boring power meter stuff

i'm guessing that unless you're a information geek like me, things like power meter numbers bore you to death. plus, are anybody else's power number relevant at all to anyone else? probably not. but because i know so many people that train with power, i'm going to put up my first 7 months worth of data. just the peak numbers for given periods. ignore this post if it bores you. and yes, i'm well aware that most guys that weigh as much as me can probably put out much higher numbers...that's ok, i'll just use the excuse that i'm old and fat. these are normalized:

5 second power: 1291

30 second power: 733

1 minute power: 534

5 minute power: 365

10 minute power: 322

30 minute power: 285

60 minute power: 275

120 minute power: 265

the way my training has been structured, i never go for max numbers...the numbers always come out of a grouping of intervals. for example, i never go out, warm up, and try to post the hottest 1 minute power for the sake of my records. my one minute intervals always come out of minute on/minute off exercises, so the key element is consistency. or, they come from climbing out of the saddle, which naturally requires some pretty high efforts, but at the expense of the over the top speed. there is no "max effort" so i can brag about the numbers. could i post better numbers? probably, but then they would be useless in my training, because just posting a high number doesn't help me get faster.

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another example is my 5 or 10 minute power numbers. those numbers have been achieved not in intervals, but in harder long workouts.

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i think one of the dangers of getting a power meter is going out and stomping on the pedals and bragging to your friends. what good does that do? the real value of the power meter devices is to use the information to see how you improve, and you get to see where waste is, where you feel most comfortable, what heart rates correspond to what outputs, etc.

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taken out of context, the numbers are meaningless. because i keep all the workouts on file, i can go back and see exactly when and how some of the numbers are made, and then similar workouts in the future can have some context, some real use.