The cycling metric development path:
Phase one: obsession with speed. Let me see how fast I can go down this hill! Let me see what kind of rolling speed I can hold today! Then you realize that wind, riding partners, course profile, traffic lights etc all affect avg. rolling speed. You move on.
Phase two: you get obsessed with distance. "How far did you ride today?" "How many miles did you ride this year?". You seek to push yourself into 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 mile days. You try to get a century in each week. Then you realize that you're still getting dropped on group rides. You get blown off the back any time the road turns up. You start to think that maybe churning out endless miles at a medium effort level maybe isn't the best way to get fit.
Phase three: you get a power meter. Average watts in the answer. Yes! Finally an objective measure that is impervious to externalities and focuses on your actual fitness. Then you realize that your heavier, far less fit friend can hold much higher wattage than you even though they're going a lot slower. Hmmm.
Phase four: you settle on watts per KG as what matters. This is actually a pretty good metric that normalizes for all kinds of externalities. This is the answer! But as you get more fit you start to think about watts/KG at a given heart rate. You start to think about VAM, kilojoules and TSS.
Phase five: you realize this is the path to madness. You seek to enjoy riding with friends, enjoy beating each other up on the hills, enjoy the feeling of being outside in fresh air, enjoy the scenery.
Last edited by Hiro11; 01-07-22 at 08:13 AM.