sram but are the numbers consistent? meaning will I be able to track improvements (not precise power readings) accurately
- for those who use the polar a a training tool, (power and HR, how happy ar you with it?
- are my cs-200 speed or cadence sensors compatible with the polar 720/5?

1. You can run a Shimano 9-speed cassette with campy 10-speed shifters. I do it. This should make the PowerTap at least a possibility. An expensive possibility.

2. The Polar power add-on is a toy. A frustrating, irritating, essentially useless, toy.

Hi, I ride campy 10 full record and use a powertap. You have several options. One: buy a new powertap with a campy freehub body and use all your campy cassettes just like normal Two: buy the older used version with a shimano freehub body and buy the cycleops campy compatible cassettes. That should do the trick. I was one of the first out there to use campy with the p-tap(I got it from the tune co. in ma before cycleops bought them out, and we used to have to buy reworked cassettes from wheels manufacturing). I have had really good luck and I think the p-tap is the way to go. I am actually really psyched for the new wireless ptap due out in april.