It’s 30 min before the start of the race, Jake has his aero gloves on, he’s just lathered his legs with topical sodium bicarbonate, pockets are loaded with the finest packets of glucose, fructose and caffeine, power meter calibrated, wheel choice verified as the best for this course by Best Bike Split. Jake is dialed, no reason not to win.

Running and cycling, two sports with a lot of similarities, and even in triathlon – two sports that people train for concurrently. However, there are also big differences. On a simple level – and being FAR from an expert – I think when we look at running next to cycling, with regards to metabolics, oxygen demand, and HR response, we see super similar figures and demands. Where the sports start to diverge in demands is the mechanics. Without going down too much of a rabbit hole, on a bike the athlete is limited by oxygen uptake and transport largely, with the bike taking care of the mechanics. However, running, athletes can have super different economies (how fast they can go for their internal effort), based on the mechanics of the body (tendon stiffness, technique, etc). I’d say those differences are simplified in general, and that I am far from an authority to talk on this topic.

10 years ago I got my first power meter. There were two "real choices" I can think of - PowerTap and SRM. There were some "other choices" - Ergometer, iBike, and probably some others I'm missing. At that point training with power was certainly popular and established, but it wasn't what it is today. Today it often feels like power meters are on bikes like bar tape - I'm sure there's some people out there riding without bar tap, but it's not really done, and why? A lotta folks are training with a power meter. I was just at a team camp, and these kiddos are rocking 3-4 different bikes, between training bikes, racing bikes, TT bikes, and they've definitely all got power meters. Well, point being - power meters are popular as hell. The pros have them, and trickle down economics is a thing.