Bob Dopolina 

The long story is here

The short story:

I bought a PM. I rode it like I was already fit because I wanted to see numbers that made me happy. I wasn't fit and the numbers were wrong. Instead of doing the things I knew worked for me I ignored everything I knew and ended up wasting my time and a good chunk of the season.

Throw in a dumb injury and 2 weeks of Tropical rain and now we start again.

palesaint

That one sentence right there negated any trash talk you mention againt power meters. ANY device that you obsess over could take away the sheer enjoyment of biking. Doesn't matter if it's a speedometer, heart rate monitor, gps or power meter.

waterrockets 

Yeah, I think I went up to the edge of that clif myself, but I realized it and came back. Now I'm riding based on perceived exertion like I always have, and using the PM to track it. I can see how easy it is to fall into this trap though. The data are just amazing, and you have to look away most of the time.

When you say the numbers were wrong, do you mean you were denying the numbers, or you had a calibration issue?

auk

Easy fix is a piece of tape over the output section of the meter screen.

Pugsly

Also obsessing over any one particular metric, like speed, distance, number of rides, etc.

Tourmalet

Does that include the bikes themselves? Because I've been obsessing over a Cervelo Soloist lately.

Pugsly

Yes. If you can't be with the one you love, then love the one you're with.

LorenzoNF

Yay! Someone who knows that data is plural.

jrobe

This thread should have been labeled... "Power Meter User - A Cautionary Tale"

Don't blame the tool.

Triguy

I have found that my Powermeter makes me ride harder than I ever normally would. I ride with my PM on interval days, which I've increased to 3 from 2. Easy days I leave the PM at home. Different strokes for different folks.

Bob Dopolina 

I am going back to square one and this is my new goal.

There was an installation (frame) issue that threw things off by 8-10%. It's fixed now but now it's me who is off by a much larger percentage.

carpediemracing 

It might be a personality thing, or an expectation thing.

I got my first powermeter (PT) thinking I'd be womping up some serious wattage in the sprint and not much else. I found that, to my horror, I was well under the "1800 watts" that I "had to be pushing" when I did some spectacular jump in Florida (my friend and training partner was at 1200 watts and exclaimed that I had to be doing 1800 watts).

To my dismay I never broke the mid 1500s, and this year I'm struggling to get into the 1400s. My field sprint wins have been in the low 1300s, horrible for me. Maybe I should get some 175s again.

Once I got over the fact that I wasn't going to be doing 1800 watts, I realized that one of the things I do is ease up "asap". I start firmly (which seems to be a 600-800 watt surge to get up to speed, lasting maybe 20 seconds) then rarely break 150 watts until I have to accelerate away from another light or stop or something. I learned to go a bit harder if I thought I was going too easy, and I also learned that the reason why I blew up when I "wasn't going hard" is because I was actually going really hard, i.e. anaerobic or 600-900 watts. I suppose anaerobic feels good until I use up what oxygen I have in my body because I seem to alternate anaerobic efforts and recovery. Not much else. Now I try and sustain efforts.

A friend of mine thought I was limiting myself, like the way HRM users were focused on Zones, and not allowing myself to work hard. In fact I found that a PM encourages me to work harder when I go too easy and it reminds me to ease up when I'm going too hard.

I look down at it sometimes, sort of like how I looked down at my cyclometer to see how fast I was going. Doesn't mean much, I just store the number and keep going. If I see a number that's supposed to be me blowing up, and I'm not blowing up, then it's simply a new data point as far as "I didn't blow up at this wattage or that heart rate".

It's interesting to see other's experiences with PMs and I'm glad you shared yours.

cdr

senatorw

Waterrockets,

Hooray for you that you have the proper tense for the word data. I know I'm a ****er but hearing people say "the data is" bugs me. I have the same issue with people who lament that a private company is infringing upon their Constitutional right to free speech (or religion or whatever), and who don't get that most private parties are not bound by the U.S. Constitution (at least non-quasi public entities like Universities).

What does this have to do with Power Meters? Absolutely nothing. I am in my first year with my Powertap, and I'm still impressed by my colorful charts, but your post and the OP have me thinking about this issue.

Dubbayoo

My only power meter is my KK trainer. When I go outside its purely for the enjoyment.

Bob Dopolina 

I didn't think it would fit in the title.

I'm certain that PMs everywhere are glad that you are standing up for them in the face of such an obvious onslaught of abuse.

If you read the longer post on my blog you may actually be able to feel that my tongue is planted firmly in my cheek and that I take full responsibility for the problem.

jefferee

Surely you mean data are plural?

Bob Dopolina 

Data is plural like milk is plural; Non-count nouns require the singular be verb, non?

jefferee

Not exactly... the word "data" is the plural of "datum", while the word "milk" has no such singular so far as I'm aware.

Had the original sentence stated, "The word data is plural", that would have been better. To simply state, "data is plural" is ambiguous, at least to my reading.

I was mostly amused, anyway... I just get my laughs by playing the pedant.

ElJamoquio

Nope.

"I am..."

"They are..."

"Data is..."

ElJamoquio

PS - I understand Bob's apprehension. A power meter killed my father.

Bob Dopolina 

Then 'are' would be correct.

It still sounds funny, though.

rousseau

The words "the word" are implied, so "data is plural" is correct, viz. "someone who knows that the word data is plural."

But it should have been written this way: Yay, someone who knows that data is plural!

ElJamoquio

I love data, because data is cool. Data makes me happy.

Bob Dopolina 

Bastages!

waterrockets 

Man, usually I have to rip on paired spokes or frame efficiency claims to start a multi-post argument around here. The data indicate otherwise.