I did a Wattbike session yesterday and averaged 192 w with 131 HR over 1 hour.

Today I went out on my road bike and averaged 167w (Strava estimate) with 155 HR for 1 hour 25 min. It’s a relatively hilly ride (400m) and was VERY windy (which Strava can’t take into account and bases power estimate on speed and HR so in reality I would have been higher)

My question is, how do turbo power sessions translate to the bike? I’m thinking of getting a power meter but want to understand what I should be training to.

Not sure I understand your question. Power is power. The power you generate with the bike on a turbo is the same as the power generated when the bike’s on the road.

Once you have your power training zones worked out from a 20 min test then those zones will be the same whether the bike is on a turbo or on the road.

I think you should read Training with Power by Coggan and Allen before you buy a power meter just to make sure its the sort of thing you want to get into.

Firstly ignore Strava power as its so inaccurate its not worth considering.

Secondly the average power output for an hour, unless you were at 100% effort the entire way, is also somewhat misleading.

If you’ve access to a WattBike then the best thing to do would be to perform a structured FTP test, something like the 2 * 8 minutes favoured by TrainerRoad.

From this you’ll get a much better figure to work with. You’ll also be able to use your HR values from the test to measure how hard you’re working on the road.

A power meter won’t make you faster, it will give you a load of numbers, you may get faster if you know what those numbers mean and what to do with them.

Thanks both. I’ll buy the book you recommend.

I’m surprised that my HR is much lower while delivering more watts on the turbo vs on my bike. I will

It’s not. It’s just the way the Strava “made up’ power is displayed, it’s not at all accurate and should be ignored, it may as well say your average power is yellow.

As mentioned above, average power is also misleading as unless you were doing a steady state effort it’s pretty meaningless.

Thank you all

I’d also consider what session you’re doing on the WattBike, as from your HR I assume it included a lot of not trying very hard? Which means again, that the power numbers mean very little taken as a whole.

It was a base session – Mount Field