Hi! My eFTP reading is static at 317w for the past 42 days, 84 days and ‘this season’, but the ‘all time’ eFTP is reading 340w. If anything, I would say my power is improving a little more recently, though I did just turn 50… I can’t understand how this is working. Is the ‘all time’ eFTP based on just a one-off effort or FTP test that I might have recently done over the last couple of years? Last week, I did a 24-minute race with average power of 321w (weighted: 323w), so I would have thought if based on a one-off effort, this would have nudged my ‘this season eFTP upwards? Can anyone clarify?
it takes 95% of your 20m best effort so 24m@321w is lower then your eFTP
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The continuously calculated eFTP value only goes up when you do a long enough best effort (8m, 10m, 20m or longer depending on what you gave configured for the sport in /settings). It decays slowly if you reduce training load.
The “all time”, 42d etc. eFTP is the best eFTP for the time period i.e. the best qualifying effort. The activity picked gets a little circle on the power curve.
You can see your eFTP for an individual ride to see how close you were to getting it to go up:
Many thanks for your reply. Makes sense. Just one additional clarification if I may: you say it is possible to set the ‘best effort’ at 8m, 10m 20m or longer. I am only offered the opportunity to specify this time in seconds, but I am guessing you mean that I can set the eFTP time to be based on whatever time I like between 30 secs and 30 mins? This may be a ‘can of worms’ type question, but what time is ‘standard’ for FTP estimation? I had thought 20 mins?
It’s a minimal duration to be considered as an effort counting for eFTP calcualtion.
Lower then 3 min (180sec) would be influenced way too much by your anaerobic capacity.
I’"ve set mine to 360sec as a minimal duration. Any best effort longer then that will be used for eFTP estiamtion.
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20-mins (1200s) is generally acceptable, but many people ignore the 5m effort above threshold before the 20m test to ensure the anaerobic contribution to the test is factored out.
There is more than one way to test, and it’s more important that you test using the same method, and conditions, each time to be able to compare, and make adjustments.
Hunter Allen and Dr Andy Coggan suggested the following test (link to HA’s webpage is below this test protocol):
- 20-minute easy riding warm-up
- 3 x 1 minute at a free pace up to max 100rpm, and rest for a minute between intervals
- 5 minutes at a low pace to recover
- 5 minutes almost at full force
- 10 minutes at a low pace to recover
- The real FTP: 20 minute all-out at full force
- 10-minute recovery at a moderate pace
Hunter Allen Power Blog: What to Expect - Your First FTP Test
Chris Carmichael suggest 2x8m efforts:
https://trainright.com/cycling-field-test/
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Excellent point about the pre-load 5m effort. The majority of people who talk with me about their “20’ power” and thus FTP have not carried out the stricter preparation suggested by Coggan. Likewise, the 95% multiplier might be accurate for many/some, for me it’s more like 93%.
Why have you selected 6min as your eFTP calculation duration?
I’ve always had mine at 1800 because I’m most interested in information that’s more pertinent to longer endurance rides.
…But, I’ve added MTB to my training, which requires repeated burst efforts. Although I don’t have a power meter on that bike, I’m curious how eFTP might look for shorter calculation durations than 1800s, as reflected in my trainer and TT rides.
Is there a graph that shows/can plot eFTP over time for each of various calculation intervals? I’m curious what Intervals would provide for eFTP for 6, 15, 20, 30min durations.
Best way is to test those durations, and you’ll get an idea. Do it in two ways:
- One max effort (to feed your PDC;
- Two max efforts (testing fatigue resistance, or durability), one fresh, and another after a certain kJ value, eg. 1000 kJ or 1500 kJ.