Christmas wish

First of all, my Christmas wish was made before the earthquake and Yolanda. And second of all, it wasn’t a Christmas wish since it was predated just after 2013 started but yet it dragged on, cooled off and then heated up again.

For 2014, I “only” wanted a bicycle power meter. I italicized “only” to emphasize that if I get myself a power meter, I’d be using all my funds for only one gift just for me and me alone. Since a power meter can be very, very expensive and can’t be shared with anyone, it makes me a bit selfish, I thought.

A cycling power meter is a device on a bicycle that measures the power output of the rider by using strain gauges placed at strategic areas on the bike. In layman’s term, the power meter measures the force a rider applies on the pedal stroke. It is a far cry from the bike computer whose outputs include speed and time, or the heart rate monitor, which measures heartbeats.HRM reading can also fluctuate if you’re not feeling well, or if you are fatigued. Therefore, the output becomes subjective.The power meter doesn’t have the same restrictions. In fact, the output from the power meter is so steady from year to year that it can be used a training baseline.

But then again, as the technology improves, so does its perplexity and athletes usually don’t have the time or the motivation to learn and understand how these gizmos work. They are not interested in the interpretation of the data. What they are more interested in is how to make themselves better than the next rider. And that’s why they’d need a coach who can interpret the data.

For this reason, the online coaching industry has grown with the power meter. You simply download the data, send it to your coach for an interpretation and a training plan.

Power meters started to come out in the early 90’s when Greg Lemond started using a big and ugly cyclocomputer. Well, for those who know Greg only as Lance Armstrong’s bitter enemy, he was also known for the innovations he brought to cycling- aero bars, aero helmets.

These days, a pro worth his salt own one power meter.I’m not a pro so I’ll just buy salt instead of a power meter. There’s still next Christmas anyway.

Finally, Mark Cavendish is estimated to produce between 1600-2000 watts in the last 200 meters. Lance Amrstrong and Miguel Indurain can do 490 and 510 watts respectively in a 60min time trial. I think that if I can get half of their output, I’d be winning most of the race I’m joining