No stopping now
Recently I’ve mentioned my woes trying to get my power meter situation ironed out. Most every time I do I get an email, blog comment, or someone says “Get rid of that stuff and just ride your bike!” Believe me, I feel that temptation, but it isn’t time… yet.
Now, I haven’t always had power meter issues. When I was riding only with the Quarq CinQo on my White Giant, there was no problem with the power files. I went out there did the workout my coach wanted me to do and sent him the info to evaluate.
Then I got my Black Giant fixed and I got the opportunity to try out the iBike iAero power meter. A few hiccups to get started, but for the most part I was now able to take out either bike on my workouts and have the information needed to send back to my coach. Things were going pretty smoothly.
The problems started when I introduced the time trial bike to my training. I just never could feel comfortable that the iBike was working correctly. Part of it was because it was hard for me to read the screen as I had to mount it in a weird spot on the bike.
Finally, yesterday I was able to take the TT bike out for the first time with the Quarq CinQo installed on it. Ahhhhh, a little bit of the fun of suffering through 12 minutes intervals returned. I was able to clearly see on the Garmin readout what my power was. As I uploaded my file to TrainingPeaks.com last night, I felt confident that the coach would like what he sees.
Of course, that means that I’ll be racing the Black Giant in the race tomorrow. I’ll be using the iBike then as well. The White Giant is currently hanging up with no crank. I’ve just got to make sure that I have the sensors securely fastened on old black before taking to the course!
So, why put up with all of this? I have put a good amount of a time investment into my training. I’ve also signed up for year of coaching. The system I am on is “Training with Power.” The only way you can train with power is to be able to ride your bike and know how much power you are producing. Each workout requires you to be able to see your power output.
Bottom line is that you can’t train with power without a power meter.
Yes, yes, yes! I would love to just ride my bike and forget about the power meter and all the stuff it causes me to have stuck on my bike. However, I look back over the last six months and see how much I have improved and I must give much of the credit to the fact that I am using this system to train. I still have six months to go… there is no stopping now!
Besides, all of these power meter issues give me something to gripe about in the blog! I don’t think my griping will be able to continue too much longer. I’m starting to get a better understanding of the capabilities of the iBike. There are somethings I can do to alleviate some of my frustrations. I just need to find the time to sort it out.
Tags: CinQo, iBike, power meter, Quarq
