When it comes to training with power, every cyclist has their favorite metrics. We recently sat down with the riders from Human Powered Health, a professional women’s cycling team, to learn which data fields they rely on most during training and racing. Their answers might surprise you – and help you focus on what really matters for your own training.
Meet the Athletes
Kathrin Schweinberger: The two-time Austrian national champion serves as the team’s second sprinter and lead-out specialist. She won Dwars door de Westhoek in 2024 and competed in both the Giro d’Italia Women and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
Lily Williams: An Olympic gold and bronze medalist in team pursuit, the American all-rounder brings track and road expertise to the team. The former collegiate runner turned pro cyclist in 2018 and has victories at Winston Salem Classic and the Joe Martin Stage Race.
Ruth Edwards: One of the most decorated American cyclists of the past decade, Edwards returned to the World Tour in 2024 after two years racing gravel. The former US national champion has won the Tour Down Under overall, stages at the Giro d’Italia Women, and claimed victory at De Brabantse Pijl.
Daria Pikulik: The Polish rider has been a consistent performer for the team with multiple UCI podiums. She finished sixth for Poland at the Tokyo Olympics in the Madison alongside her sister Wiktoria.
Maggie Coles-Lyster: The 25-year-old Canadian Olympian joined the team for 2025-2026. A 2022 national road champion and Paris 2024 track Olympian, she brings sprinting power and Classics expertise, with a top 10 finish at Gent-Wevelgem. Thalita de Jong: The Dutch all-rounder and former cyclocross world champion returned to the WorldTour with the team. In 2024, she won the Tour de l’Ardèche overall and finished 10th at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
Normalized Power: The Reality Check
For Kathrin, normalized power takes center stage. “It’s really important for me to look at the average,” she explains. “Normalized power is more about how hard it was.” While peak power shows those explosive sprint efforts, normalized power gives a truer picture of the overall training stress, especially on days without structured intervals.
Maggie echoes this sentiment, noting that normalized power provides “a true reflection of how the ride probably actually felt.” She points out that average power can be misleading when you factor in long descents or drafting in a paceline: you’re working hard on the front, then recovering on the wheel.
The Power of Balance: Left/Right Metrics
Several riders highlighted the importance of left/right power balance as an injury prevention and performance tool. Daria checks this metric regularly, noting her current 47/53 split. “I need to move a little bit more on my left side of the body,” she says, attributing the imbalance to a previous crash. “But I know it’s from the crash.”Maggie agrees that this metric can “indicate where you might have some weaknesses side to side” and flag potential concerns before they become injuries. The Wahoo SPEEDPLAY POWER dual sided pedals measure the power generated individually by each leg to calculate your true output and train like the pros, making it easier for riders to track and address these imbalances before they lead to problems.
Beyond the Basics: Kilojoules and Training Stress
Lily brings up an interesting training approach using kilojoules as a fatigue marker. “I’ve started with this year doing efforts after a certain number of kilojoules to simulate the winning move of a race while you’re under fatigue,” she explains. This metric, which measures total work done, helps her practice race-winning moves when the legs are already tired, just like in real competition.
“Kilojoules is basically just a measure of the number of watts you produced throughout the day,” Lily notes. “People who are doing higher watts are going to produce more kilojoules for the same amount of time.”
Keeping It Simple: Time and Power
While modern cycling computers can display dozens of metrics, some pros keep it refreshingly simple. Thalita focuses primarily on just three fields: time, wattage, and heart rate. “I don’t care how many average speed I have or how many kilometers I have,” she says. “Just the time and the wattage and the heart rate is quite important.”
These core metrics tell her what kind of training she’s doing and allow her to track progress throughout the season. “You can see also during the year if it’s getting better and better. That’s really nice.”
Ruth takes a similarly streamlined approach, using her computer primarily to ensure she’s completing her coach’s prescribed workouts. “For me, it’s making sure I did what he asked me to do. Not one metric specifically.”
Heart Rate: The Freshness Indicator
Lily mentions an often-overlooked use for heart rate data from her TRACKR HR: as a freshness indicator. “Max heart rate was pretty high, which means I’m kind of fresh, which is really nice to see because we’re pretty deep into this training camp,” she notes. When deep into a hard training block, the ability to reach high heart rates can indicate good recovery and readiness to train.
Zone Distribution: The Big Picture
Several riders pay attention to their time in zones as a way to ensure they’re hitting their training targets. Lily reviews her zone distribution after rides: “You can see most of my time was spent in zone one and two, but also had a max power above 1000. So definitely did some sprints in our lead out practice.”
She emphasizes that “different days working on these zones and different days working on these zones – all those days are equally important.”
Key Takeaways for Your Training
What can everyday cyclists learn from these pros?
- Don’t get overwhelmed by data: Focus on a few key metrics that align with your training goals
- Normalized power often tells a better story than average power, especially for varied terrain or group rides
- Track left/right balance to catch potential imbalances before they become injuries
- Consider kilojoules for planning hard efforts late in long rides
- Sometimes simple is better: Time, power, and heart rate might be all you need
- Zone distribution matters: Make sure you’re spending time in the right training zones for your goals
The pros of Human Powered Health remind us that while data is a powerful training tool, it’s most effective when you focus on the metrics that matter for your specific goals. Whether you’re tracking every possible metric or keeping it simple with the basics, the key is consistency and understanding what the numbers mean for your performance. Want to train like the pros? Check out Wahoo’s line of pedals, heart rate monitors, and cycling computers to start tracking the metrics that matter most for your training.
