What difficulties have you experienced using power?

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝?

This is part of a series of posts on runners’ feedback about Running with Power.

Based on survey responses and book research, here are the top three difficulties runners experienced using power.

𝐆𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝

There is a learning curve associated with using power – some fundamental concepts that power is based on, and some things you should and shouldn’t do. However, these are well-known, documented and often discussed in the power-focused Facebook groups – it just takes time.

The setup can also be quite complicated – whether you’re using Stryd or using wrist-based power. With a little patience, it’s possible to end up with a watch setup and supporting application setup that work well. It’s just harder than the setup needed to run using pace or heart rate.

𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫

There are three commonly-used test protocols, all of which produce a usable Threshold Power number. But they all rely on maximum effort runs – and it’s this aspect that runners found difficult. Fortunately for most runners, max-effort runs, while always difficult, got easier to execute with practice.

𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐮𝐧 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫

Many runners were already be used to running using pace, HR or perceived effort. They reported that it took time to fully trust power, and to stop relying on the other metrics.

𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬

There were other difficulties runners experienced using power, including: using power in mountainous, windy or other ‘unusual’ environments; that power represents your effort (rather than actually being your effort, like cycling); that it was easy to forget (or forget to charge) the pod; that it was difficult to explain to others.

That said, power is still relatively new – we can expect further changes and improvements moving forward!