Running Power Explained: What It Is and How to Use It

If you have a relatively advanced running watch, you may have noticed a figure for running power alongside more familiar measurements such as pace, heart rate and cadence. Measured in watts, running power provides another way of looking at the demands of your running and can respond quickly when you speed up or the terrain changes.

Even for experienced runners, it is not essential. Think of running power as an advanced training tool that may help you fine tune your training and racing rather than a fundamental metric that everyone needs to monitor.

What Is Running Power?

Before getting into the detail, it is important to put running power into context. This is not a metric that beginner runners need to worry about. If you are relatively new to running, consistently completing your training, gradually building your fitness and learning how different running intensities feel are far more important than analysing your power output.

Running power becomes more interesting for experienced, performance focused runners who are looking for additional ways to improve their times. If you are chasing a personal best, completing structured interval or threshold sessions, or trying to control your effort more effectively over hills, power can provide another useful piece of information alongside pace, heart rate and perceived effort.

Power is the rate at which work is done and is measured in watts. Applying this concept to running is complicated because your body is moving in several ways at once, while changes in speed and gradient alter the mechanical demands of running.

Running watches and specialist sensors use the information available to them and their own algorithms to calculate an estimate of running power. The inputs vary between systems and can include speed, body weight, gradient and movement data, while some systems can also account for the effect of air resistance.

One important point is that there is no universally accepted definition of running power across all wearable systems. Different manufacturers can therefore use different methods to produce the wattage displayed on your watch.

Running Power Is Not The Same As Cycling Power

Cyclists have been using power meters for many years, but running power should not be assumed to work in exactly the same way. A cycling power meter can measure forces applied to components such as the pedals or crank and use these measurements to calculate mechanical power.

Running wearables face a different challenge because there is no equivalent drivetrain where power can be measured in the same way. They instead estimate running power using sensor data and algorithms.

This does not mean running power is meaningless. It does mean that it should be treated as a training metric produced by a particular measurement system rather than a universal number that can automatically be compared between different devices.

What Does Your Running Power Number Mean?

Running power is normally displayed in watts, so you might see a figure such as 250W or 300W during a run. A higher number generally represents greater calculated power output, but the figure becomes much more useful when considered in the context of your own running.

Body mass can influence absolute power figures, which is one reason some systems also allow power to be expressed as watts per kilogram. However, this does not eliminate differences in how manufacturers calculate running power, so comparing your wattage with another runner using a different system may tell you relatively little.

The more useful approach is to learn what your own numbers look like at different intensities while using the same system. With enough training data, you may begin to recognise the power associated with your easy running, threshold sessions, intervals and different race efforts.

Read more about other running metrics here.

Why Can Running Power Be Useful?

One of the attractions of running power is how quickly it can respond when the demands of running change. If you accelerate or begin climbing a hill, the power figure can change rapidly, whereas heart rate normally takes some time to respond fully to an increase in intensity.

This can make power particularly interesting during intervals and hill sessions, where effort can change quickly. It may also help runners judge their effort over courses where constantly changing gradients make pace difficult to interpret.

Power should not automatically replace heart rate or pace. Each metric tells you something different, and experienced runners may gain more from understanding how power relates to their pace, heart rate and perceived effort than from concentrating on power alone.

Running Power And Hills

Hills provide one of the clearest examples of where running power can potentially help.

Most runners naturally slow down when climbing, which creates the opposite problem if pace is viewed in isolation. Your pace becomes slower even though you may be working considerably harder.

Running power systems can account for changes in gradient when calculating power. This gives an experienced runner another way of judging their effort over undulating terrain rather than trying to maintain an identical pace regardless of whether they are running uphill, downhill or on the flat.

Power is not a perfect representation of the physiological cost of climbing, however. Research published in 2026 found that Stryd power slightly underestimated metabolic demand at steeper treadmill gradients, although maintaining a fixed Stryd power still produced relatively consistent indications of metabolic demand across the gradients studied.

This is a useful reminder that power can help with hills without being a perfect measurement of what is happening inside your body.

Running Power Versus Heart Rate

Running power and heart rate measure different aspects of your running. Power is intended to quantify aspects of the external mechanical demands of running, while heart rate reflects part of your body's physiological response to exercise.

The difference becomes obvious when intensity changes suddenly. Start a hard interval or climb a hill and your calculated power can rise quickly, while your heart rate usually takes longer to respond to the increased workload.

Heart rate can also reveal things that a power figure cannot show on its own. Your cardiovascular response can be affected by factors such as heat, fatigue and hydration, so the same power output does not necessarily mean your body is experiencing exactly the same physiological stress on every run.

For this reason, running power and heart rate are better viewed as complementary metrics. Looking at both can provide more context than assuming that one should replace the other.

Read more about heart rate training here.

Running Power Versus Pace

Pace remains one of the simplest and most useful measurements available to runners. On a flat road in stable conditions, an experienced runner who knows their training and race paces may find that power adds relatively little.

Power becomes potentially more useful when pace stops reflecting changes in the demands of the run. Hills are the obvious example, while systems that account for air resistance can also adjust their calculated power when conditions change.

For performance focused runners, power can therefore provide additional context rather than replacing pace. Looking at pace, power and heart rate together can help you build a more complete picture of a training session.

Do Garmin, Polar, Coros, Apple And Stryd Measure Power Differently?

The major running watch manufacturers and specialist systems can provide running power, but they do not all calculate it in exactly the same way. This is why you should not assume that 300 watts on one system represents exactly the same thing as 300 watts on another.

