What is a Power Meter?

What is a Power Meter?

A Power Meter provides numbers representing how hard you’re working – your effort or running intensity.

Running power meters use readings from multiple sensors to calculate a power number.

Most recent running watches have a power meter built in.

Why use a power meter?

Running intensity is important when training, so that you can target the adaptations that will give you the best chance of success at your upcoming event.

There are other measures of intensity runners can use, but running power overcomes the disadvantages of those other measures:

• It’s objective rather than subjective, providing a number that represents your effort – unlike perceived effort.
• It matches how your effort changes when running hilly routes or running in windy conditions – unlike pace.
• Changes in effort produce an immediate change in power and there’s no upward drift towards the end of longer runs – unlike heart rate.

Do running power meters really measure my effort?

No.

Running power meters provide numbers that represent your effort.

Does that mean running power is meaningless?

No, as long as the numbers are repeatable and valid, you can use them to measure your effort.

• Repeatable? The same effort in the same conditions produces the same number
• Valid? The numbers correlate (align) with an existing ‘gold standard’ (e.g. oxygen consumption when running)

And once you can measure your effort, that’s when the magic begins.