Bicycling Magazine did a nice piece on training with power for the layman. Which is somewhat insulting since if you are considering a powertap, you probably already know how to train and have been or are racing. But here is the article.
Excerpt taken without permission:
Power To The People
This training tool, once reserved for pro riders, can help you get into the fittest and fastest shape of your life.
By Selene Yeager
There are many among us who remember when heart rate monitors first broke on the scene about 20 years ago. Suddenly, the exercise world was defined by multicolored training zones based on the all-powerful beating pulse. We smugly fastened our black chest straps, confident that we held all the knowledge we'd need to judge the intensity of a workout right on our wrist. Now, like astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, whose theory replacing Earth with the sun as the center of the solar system rocked 16th- and 17th-century science, exercise physiologists have nudged heart rate aside, relegating it to a bit player in a larger scheme of training that is ruled by one central force: power. Okay, so it's not quite as Earth-shattering as the end of the geocentric worldview. But power meters--devices that attach to your bike to measure pedal force multiplied by cadence, or how much power you're producing--are changing the entire cycling training paradigm. And using one just may make you faster than you've ever been in your life.
More Power to You
Power meters have all the features of a typical topflight handlebar-mounted computer: speed, distance, time, cadence and heart rate, all with maxes and averages, and even energy expended (so you can calculate calories burned). But the key additional measurement is power, in watts, measured by sensors located at your crank, hub, bottom bracket or chain (depending on the brand you buy).
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