Racing with Garmin Power Course

Gabe Peterson

So it was stormy yesterday and I had to do my long ride in the Pain Cave on my Kickr.  I used Best Bike Split to create the power profile for Boulder 70.3.  Then I dropped that into Trainer Road to create a custom workout.  Easy peasy, taking only a couple minutes.

It was pretty cool being able to "pre-ride" the course on my trainer.  One thing I noticed is that the power targets from Best Bike Split were often different that I would have selected based on the grade.  In general, I would have gone more conservative on the up hills and more balls out on the descents.

That got me thinking about the Garmin power course feature.  Basically you can use Best Bike Split to create power targets based on your GPS coordinates, similar to creating a custom workout in Trainer Road.  During the ride it will display your target power on you Garmin device.

I've been vaguely aware of this feature but have never heard of anyone using it during a race.  Perhaps I'll experiment with it on a training ride.  Anyone in EN-land tried it?

Todd Glass

I have never tried that but would love to hear your results.  It sounds like it could be a nice feature.  Keep us posted.

Todd

Mike Westover

I've used the power course for a couple of races, including IMC this year. It's a great idea, but the problem is that the cues only appear for a few seconds (like a turn notification). Unless you happen to be looking at your bike computer at just that moment, you will miss the cue.

I talked with one of the BBS founders about this, and he mentioned that what the pros they work with will do is print the cheat sheet and tape that to their stem or bars. BBS is also working on a Connect IQ app that would continue displaying the current power target.