Originally Posted by
tetonrider
its not so much about pacing by power as it is data analysis after the fact and historical trends.
You can't really pace a 10" effort by power.
His stuff can matter a bunch or not at all, depending on who you ask. When I coach people, data integrity and the type of meter they use is very important. I am not riding with them and have to read quite a bit into the ride based on small things in their files. If their data is bad, then those small differences can get lost, and much of the valuable stuff (subtle nuances that tell me things about how a rider is riding) are lost.
Of of course some folks just need AP and TSS and call it good.
Yeah, I see where you are coming from. For me, for the time being - my coach knows me, which helps, and I'm not super concerned with the specific details of my power at durations below 5'. Not that it isn't nice to know, to get an idea of where I stand, or what happened in a given race (e.g. looking at 2-3 minute intervals in a road race where I got dropped the third time up a really steep climb). Shockingly, different people have different needs! So I can see why the problems with something like a Stages would be more concerning to someone else. It does ease my mind that the numbers I've seen with it even at short durations are consistent with previous measurements I've made, but the thing is that could still be off by 20 watts one way or another and I wouldn't be able to tell. Still, I'd rather my 3' power be off by 20 watts than my 20' power!