Why? What are it’s benefits? How much?
Well the theory is that you get a blood lactate test so you know at what power your blood lactate starts to pick up – this is the best point at which to do base training. Then you do a 10 mile time trial and this should be your anaerobic threshold.
This is basically the same as using percentages of max HR to calculate zones but much more accurate. Your HR varies quite a bit based on all sorts of thigns and it can also drift through a ride.
Then when you ride you can ride at constant power which means that 99% of your ride is targetted exercise up hill and down dale. And for intervals it stops you slacking off in later sets.
It also gives you a metric for progress and you can race yourself to try and beat previous average wattages.
In practise you might feel that this detracts from the joy of riding, or you might get a kick out of playing the numbers and beating your records.. I suspect that it’s not a tool for everyone and I’ve cooled down on it a lot after the first couple of seasons.
As for prices, well new ones are a grand ish, but the old wired ones come up on the bay frequently and they are 300 ish I think.
Dave, any suggestions on hydrating?
I’m not Dave, but Torq flavoured is worth a try 🙂