Does Intervals.icu, or other training software suites, account for / scale / adjust numbers such as eFTP based on gradient? Every racer I know knows we have our hill power and our TT power, and the former is always higher than the latter, be it a 3 or 30 minute effort. My question: is it worth accounting for, potentially in a standardized way?
Example 1:
On today’s team ride I did the first flat sprint leadout and hit around 800w. On the ride’s last little uphill sprint: 950w.
Example 2:
I’ve been working with a Cat 4-level client with a good FTP but who needs work on their 15sec-60 sec efforts, i.e. making the breakaway and winning the sprint. They recently hit some target numbers I’d set. When they mentioned they were on a hill and not the usual flat roads I didn’t get my hopes up as much as they did.
Example 3:
After last week’s team training ride (we’re all seasoned Cat 1/2-level men, if that means much) we all received Intervals.icu FTP increase notifications on the order of 10–20w across the board…all from a 4–5-min effort up a local hill with 12–18% gradients. We all laughed: of course we hit high numbers, it was a rare super steep long climb! We also agreed none of us were scaling our training target numbers based on this new estimate: it’d be certain death.
I know I could extend the default 180 second eFTP duration. But is that addressing the issue? Would a 5-min, or even 30-minute duration make a difference? Or has research found gradient power (watts on a hill vs flat) to be negligible? Is everyone already using their hill numbers and I missed the memo?