Wattage Training

The Wattage Advantage

Training by wattage is probably the biggest training tool advantage a competitive athlete can employ. As the old training saying goes, ‘Watts don’t lie’ and it’s true, they are brutally honest which makes them such an effective tool. Training by wattage has a marked advantage when compared against training with heart rate or perceived exertion. Heart rate on any given day can be completely flaky in a training session based on the amount of sleep you got, the temperature, humidity, how well you are hydrated, your nutritional state, elevation, HR band connectivity, stress and more. Wattage isn’t impacted by any of these things which allows you to predictably and repeatedly target specific goals within each training session or within a race, and that is a big advantage.

Want to know what your race pace is? Want to know how long you can hold a certain level of intensity? Want to know if you are ACTUALLY improving? Want a structured training system that is trackable, trendable and inspiring. Wattage training offers all of that and more.


“A good coach should be knowledgeable, accessible, approachable, and engaged. Coach Shaun Taylor is all of these things, plus some. Mentor, friend and fellow competitor all come to mind. His experience in the world of training cyclists with a power/wattage based model (a world where science meets witchcraft) is where he truly shines. He always appears to be striving to learn more in this regard, both with his reading and research, and with active listening to the feedback that we, his athletes (and that includes himself as well), provide as we progress along the training pathway. I am 100% confident that I am in my best possible form, whenever I find myself on the start line of a target race, a big part of which can be attributed to Shaun.”

Sean E.

What do you see?

Because wattage is data, it can be uploaded and analyzed, and a good coach will be able to interpret the details like it’s a familiar language. A good coach will be able to provide understandable feedback to the athlete on what occurred in the training session and how to modify for next time. A good coach will also be able to determine how much impact the training session had based on what they see in the data stream and thus be able to modify the following days training session in order to provide for recovery when needed.

Of course the more you work with wattage, the more you realize how little you know about wattage, I feel it takes at least two years to start really understanding wattage from a training perspective, at this point I have been using wattage for eight years.

On the surface, working with wattage seems simple enough, but if it seems simple then you probably aren’t fully grasping the complete wattage picture. Wattage provides several layers of deep information.

Crafting an intelligent training system based on wattage is a skill that is learned over time, and observed through a series of successes and failures.

A Deep Understanding

I analyze (and give feedback on) thousands of wattage based files per year. As the amount of analyzed files start to add up you start to see things within a file that were never visible before, a deeper understanding of what was always there but you simply couldn’t form the pattern. It takes a certain amount of experience to be able to interpret wattage and then as a coach turn that into a competitive advantage. I offer that advantage.

What do you want your Power Profile to look like? If you have questions about wattage training or want to learn more about a training solution, go to the Contact page and fire me an email.


“Coach Shaun has made me believe in my ability to become an elite athlete. I have been Mountian bike racing for 7 years, bike tech for 19 years. He has given me a fresh look and a positive attitude towards 24 hour Solo endurance racing. He has opened my eyes and my abilities to goal oriented racing in my future.”

Andrew B.