Originally Posted by
RChung
Hmmm. I disagree. I set my peak 5-sec, 10-sec, 15-sec, and 20-sec power on a ride right after a guy in a car buzzed me and my buddy. I knew he was likely to get caught at the next stop light and lit out after him. The real problem is that I didn't know what to do with him when I caught him.
But those adrenaline/anger-fueled power records were probably not a good measure of your fitness. Certainly hard to repeat.
That's what I like about power vs heart rate: it's an objective measure of your response to training over a span of weeks or months (and you don't have to do periodic full gas fitness tests to obtain the data). Yes, it can vary somewhat daily (heat, dehydration, etc.), but it can reveal a trend. If your power is rising for the same heart rate, it's hard to argue that your training isn't causing improvement.