In this video today, which is a four-part series that's gonna be on this channel, brought to you by ACYMA Power Petals. I'm gonna share with you the first three steps you should take when first investing into a power meter. And look, I can appreciate that there will be people out there that are thinking about buying a power meter. Maybe you're just about to buy one, or maybe you've had one for a few months or if you're like me, a few years and you're still not quite sure what to do with it either way. The idea of this video in the four-part series is that you walk away with actionable steps. You can incorporate into your own cycling to get stronger and faster on the bike, leveraging, in my opinion, the best cycling training tool there is for getting stronger on the bike. So let's break this video into three parts. Part number one, let's discuss install and setup, part number two, working out your training zones with the cycling weight rack and number three. The simple base fitness test you can do without going into a lab. So there's a lot of different power meters out there. You've got crank base, you've got hub base, you've got those that come on an indoor trainer. And of course, you've got pedal base. So for this section, I wanted to talk about ACYMAP because in my experience, as hands down, this is the easiest power meter to install. And as somebody who doesn't like to get my hands overly dirty, these ACYMAP pedals work so well. You literally install them just like any other pedal system. It connects intuitively via amp plus or Bluetooth. The rechargeable battery facility is very simple to use. While the seal design avoids dust and water seeping into the electronic system that might result over time in power meter discrepancies, additionally, the app is very easy to use for setup such as specifying your crank length. I think what a lot of people don't realize is the other power meter options such as crank base systems. They've been more prevalent than pedals for a number of years because housing an electronic system inside a pedal which gets knocked and bumped around a lot hasn't been a viable option, however, with ACYMAP. They've developed a solution called a bi-component resin block which houses the electronic system effectively within the spindle, separating itself from the area that typically gets the most abuse. Add to this a two-year warranty on the ACYMAP power pedals, I think that is a testament to the reliability of their product. Now, once you have your power meter installed and it is calibrated, I would recommend what you display to yourself while you're riding to have an average three-second output. The reason why you don't want instantaneous is because you're just gonna jump around too much. So I always recommend to people in my coaching group go average three-second. The next thing you need to do is validate the numbers. Now, there are tools online, which you can help you do this, which I'll link to below, but some basic options would be to ride next to a friend who's also on power and is a similar build to you. Have you got a similar reading or are you out 50 to 100 watts? Possibly an even better option would be to get on an indoor trainer or I should say smart trainer and assess the reading from both your bike power meter perhaps on your head unit and then use a trainer app to obtain the power from the trainer. So you've got two readings in front of you. Now, I personally find that trainer there reads about five to 10 watts lower than my crank and pedal based systems. So I wouldn't be too concerned if there's a small discrepancy, but if it's 20, 30, 50 watts out, then you've got a technical issue that I would suggest you should investigate. Number two is working out your training zones. So I have a free ebook which goes into zones in quite a lot of detail, which I'll link to below. And in that ebook, I use an analogy for cycling training zones and that is a weight rack at a gym. You see, if I went to the gym and lifted weights blindly and assessed what my heart rate did after a set, while I'll have a reasonable feel for what I'm lifting, I'll just know how my body via my heart rate has responded to that particular effort. So it's kind of like cycling on the road with a heart rate strap and not knowing how much force is going through the pedal stroke. So the power meter shines the light on the cycling weight rack. We now have visibility of the weights we're lifting or the power output of each stroke and we can leverage our heart rate to see how the body responds to a particular power output. So the question is how do you determine your cycling weight rack? Well, that the road cycling academy, where I'm a road cycling coach, we use a seven zone model. So you have a seven zone cycling weight rack and we use the FTP test. Notably a FTP test called the half-monty on why whose system to determine RFTP. We then take our FTP and add that into a calculator, which I'm going to give you all below and out pops your cycling weight rack. Now I can appreciate the half-monty and other FTP tests and I'm going to give you a super accurate understanding of your upper end zones. It's going to be rough. So if you want to get super dialed in, you can go into a lab and get tested there, you want to think of a continuity perspective. Can you keep going back to a lab and getting tested? There's also something called the 40P test on why whose system which gives you a more accurate understanding of your upper end zones. But once again, that's a very daunting test. So I feel like the half-monty gives you a pretty good understanding of your upper end zones and the beauty of the half-monty as well. Is it also gives you your maximal aerobic power or VO2 max, which is your zone five number to bolster the accuracy of your upper end zones? Now if you don't have an indoor trainer to do the half-monty, I would recommend the 20-minute test outdoors and if you want to know how to run at the 20-minute test, I'll provide another link below. Part number three is a simple base fitness test you can do. So now you have your cycling weight rack. Let's first of all assess your aerobic engine. There's no point in training the house down or putting up the levels to a house until the foundations are solid and robust. So how do we do this? Go 70% of your FTP, which is your top end zone two. So for example, if your FTP was 250 watts, your zone two number for this test would be 175 watts. You'd then find a consistent environment where you can ride for 60 minutes without any free pedaling or stopping. So an outdoor velodrome, criteria track, or even better. An indoor trainer just ensure that you're not heat compromised. You haven't had loads of caffeine, you're not stressed or tired. Anything that's going to affect your heart rate for this test now, if you can invest into a power meter, I'm assuming you can invest into a heart rate strap. So where a heart rate strap and off you go? Ride for an hour and try and limit the amount of movement on the bike external to reaching for water and let's see what the heart does. Now you should be able to analyze your data afterwards, maybe using Strava, maybe your bike computer app, or I use a training software called Today's Plan. Now what we're looking for here, as we look at an example here from a road cycling academy member in Today's Plan, is heart rate drift. Does your heart rate slowly elevate over time as you maintain a consistent aerobic power output? Or another less common thing you could look for is an erratic heart rate. Is your heart rate just erratically jumping up and down within the hour for no particular reason? But if we focus in on heart rate drift here, if you're drifting by circa 10 beats, let's call it eight beats or more for the hour, it's my belief from working with hundreds of amateur and recreational road cyclists now through the road cycling academy that you've got a bit of work to do on your aerobic engine and just to validate that that is the case, feel free to do that test two or three times. It's actually a good workout to ensure that that drift line that you're seeing or the erratic heart rate is something that's prevalent. Additionally, if you're drifting by circa five beats or less, that's a good sign that you've got reasonable aerobic fitness, but consider extending the test if you're on an indoor trainer by another 30 minutes, so make it 90 minutes all up or if you're on the road, extend it to two hours. Now, this is a generalisation, but I'm conscious people want takeaways and there will be anomalies here of course because everyone is different. But as a general rule, if you're under the 10 beat mark peddling at 70% of your FTP for 90 minutes on the trainer or two hours outside, you've got a pretty efficient aerobic engine and you should be good to start more intensive training. Although that will depend on your target event and goals and I think that's a rabbit hole for another day. So I'm conscious many people will do this test and drift and they will want to know how do I train my base fitness effectively using a power meter. That's a great question and we'll be covering that in part number two of this four part video series. I'll catch you in the next video.