Your Garmin should also be set to 1 second, not Smart.

People use power meters for different reasons. For training. To pace yourself. To test a jacket or different riding positions. To know how many calories you burned on the bike. Etc.

Most of the reasons you'd want to measure and know your power output while you ride involve what you can output and for how long. (I can do 1,500 watts no problem, but I can't do it for longer than a second. I can do 800 w for about 5 seconds. Etc.) You've probably already seen your "critical power" chart, it's exactly what I'm talking about.



Most software is smart enough to read a file that's been paused and understand that it's been paused. But some software isn't. To really understand what you're capable of, you need good data. If you stop at a red light, you're putting out 0 watts until it turns green, and you're probably going to put out a bunch of watts when you first get moving again, more than you will to maintain your speed. You rested at the light, and recovered somewhat, it's important to capture that.

Also, auto-pause is very good but not perfect, it's likely to cut out the first few seconds when you start moving again (at least if you use GPS and not a speed sensor) which is when you're putting a lot of power out.