Run with Power: The Complete Guide to Power Meters for Running

by Jim Vance

RUN WITH POWER is the groundbreaking guide you need to tap the true potential of your running power meter. From 5K to ultramarathon, a power meter can make you fasterbut only if you know how to use it. Just viewing your numbers is not enough; you can only become a faster, stronger, more efficient runner when you know what your key numbers mean for your workouts, races, and your season-long training. In Run with Power, TrainingBible coach Jim Vance offers the comprehensive guide you need to find the speed you want.Run with Power demystifies the data and vocabulary so you can find and understand your most important numbers. You’ll set your Running Power Zones so you can begin training using 8 power-based training plans for 5K, 10K, half-marathon, and marathon. Vance shows you how you can compare wattage, heart rate, pace, and perceived exertion to gain the maximum insight into your performances, how you respond to training, and how you can train more effectively. Run with Power will revolutionize how you train and race. Armed with Vance’s guidance, you can train more specifically for races, smooth your running technique, accurately measure your fitness, predict a fitness plateau, monitor injuries, know exactly how hard you’re training, get more fitness from every workout, recover fully, perfect your tapers, warm up without wasting energy, pace your race on any terrain, know when to open the throttle, and create an unprecedented picture of yourself as an athlete.If you’re just glancing at the number on your wrist or computer monitor, you’ve got a lot more speed potential. Knowledge is power and understanding your power numbers can open the gate to new methods and new PRs. Run with Power introduces the use of power meters to the sport of running and will show you how to break through to all-new levels of performance.Key concepts explored in Run with 3/9 Test, 30-minute Time Trial Test, Running Functional Threshold Power (rFTPw), Running Functional Threshold Pace (rFTPa), Averaged and Normalized Power (NP), Intensity Factor (IF), Peak Power, Variability Index, Efficiency Index (EI), speed per watt, Vance’s Power Zones for Running, Training Stress Score (TSS), and Periodization with Power. Includes 6 testing methods and 8 power-based training schedules and workouts for 5K, 10K, half-marathon, and marathon.

Genres: Sports, Fitness, Health, Nonfiction

377 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2016

Reviews

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. Key Takeaways:
* Training/racing by power is better than training/racing by pace or HR because
* Training/racing by power offers additional advantages for running. Because running is more biomechanically complex than cycling, power also offers runners tools to improve form/efficiency.
* Efficiency Index (speed / power) is a key metric for tracking form/efficiency.
* "Envelope runs" are a key training tactic to improve form/efficiency.

2. Writing style: the book is written in a pretty prescriptive writing style. It's trying to cover a lot, from the basics of power to application of those basics to running. It makes good use of charts and graphs from real data - real runs - although the way it is laid out is sometimes confusing. Often text on one page refers to a chart or graph on another page so the reader must waste time flipping pages back and forth. I found a few typos in the first printing.

3. Practical applications: the book includes several detailed week-by-week training plans for various race distances and various skill levels - very helpful!

4. What could be improved:
* The book feels like a "translation" of cycling power training/racing to running. I have a hunch that, because running is so different than cycling, many of the cycling principles won't translate 1-to-1 to running.
* The book is already out of date, referring to the older version of the Stryd CP test.

5. Credibility:
* Jim Vance references Dr. Andy Coggan throughout the book. As Coggan developed much of the science on which cycling power training/racing is based, this adds a great deal of credibility to Run With Power.
* Vance also references Joe Friel, who developed much of the state of the art of triathlete training programs.
* The book includes results from actual testing with real athletes running with power - which is good. However, I get the impression that the sample size of those athletes is quite small - which is less good.
* Vance acknowledges frequently that this is bleeding edge stuff and that we don't have definitive conclusions in many cases; that strengthens the credibility of the conclusions he does make.

6. What level of athlete: this book would be most useful for intermediate athletes who are already familiar with heart rate training and/or those who are accustomed to power training/racing in cycling.

Final thoughts: this book feels really rushed in its [successful] attempt to be first to market. That said, it's a great primer for all things power-related, including a glossary of power terms and enumeration of power metrics. It's a useful first shot in this space, especially for those who don't have the benefit of months of experience on the Stryd forums.

