I cannot speak for senior citizens. However, I can discuss your post from the USCF Masters 55+ peloton point of view. Both my wife and I have power measurement on our road and time trial bikes and we have a Santana tandem (no power measurement) and we compete in sanctioned races. Our combined FTP is approximately 3.3 watts/kg, 5 minute peak power is 4 watts/kg and 1 minute peat power is 5.2 watts/kg. This is computed based upon formalized testing yesterday and hill climb races. It takes several weeks using a power meter and following a testing protocol to get numbers that mean anything i.e. watts/kg. I doubt that borrowing a power tap will yield anything significant.

My wife (59) and I (60) have been competing in local hill climbs http://lowkey.djconnel.com/2009/ and we have completed 3 of them. My wife came in 3rd for the women all ages in the first two and second in the last one which was 5.3 miles up a steady 8.5% graded (Soda Springs). She beat some the best female climbers in the area and many of the men. I am bumping along the bottom ¼ of the men’s peloton getting my head handed to me by the climbers. However, it is a lot of fun and a great way to build FTP.

We competed in the Berkeley team time trial race last year on our tandem and came in 3rd in the tandem category beating several others and a men’s team. The course is the famous 3 bears course and finishes 800 feet higher than it starts. On that course, we used an 11/28 ten speed cassette and a 53/39/30 triple (Santana standard). We had a glitch shifting and climbed Mama Bear 8% grade in the 39/28. We had to spin a little slower than we would have preferred.

It is a very good idea to get power meters for your singles and train with power. We like training with power a lot and would not go back to heart rate. In fact, I pay little attention to heart rate when on the bike.