I’m using the estimate FTP calculation set to 5 minutes. But when is best to do this the workout?
Of course you have to had enough recover, but if I want to incorporate it in some other workouts, how to do it?
Currently have done 5 min test, during the last 5 minutes of 30 minute tempo ride (Z3), but I’m not sure if this the best time do it. Maybe I should do it after warm up, but I don’t want “waste” a whole ride just to do eFTP test (which are quite demanding).
It´s not 5 min fixed.
It is a setting to set the minimal duration of the effort(s) which will be used to obtain an FTP estimation.
It is mainly there to account for people with high anaerobic capacity, which will cause over-estimation.
By using longer efforts, the anaerobic part is less influencing.
Yes I know, and I know the time interval can be changed. But I’m not interested in doing longer or harder FTP test. 5 minutes all out is more then enough for me.
Some years ago when I did the longer FTP tests, the eFTP (5 minute interval) was not far away from the test FTP. So eFTP is good enough for me.
You need to warm up first before doing a test. A warmup can be anywhere from about 7-15 minutes, to ensure all your “systems” are primed and ready to go.
Doing a test at the end of 30-min is probably not worth the time spent before hand, as (1) you haven’t done enough work for fatigue resistance training, and (2) you get more benefit from doing the hard work fresh.
If you don’t feel comfortable doing regular FTP testing (I know I’m in that case 
),
you could try sub-max performance testing to follow up on progression.
Just do those Tempo/SS rides regularly and check Power/HR relation and decoupling to get a sense of progression.
Simply use eFTP from some outdoor hard group rides to get a ‘ballpark’ FTP setting for zones and load. It’s close enough for most of us mortals and by using the sub-max testing, you get the motivation to keep going while avoiding the fatigue from max testing. That is, if it is heading North…