[Ross Groom · Rating 4 out of 5]

One way ticket to nerd town plz

[Aaron Toponce · Rating 3 out of 5]

When it comes to running books, "Training for the Uphill Athlete" is the Gold Standard. It's both descriptive and prescriptive, backed by research, informative, well-written, well-structured, and provides a wealth of data, including charts, tables, and illustrations.

Unfortunately, this book doesn't quite rise to that bar. It's written descriptively, but also does not provide prescriptions outside of training plans that make up 1/3 of the book. It is well structured, but also written from a high level overview that introduces running power to the reader as if to sell it. The book does not provide any references to back up any of the claims made.

However, the book provides a wealth of data metrics and definitions, and defines them very clearly. When taken in the whole with heart rate and pacing metrics, it's not difficult to see how valuable running metrics can be for the athlete.

One of those metrics, Efficiency Index (EI), is invented by the author, and I struggle to find its value. It's defined as pace in meters per minute divided by average power in watts. This metric is very similar to Running Efficiency (RE) which is defined as pace in meters per second divided by normalized power in watts per kilogram.

Because EI is not normalized, it can have values larger than 1.0, which is (should be) impossible for RE. So one run might show an EI of 0.75 while the other shows an EI of 2.13. What do these values mean? Jim Vance tries selling EI to the reader multiple times in the book after defining it, but it appears its only value is seeing if it increases for similar efforts. It's not all that useful as a post-run metric, and it's not all that useful comparing to other athletes, such as elites.

I do think I'll find myself coming back to the book for some definition specifics that are difficult to find online, so I appreciate it as a reference. Again, it was well-written. Aside from the couple of typos that the editors and publisher missed, I had no problem with the language or presentation of he concepts. However, as a mathematician, computer scientist, and post-run analysis nerd, I wish there would have been more data-driven examples with references.

[Nirad Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise but reasonably detailed walkthrough of training with power meters, including detailed examples for all metrics and interpretations.

[Finlay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit old now (2016) but a solid basis for understanding training with power (and how it differs from cycling power).

[Stephen Redwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the world of triathlon capturing data is a whole discipline in itself. It speaks to both the obsessiveness that goes with the sport and the fantasy that with new factoids more speed will come - triathletes love their toys. Power meters are now commonplace in biking, but are a whole new thing in the world of running. But the basic concept is that measuring power (force times velocity) to generate data makes as much sense for running as it does for biking. In biking it's relatively simple - strap a strain gauge to a crank, hub or pedal and you can easily measure applied force. In running it's a bit more complicated because running operates across three planes: horizontal, vertical and lateral. We now have running power meters that measure either two or three of those dimensions, so we have a basis for generating power numbers. Much more than is the case on bikes, this does mean that there are comparability issues between products, so it's best to consistently stick to one choice of run power meter and build a solid set of data before deciding if you trust it enough to use as a guide for training and racing. Jim Vance makes this point, along with helpful advice on using the data to maximize running efficiency (more speed per watt) before turning to the all important challenge of how to use this to get faster. The book is very thorough, explaining the theory (much of which will be familiar to bikers) and also the practical application. He is very clear on what to measure and how to use the data for training and racing. He spells out the limitations at this stage of development, but is convincing that this is a tool that can be very be a helpful addition to the runners toolbox. It's a toy worth having and a book worth reading.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with a lot of this kind of thing there’s absolutely nothing here for the casual reader. In fact this is niche even by the standards of a very niche kind of book.

This is really the first engagement with using power to structure running training. It’s a well practiced area in cycling but the technology is only in its infancy for running.

Vance works through a number of the issues very clearly - it’s a complex area but he patiently explains the terms, uses and more importantly weaknesses of different approaches.

If running with power ultimately becomes mainstream the current technology (and this book) will be looked at in the same was as we currently view first generation iPods. That said, it’s more or less the only game in town for an interesting and novel area in running technology.

[Mo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vance touches upon some great concepts and metrics using a running power meter. Note that a lot of the suggested metrics and referred calculations are not yet available on the common analysis platforms such as Strava, Endomondo, Garmin Connect or even Stryds own power center.

However, being one of the very first books about power meters for runners, this book is a must read.

[Saulius · Rating 5 out of 5]

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