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* Because they are not measuring power, they provide no useful insight into [[Running Economy]]. This seems to be a common misunderstanding.
=Are They Useful?=
There's an old saying that "[[All models are wrong]]| all models are wrong, but some models are useful]]." So, while running power meters can't measure your power output, they can still be useful. It's possible for a running power meter to estimate how an incline or decline changes exercise intensity for a given pace. This can allow for more even pacing on hilly courses, which gives a more even effort when training. More importantly, it can allow for more even pacing on a hilly race, which would be great for things like the Boston Marathon. This could be more effective than [[Heart Rate]], which suffers from a significant lag between changes in intensity and a change in Heart Rate, as well as [[Heart Rate Drift]]. A running power meter can also be useful when doing uphill interval training, where they can provide some insight into the effort required compared with level ground.
=Power Estimate or Heart Rate?=
The use of heart rate for training has been established for many years, and heart rate based training has some useful advantages, as well as some significant shortcomings. I think the estimate of power output overcome some, but not all of the issues with heart rate based training. Personally, I don't see this type of power estimate completely replacing heart rate based training, only augmenting it.
* So, 54*1.6222/3.5 = ~18 W/Kg
* For a 140Lb/63Kg runner (me), that's 1,340 Watts of total output.
* My actual power at [[VO2max|V̇O<sub>2</sub>max]] is vastly less than 1,340 Watts.
Most of that power output is not running power, but goes to generate heat and do other things superfluous to running like keeping my brain working.
==Metabolic Efficiency ==