Stop Chasing Average Power
Cycling, September 05, 2026
Average power doesn’t tell the whole story of an indoor cycling workout. Chasing higher average watts can lead to riding recovery periods too hard and compromising your key intervals. Instead, focus on executing each part of the session at the prescribed intensity. Better training comes from achieving the workout’s purpose—not producing an impressive average power number.
Average power is one of the easiest numbers to look at after an indoor cycling workout.
Finish one ride averaging 185 watts, complete another at 195 watts, and it's tempting to assume the second session was better.
But higher average power doesn't necessarily mean better training.
In fact, chasing your average watts can sometimes cause you to execute the workout worse.
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Every Part of Your Workout Has a Purpose
Think about a structured interval session containing a warm-up, several hard Level IV or Level V intervals, easy recoveries between them, and a cool-down.
The goal isn't to produce the highest possible average power across the entire session.
The goal is to execute each part of the workout at the appropriate intensity.
Your warm-up prepares you for the work ahead.
Your hard intervals provide the primary training stimulus.
Your recovery intervals allow you to recover sufficiently to produce another quality effort.
Your cool-down starts the transition into recovery.
Start pushing the easier sections harder simply to protect your average watts and you're changing the workout.
Don't Waste Your Recovery Chasing Watts
This is one of the biggest traps with average power.
You've just finished a hard Level V interval and your programme tells you to recover at Level I.
Then you notice your average power dropping.
So you push the recovery a little harder.
Instead of genuinely recovering, you're adding unnecessary fatigue.
That might make your final average power look more impressive, but what happens when the next hard interval begins?
If riding your recovery too hard means you can't produce the required power during the intervals that actually matter, you've improved the statistic while reducing the quality of the workout.
Sometimes riding easier is exactly what allows you to train harder.
Same Average Power. Very Different Workouts.
Two rides can both finish with an average power of 200 watts while creating completely different training stimuli.
One could be a steady Level II ride.
The other could contain repeated Level V efforts separated by very easy recovery periods.
Same average power. Completely different workouts.
That's why one number can't tell you whether you trained effectively.
Focus on the Important Intervals
When reviewing a structured workout, I'm much more interested in what happened during the key sections.
If it was a Level IV Threshold session:
Did you hit the prescribed intensity?
Were your intervals consistent?
Did you complete all the repetitions?
If it was a Level V VO₂ Max workout:
Could you maintain quality across the entire set?
And if it was a recovery ride:
Did you actually allow yourself to recover?
Those questions tell us much more than your overall average watts.
Follow the Workout, Not Your Ego
Power data is incredibly useful.
But the numbers are tools—they aren't the purpose of the workout.
Sometimes good training means riding harder.
Sometimes it means holding back.
And sometimes it means watching your average power steadily drop while you spin easily between intervals.
Instead of finishing your next ride and immediately asking:
“What was my average power?”
Ask:
“Did I achieve what this workout was designed to achieve?”
That's a much better measure of a successful training session.
Want the Full Explanation?
In the full article, I go deeper into why average power can be misleading, when it is a useful metric, how it differs from Normalized Power®, and how to evaluate whether you actually executed your workout properly.
👉 Read the full article on CoachRay.nz:
Put It Into Practice With Velocity
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Train smarter. Ride stronger. Execute the workout.