Garmin provides native wrist based running power on compatible watches and allows runners to set power zones and power alerts. Its compatible watches can also account for wind, using weather information, barometer data and GPS heading to adjust the power calculation.

Polar uses a proprietary algorithm for wrist based running power on compatible watches. Its calculation uses speed and gradient obtained from GPS and barometric data, with the runner's weight also affecting the result.

Coros provides running power on its current compatible running watches and says its calculation is related to weight, speed and other metrics. Apple Watch can display current running power and a power profile during compatible Outdoor Run workouts.

Stryd takes a different approach by using a sensor attached to the shoe. It tracks movement through three dimensional space and uses the resulting information to calculate power, while its wind capable models incorporate the estimated cost of overcoming air resistance into total power.

Because these systems work differently, consistency matters. If you train seriously using power and then change measurement systems, it is sensible to establish what your numbers look like on the new system rather than assuming your previous wattages and power zones will transfer directly.

Running power is a valuable metric when hill training

How Accurate Is Running Power?

This is where running power needs to be treated with some caution. Research has shown that wearable power systems can produce useful and repeatable information, but studies have also found differences between devices.

A study comparing five commercial running power technologies found substantial differences in repeatability and their relationship with oxygen consumption. Stryd performed best among the systems tested, but the research involved earlier generations of running power technology and should not be used to rank today's devices.

Another study comparing commercially available devices with laboratory measurements found that absolute power measurements differed between devices. However, running power increased with running speed and was related to aerobic power during level treadmill running, suggesting that the metric can provide useful feedback even though different systems do not necessarily produce the same number.

There are also limits to what a running power figure can tell you about your body's energy use. Research has demonstrated that changes in running economy can alter metabolic cost without being fully reflected in power estimated by a foot worn sensor.

The practical conclusion is that running power can be useful without being perfect. Trends recorded consistently by the same system are likely to be more useful to a runner than treating the wattage on a watch as an exact and universal measurement of physiological effort.

What Are Running Power Zones?

Running power can be divided into training zones, much as heart rate is divided into zones. Instead of completing a session at a particular pace or heart rate, you can target a range of power intended to represent a particular training intensity.

This can be useful on undulating routes because maintaining the same pace over every hill can produce large changes in effort. A power target may instead encourage you to slow down while climbing and run faster on easier sections while keeping the calculated workload more consistent.

If you intend to base training on power, your zones need to be appropriate for you and the system you are using. Garmin, for example, allows compatible watches to base running power zones on a percentage of threshold power, while Stryd uses Critical Power to establish its training zones.

Can Running Power Help You Race Faster?

Simply displaying running power on your watch will not make you faster. Its value comes from whether the information helps you make better decisions about training and race pacing.

For an experienced runner who understands their numbers, power may provide another way of controlling race effort. This could be particularly useful on an undulating course where following an exact target pace might result in working too hard on climbs and paying for that effort later.

You need to establish the relationship between your power, pace, heart rate and perceived effort during training before trying to race by power. Race day is not the time to choose an unfamiliar wattage target and hope that it represents an intensity you can sustain.

Should You Train By Running Power?

If your watch already records running power, you do not need to immediately reorganise your training around it. A sensible first step is to observe the data after your runs and learn how the number behaves during different types of training.

Look at what happens on hills, during intervals and at different paces, and compare power with your heart rate and perceived effort. Over time, you can decide whether it is giving you information that actually helps you train more effectively.

If power helps you control sessions or pace variable terrain more consistently, you may eventually decide to use power zones or workout targets. If pace, heart rate and perceived effort already give you everything you need, there is no reason to add another metric simply because your watch provides it.

Who Is Running Power Really For?

Running power is most relevant to experienced runners who already train consistently and are looking for relatively small improvements in performance. It is particularly likely to interest runners chasing personal bests, following structured training programmes, completing regular interval and threshold sessions or training and racing on routes where changes in gradient make pace difficult to interpret.

You do not need to be an elite athlete or achieve a particular race time before power becomes useful. A committed recreational runner trying to improve their 10K, half marathon or marathon time may have just as much reason to investigate it as a much faster runner.

The important distinction is therefore not simply how fast you are. Running power becomes relevant when your training has reached the point where additional information might genuinely help you fine tune your sessions or race pacing.

Do Beginners Need Running Power?

For most beginners, the answer is no. Modern running watches provide an enormous amount of information, and it can be easy to assume that becoming a better runner means learning to analyse every metric they produce.

Building consistency, increasing training sensibly, recovering properly and learning how different running intensities feel are much more important. Pace and perceived effort are enough to guide a great deal of beginner training, with heart rate available as another useful metric for runners who want more data.

There is nothing wrong with looking at running power if your watch records it, but you do not need to structure your training around it. If you later become more focused on improving race times and start looking for smaller performance gains, it may then become worth exploring.

Is Running Power Worth Using?

Running power can be a useful advanced metric for experienced runners, particularly when terrain makes pace harder to interpret or when intensity changes too quickly for heart rate to respond immediately. Used consistently, it can add another layer of information to pace, heart rate and perceived effort.

Its limitations are equally important. Different systems calculate running power differently, figures from different devices should not automatically be treated as interchangeable, and running power should not be confused with a direct measurement of your body's physiological effort.

For beginners, there are much more important things to concentrate on. For experienced runners looking to improve their times, running power is worth understanding and experimenting with, but only if the information ultimately helps you train or race more effectively.