I am looking to take things to the next level from fast pace group rides this year and am looking to start racing.
I know a powermeter is hands down the way to go when it comes to training and even useful information when racing, but I am not ready to make that kind of an investment at this point. So I am thinking about picking up a Cateye V3 with heart rate/cadence. My only reservations are this:
I am truly a minimalist and if I don't really need cadence/heart rate I would be much happier spending $100 less on just a Strada wireless. That said, I think of myself as someone who rides with much more "feel" than most, and honestly think it allows me to perform well in many of the rides that I participate in. When I ride, I do what it takes to go as fast as I need to, when I need to, with little regard for what I think my heart rate or cadence is, I just do what I need to do. In these situations I don't think I would want to know my heart rate/cadence for fear of "information overload". I know the most common response to this will be, "well what about a break away or time trial?" and honestly in these situations I at least feel like I do fairly well pacing myself based purely off of feel.
I guess my question is, given that this has worked fairly well for me to this point should I just continue into racing using this method of riding? Or in not having ever participated in an actual race is there an important piece of information that I am missing, which would make it completely obvious that I need heart rate/cadence? Are the benefits of training with heart rate/cadence significant enough that it would make sense to train with it if I was not going to race with it?
Thanks in advance!!
I know a powermeter is hands down the way to go when it comes to training and even useful information when racing, but I am not ready to make that kind of an investment at this point. So I am thinking about picking up a Cateye V3 with heart rate/cadence. My only reservations are this:
I am truly a minimalist and if I don't really need cadence/heart rate I would be much happier spending $100 less on just a Strada wireless. That said, I think of myself as someone who rides with much more "feel" than most, and honestly think it allows me to perform well in many of the rides that I participate in. When I ride, I do what it takes to go as fast as I need to, when I need to, with little regard for what I think my heart rate or cadence is, I just do what I need to do. In these situations I don't think I would want to know my heart rate/cadence for fear of "information overload". I know the most common response to this will be, "well what about a break away or time trial?" and honestly in these situations I at least feel like I do fairly well pacing myself based purely off of feel.
I guess my question is, given that this has worked fairly well for me to this point should I just continue into racing using this method of riding? Or in not having ever participated in an actual race is there an important piece of information that I am missing, which would make it completely obvious that I need heart rate/cadence? Are the benefits of training with heart rate/cadence significant enough that it would make sense to train with it if I was not going to race with it?
Thanks in advance!!