FEQUENTLY ASKED
QUESTIONS
Power2run
THE FIRST APP WITH REAL-TIME RUNNING POWER
My friends at the triathlon club are trying your running App whats the advantage of running with POWER compared to running using pace or heart rate?
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We are glad you are trying running with vPOWER give it a few months to really learn how it works! The first advantage that most runners notice is the ability to pace runs and races more consistently. Pace is deceiving on hills a slow pace may equal a very high power output on a steep hill. By running uphills and downhills at more even vPOWER you can smooth out racing and training efforts and produce faster more effective training runs and races in faster times. You will also notice that you can train for longer at harder effort (vPOWER) levels because you can avoid "burning matches". You can monitor every run and increase training repeats on good days or decrease your training volume on bad days as soon as you see a drop in vPOWER. You can compare vPOWER with friends because the watts/kg metric is used for every runner. Then there is the ability to compare and track every single run. The vPOWER produced on a hilly run is directly comparable to the vPOWER produced on the flat and each run can be logged, monitored and recorded to give you the same metrics that cyclists have enjoyed for years. Learn about your training stress, your chronic training loads, your acute training loads, your caloric requirements. Improve your vPOWER and you will simply run faster!
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I've been using the Power2run App to log my runs and import the data to Training peaks. When I run on hills it seems a lot easier to produce power when running up hills compared to down hills why is that? Should I run faster downhills?
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We are glad you are enjoying running with vPOWER! Yes you are correct it generally feels easier moving uphill compared to moving downhill. This is a common observation that people have when using power meters on bicycles also. Nevertheless in testing we find that your VO2 maximum power running uphills closely matches your VO2 max power on the flat. It is difficult to maintain VO2max efforts when running downhill due to the excessive eccentric loads when running down hills. Be careful when running downhills!
Many runners run uphill far to quickly with the result that they are "burning matches" (Hunter and Coogan). Avoiding "burning matches" when running uphills is one of the big advantages of running with vPOWER dial back your uphill efforts and watch your running times improve.
By decreasing your efforts uphills and increasing effort downhills you will generally produce a flatter vPower profile and you will run faster.
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The Power2 Run APP wattage remained RED for large sections of my trail run. The wattage also seemed low and jumped all over the place whats happening?
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The Power2run App uses GPS to calculate your speed and distance during your run. Poor GPS signal is indicated when your vPOWER display turns red and the green dots on the right hand side of your display turn white. Unfortunately the data on your run was probably unreliable due to low GPS signal when the vPOWER display was red.
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Can I send my vPOWER numbers to my Garmin watch?
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We are actively working on this and hope that Garmin connectivity will be available soon.
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I want to import my data into TrainingPeaks how can I do that?
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When you push SEND a summary email will containing a vPOWER.tcx formatted file added as an attachment. Download this file onto your computer, you should see the file now has a WKO icon. Drag and drop the file into you TrainingPeaks calendar view and analyze your run. Its that simple. We suggest tagging all your power runs with an appropriate name and keeping separate running and cycling PMC charts. We also recommend creating a chart using our three training ranges aerobic/threshold and VO2Max to maintain your training volumes for each range at approximately 80%/10%/10%.
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I did a run using your App and STRAVA running side by side. Your App says I ran slightly less than STRAVA on a 6 mile run what gives?
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Both STRAVA and Power2 Run use GPS to monitor the distance you travel. However, the vPOWER calculation requires very accurate speed and distance measurements. To provide you with the best accuracy possible the Power2 Run App compensates for changes in heading when you run around corners and the Power2 Run App compensates for uncertainty in horizontal accuracy when you run in a straight line. Normal GPS makes zigzag measurements that tend to over estimate how far you have run. Please take the Power2 Run App to the track or along a measured distance using your car or bike speedometer and compare our App to our competitors the result will surprise you!
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First off thanks for the great product! I've been using the App for a couple of weeks now and was trying one of your vPOWER workouts and couldn't run at my threshold pace after 15 minutes of a 30 minute threshold run. Is my threshold power set to high?
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The great thing about vPOWER is that you can monitor every run and adjust accordingly. In your case I would either reduce your target training range 10-20 watts and try the run again or try to stretch the duration of that threshold run every week until you can run at target threshold for 40 minutes. If you run intervals stop when you can no longer maintain your target vPOWER. The great thing about vPOWER is you can see when to stop!
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I'm a triathlete and I have been using a powerTap on my bike for many years I'm trying to understand run critical power and bike FTP. Why do you use Critical Power for running and how is running critical power compared to my bike FTP?
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At Inspyridon we recommend using critical power for running rather than FTP because critical power can be calculated from a simple 3 minute and 30 seconds test at the track or on a hill. Critical power is a well established running metric that is derived from the power duration curve and in theory is the power you can produce for a very long duration.
In practice critical power for most runners is closest to the power they can produce for 20 minutes. Again for many runner this is close to the power they will produce in a 5k race. This makes finding your critical power with our handy calculator easy. We prefer to conduct a 3 minute 30 second CP test every 2-3 weeks to reset CP and training ranges. Your CP is the high end of your threshold range, while 0.8x CP is the top of your aerobic range and 1.2x CP is the top of your VO2max range . You could also find your CP by running hard for 20 minutes in a race and recording your average vPOWER.
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Regarding the relationship between bike FTP and run Critical power you will likely find that your running CP is considerably higher than your bike FTP. This has to do with the muscle recruitment and energy requirements of running vs cycling. Running and cycling parameters should be considered separately and we recommend creating separate performance management charts to record running and cycling training stress. However total caloric demands can be obtained by summing cycling and running calories used. This is turncan be used to better understand your caloric requirements during long distance running or long-distance triathlon training and racing.
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I have a STRYD footpod how does it compare to your App?
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In our analysis we have seen power numbers within a 1-2 percent of STRYD on typical runs!
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I'm not a very efficient runner should I adjust my vPOWER up or down in my GoldenCheetah file to compensate.
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There is no need to compensate for your running economy! Your actual power may be slightly higher of lower than vPOWER but thats OK if you go faster you will still produce more vPOWER or if your running economy improves you will also produce more vPOWER. Just keep trying to produce more vPOWER week after week and you will become faster. The other advantage of vPOWER is that you can compare your watts/kg with any other runner regardless of your running economy. The more vPOWER watts/kg you produce that better you are as a runner and the faster you will finish your races.
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