lap power question

Jan Schorpion

I have my Garmin set to auto lap every 5 miles. During the workouts to stay in the box and keep power in the prescribed training zone, is it better to look at average lap power, or NP lap? 

Keith Wick

If you are using it to keep you in the prescribed zones, then you should be doing both---by that I mean that NP and ave power should be the same if you are being consistent and not spiking your watts during the interval.

Peter Greagg

What Keith said — that is, you should watch lap Pnorm and lap Pav and try and keep them within a few watts (thereby teaching yourself to keep your VI low).
BTW, I use a Joule 2.0 and use the lap button to start each interval for all rides and races.

Jan Schorpion

Thanks, that is what I have been doing but I was thinking I was keeping track of too many data fields while on the bike. 

Coach Rich

You should be looking at current power and NP. You won't always be riding steady (a hilly segment and/or just drilling yourself up any climbs, for fun) so better to look at NP. Also, IF is calculated from NP and so NP is a more true measure of your intensity than AP. I almost never ever look at average power. 

Current watts, normalized power and IF for the ride or segment, "maybe" TSS for the ride, and I use Strava so I can see how I've done / set goals for courses I ride regularly.