When I first stumbled into cycling culture, “watts” sounded like insider code. Riders would finish a session and immediately trade numbers like baseball cards: how many watts, for how long, what their FTP was, whether the normalized power told a truer story than the average. Coming from running, where pace and heart rate were my compass, it felt alien, technical for the sake of it, maybe even a little theatrical. Yes, I rolled my eyes, I admit it. Then I learned what watts actually are, and well, I too have become a fan of the Watts!

Wtf is a Watt in cycling anyway? A watt is a unit of power, the rate of doing work. On a bike, it’s how much force you are turning through the pedals right now (although I like to track mine over 3 second intervals rather than the purely immediate tracking). Tracking your watts can make more sence when you are trying to pace yourself than tracking pure speed. Speed can lie because wind, hills, road surface, and drafting all meddle with it. Heart rate can lag, meander, and get spooked by heat, caffeine, nerves, or a bad night’s sleep (If you have to choose, though, I would highly suggest pacing by heart rate and not by speed). Power doesn’t care about any of that. Press harder and the number jumps; ease off and it falls. It is the closest thing we have to an honest narrator of effort in real time. Watts are the pressure of your foot on the gas.

This is why cyclists obsess. The Watts are also always going to be one of the key metrics on a rider’s Wahoo, Garmin and other such bike computers. Yes, even (or especially) the pro riders track their Watts! Power allows you to compare yourself to yourself, no matter the day. Headwind or tailwind, alpine pass or city loop, 250 watts is still 250 watts.

It also helped me tremendously in correctly pushing myself in training. Once you estimate your threshold, your “FTP”(the effort you can sustain for X amount of time) you can set zones and target specific adaptations with full visibility. You hit what you came to hit, recover when you’re meant to recover.

If you’re a runner used to tempo and heart rate, power won’t erase those tools; it will however help in my opinion. On an uphill, it keeps you from chasing a doomed pace that will torch your legs for the back half. Into a headwind, it stops you from spiraling into overwork because your speed looks embarrassing. With a tailwind, it reminds you not to coast on numbers that flatter your ego but do little for your fitness. The same logic extends to triathlon, where the bike is a long negotiation with your future run. If you ride like a hero by feel alone, the marathon will collect its debt with interest. Guaranteed. Ride by power, and you measure the damage. You arrive at the run with a body that can still cash checks.

Starting is simple. Do a baseline test or a few hard efforts to estimate your threshold. Set zones that are good enough rather than perfect. Plenty of tools and guides online that teach you how to do this. Plenty of tests, some better than others, just pick one and get going 🙂

Watt I Learned

I thought watts were for gearheads until I realized they’re for people who hate preventable mistakes. Power didn’t replace pace or heart rate; it helped them. It kept me from chasing speed into headwinds, from writing checks on early climbs that my run couldn’t cash, and from mistaking a hot, high heart rate for real work. In triathlon, especially, it turned the bike from a drama into a metronome, and the marathon stopped punishing me for earlier bravado. I always thought I was terrible at cycling (and I certainly wasnt great, but also not terrible!) but tracking and training by watts has helped me tremendously. Most home trainers will have this on them. On your bike, you may need a power meter of some sort. They cost a few euros but they are worth it in my opinion. You can choose to have these power meter setups in the shape of the cranks or pedals. I personally went for pedals, as I can easily swap that between bikes if needed. The more expensive road bikes nowadays tend to come pre-equipped with powermeters.