Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last couple years, you are probably familiar with the “next big thing” in cycling training—Power meters.  There are several manufacturers in the market place—each with advantages and disadvantages. That is not what this article is about however. This article will address some specific advantages that training with power can give the masters athletes.

As a refresher, the fundamental principal of power meter training is the concept of Critical Power.  Critical Power is the average power level an athlete can maintain for an “all out” time trial of a given duration.  For example, an all out 60 minute effort would yield the value for CP60.  If we gather several CP points from shorter all out efforts (CP0.2 (12 seconds), CP1, CP6, CP10, CP20, CP30), we can draw a curve and extend the data to predict what our other longer duration Critical Power levels are.  This is a fantastic feature of training and racing with power as we don’t have to execute a 3 or 6 hour time trial to establish a Critical Power level to race a longer event like half Ironman or Ironman distance events.

Let’s look at a few specific benefits that power meter training provides the older triathlete.

Declining V0₂max:  As we age, our VO₂max naturally declines as part of the aging process.  We have considerable control over the rate of decline however.  Periodic hard efforts tax our aerobic system and help to minimize the rate that our VO₂max decreases.  The power meter functions as instantaneous feedback to ensure that we are putting out the necessary effort to tax this system.  Try this workout once each week and look for quantifiable results after 6-8 weeks.  After a thorough warmup of 20-30 minutes, conduct 5 intervals of 3 minutes at CP6 with 3 minutes of easy recovery (half of CP6) between efforts.  Cool down or continue riding easy for at least 20-30 minutes.

Gear Mashing:  As we age, we tend to slow our cadence and hence mash bigger gears to maintain our desired performance.  This low cadence mashing increases joint stress, muscle damage, and is less efficient than spinning a higher cadence.  In order to correct this tendency, we have to train our selves to get comfortable spinning this higher cadence with cadence specific training rides.  Try this on your next long steady ride:  focus on smooth, rapid pedal cadence using 50-75 percent of your CP30.  Work towards 95-100 rpm.  If you are currently pedaling at cadences less than 80 rpm, start at 85-90 rpm, and after a few sessions move up to 90 plus rpm.  Use your power meter to keep yourself honestly within the power zone and to ensure your cadence is in your target range.  Over time, you will regain your old “snap” and begin pedaling at more efficient cadences without conscious effort. 

Proper Recovery:  By far the most valuable aspect of training with power is the ability to monitor if you are training too hard.  No other discipline has the quantifiable benefits of directly reading power output to control athlete effort.  If you only use your power meter to gauge your output on hard rides or tests to establish Critical Power levels, you are only getting part of your money’s worth out of your power meter.  Recovery rides are just as critical as hard training rides to maximize our potential on race day.  This is especially true for the older athlete—we need more time to recover between hard efforts—it is that simple.  In between harder training rides, ride at least one  recovery ride at less than fifty percent of CP30.  This will be difficult for most at first—because it is so easy, most want to ride their recovery rides too hard.  The older you are, add more recovery rides between hard efforts.  Recovery rides keep you healthy and toeing the line healthy is half the battle.

Credit to Steve Neal, a Joe Friel Ultrafit associate and head coach at the Hardwood Hills National Cycling Centre in Oro Station, Ontario, Canada.  This is liberally paraphrased from his article in the March 8, 2004 Velonews.