Originally Posted by Iride01

Many of us here probably built ourselves up to 100 mile or better rides with little to no data collection at all. Just ride longer and more often is all you have to do. Helps to do some short segments of the same ride at full throttle, then relax for a bit, then go at it again. Knowing why you did bad or good with data sometimes just shows you aren't were you want to be and tells you you need to ride more.

Numbers mainly just give us stuff to argue or boast. In the end it's almost always been the person that gets from point a to b first wins. So a watch is all that is needed.

Trends to me are more useful than anything, So I just look at times for certain segments of my ride. However if you are going to get obsessed with numbers, a power meter can make less confusing and keep you more focused on the right things for training. Though if you are recreational, what are you training for? ............... Though I say the that with sarcasm, cynicism and other stuff because I still do pretty much the same as others here, though I haven't made the leap to power meters yet.