Originally Posted by bmcer

"Worth it"? That's one of those questions whose answer depends entirely on the inquirer's perspective. Most folks on this forum are of a competitive bent, and for them "Worth it" means it can be used to improve performance in a competition. I understand that and respect it. That said, there's a host of other reasons that could make a power meter "Worth it". Just plain curiosity for one. How much power does it really take to hold this speed or climb that hill? What does my heart rate do when I hold that power level for this amount of time? It may be purely academic, but there's no end to these kinds of questions that can only be answered with a power meter. Then there are the fitness folks who are only competing against themselves and need some relatively objective way to manage their work load and document even incremental improvements. And this doesn't even cover the flock of bike geeks who are some blend of both the above.

And finally, there's the odd duck like myself. I got back into cycling 6 years ago (after a 25 year hiatus) as part of a healthy living program I started after my first heart attack. 2 years later, I was in great shape, had lost ~60 lbs, and had a resting pulse of 52. But I was stressing my body to the point that one morning after an uneventful 7 mile ride for an early morning hot cocoa, I turned up my toes in front of the local Pete's and went into total cardiac arrest. It's a long story, but the reader's digest version goes like this. I was successfully resuscitated and underwent an equally successful double bypass graft. My cardiac surgeon, however, was at a loss to explain 1) the lack of myocardial damage he saw while in my chest and 2) why I survived at all. Thinking it might help, I gave him a batch of my Garmin data. He took one look and told me he was not only able to now understand my "durability" as well as why I infarcted the second time. His advice... 1) Do not, repeat DO NOT stop riding 2) (and this is the part he emphasized as a "must do") find some way besides chest pain and tachycardia to accurately gauge the intensity of my rides . First thing I did after that was buy a power meter and learn how to use the data it made available. Four years later, I'm still more fit that about 80% of men 10 tears my junior, and I haven't shown any signs of "blowing up" again because of it. Is it worth it for me? Ya' think?!

Bottom line, see if you can find a way to rent a power meter for awhile. I have no idea how common this might be, but there is at least one shop in my area that does this. Try it out for a month or so. If the data is useful to you for whatever reason and you have the disposable income to cover it, go for it!