Exercising using watts as metric

[Syl]

I was recently browsing a website about the giro (Italian tour de France) and they mentioned the athletes measure output using 'watts'.
I checked it out at the bikes at my gym and they do display watts generated.

Does anyone measure their cardio this way? What would be a good target? E.g. 200 watts for 30min?

 

[Nicola]

Around 750 watts is one horsepower. I'm not sure why you would want to use watts instead of what you're using now.

Target? Sort of depends on the sort of training you're doing.

 

[bbaquiran]

FAIK only cyclists and rowers measure watts (power output) in training. Not sure if the measurement is meaningful for other sports.

 

[Kajak]

Kayakers measure in watts on the erg too - pretty much any sport with ergs will use it at high levels (so wheelchair racing as well probably) It's useful if you have the scientific framework to make those numbers meaningful...

(ie: increasing wattage by X will result in Y speed gain. Assuming speed is your goal. If its something else, well then, not so much.)

 

[Syl]

My apologies - wasn't clear.
I mostly cycle (to/from work) for fitness, but on driving days (or winter) I either spin or just jump on stationary bikes. I don't really use a target per se, I just either maintain a HR or just pick a pre-programmed route on the bikes.
Never really bothered tracking anything much further.