Well, it sounds funnier if you imagine some guy from NYC saying it, phonetically, “Wat’s a wat?” Anyway… I digress. The point is, what exactly is “a watt”? Technically speaking, it is a unit of power. Depending on how strict you are in terms of units, it is THE unit of power. Sorry America, horsepower is only for cars… It is named in honor of scientist James Watt, and it is equivalent to one joule/second, or the power required to generate one joule of energy every second. For those who don’t like joules, it is one kg*meter/second^3 (a joule is one kg*m/s^2), which is to say it is the power required to accelerate a one kg object one m/s^2 every second. Which is to say you need to increase an objects speed one meter/second every second every second. Make sense? Good…

Now that we have all that out of the way, let’s discuss what a watt really means. For you, as a triathlete, it is relevant to your cycling. It is relevant to swimming and running too, but in a more abstract way, since you can’t measure it directly. Well, you can’t measure it outside a lab. Fortunately, on the bike, you can measure it directly, and you can measure it with something that comes with you on every ride. There are three basic systems for measuring power out there: the SRM (the first real on-bike powermeter), the PowerTap, and the Ergomo. By all accounts, the SRM and PowerTap are the best, with the Ergomo receiving mixed reviews, usually dependent, it seems, on who installed it. All three systems measure the same thing, our friend the WATT. If you are considering a powermeter that is not one of the above three, STOP. I won’t name names, but you don’t want it.

Now, forgetting all that mumbo jumbo in the first paragraph, a watt is the power you, as a cyclist to overcome three things – air resistance, rolling resistance, and gravity. That’s it. Those are the only things slowing you down. Sure, it might be hot (or cold) or humid (or dry) or raining (or snowing). But none of that matters to the watt. Power is the same regardless of these things. Which makes power the only way to really gauge power on the bike.

BUT, and this is a big but (as opposed to butt, like wat and watt, only wat is not a word), you can’t forget about the other stuff, since that stuff does affect, to some extent, how many watts it takes your body to apply X watts to the pedals. They are not the same, which is why you get hot and sweaty when you exercise. But, generally speaking, a watt is a watt is a watt. And this means if you suddenly see someone flying away up a hill during a race, it is often a matter of seconds (if you are pacing with power) before you reel him back in because he doubled his power output to do so, and now his legs are toast. Of course, he doesn’t know this, because he doesn’t have a powermeter, so he is attacking the climb “old skool.” Which is fine, because then seconds later I pass him “new skool” style – with steady power.

Watts are also good because all those roads you thought were slightly uphill (or downhill) or slightly into a headwind (or tailwind) can be confirmed as such. Speed ceases to be relevant (not that it ever really was), and power is your new guide. It’s like the Force, only since power is ~force^3, we shoudl really call it THE POWER, since it is that much more hardcore than “the force.” For reference, if you want to be a super geek, which we know triathletes do, the unit of force is the Newton. So if you have buddies with Newton shoes, you can say your powermeter is tres cooler, even though tres is three times and we are talking cubed. But so watt? I mean, so what?

Alright, aside from the fact that you may be thinking I am crazy, how does this really affect you. The simple answer, it means you should get a powermeter. Specifically, one of the three I mentioned. Team CSC uses the SRM. Team Phonak used the Powertap. So either one is good enough to train to win a Grand Tour. Bjorn Andersson uses the Ergomo, so it’s good enough to set a multitude of fastest bike splits in triathlon.

Once you have said powermeter, you will begin training WITH power. This means that you will go out and ride and see what your power is. After you have done this for a while, you will then be able to start training BY power. And this is where you get real gains. Because you can set minimum effort levels for your workouts (and occassionally maximums for those rare recovery rides). So suddenly, you can be assured of a base level of quality on your long rides. And you can also make sure you don’t coast that road that really is slightly downhill and that you don’t toast your legs on that road that is slightly (or even more than slightly) uphill. And once you know how to train by power, you can also choose to race by power, which is the best way to ensure that you run well off the bike. Since that guy that drilled the uphill X seconds before you passed him, he probably isn’t going to run so well either courtesy of said toasted legs.

If you have ever said this (and most triathletes have), “I felt so good on the bike, but then I just died on the run,” the pacing by power is going to help you.

So what is a watt, really? It is the thing that is going to help you take your training (and racing) to the next level…