Newbie to the forum and relatively new to intervals.icu. I’m getting a bit of coaching now, hence the need for deeper analysis of my data.
I had a cracking gravel ride today with a new riding friend. He’s 19 and elite level in enduro, and I was showing him some of my favourite climbs in our area. Obviously, I lost a couple of KOMs, but I’m more than twice his age and 203cm/102kg.
Either way, on the longest climb, I had a pb 8 minute power of 484w, which intervals.icu said increased my eFTP to 424w. That was a 32w pb for 8 minutes, and was largely thanks to having someone 10-20m ahead of me the whole way and the resultant chase.
Now my understanding was that FTP was usually 90% of your 8 minute power, which would equate to 435.6w.
How is the eFTP calculated and why is there a disparity?
Apologies if this is a newbie question, but I’m just curious
its the “eFTP Min Duration” setting under the Power Settings / Zones on the Settings page.
At a more philosophical level, FTP is the border between stable and unstable physiology. When the FTP concept was created (around 2002), it was aligned with lab testing of maximum lactate steady state. “Aligned” and “field based estimate” are key concepts, because multiple lab tests in the same week or two is unlikely to give the same answer each time (from talking to coaches that used to do lactate tests). Just like using 90% of the the “higher average power of TWO similarly paced 8-min time-trials on indoor trainer or flat road or 6% climb” is an estimate. Where the 90% is an average, not an absolute, tested % and therefore you might be 88% or 92% or some other percent. For example the FasCat recommendations (they used to do lactate testing) for a 20-min time trial are 90-95% depending on how strong your short power is, with an average value of 92.5% of the coach and athlete don’t know (new athlete).
