Finding rFTP from a recent 5k

Tagged: 5k, rFTP

This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 5 months ago by David Warden.

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October 12, 2021 at 11:05 am #14740

Abigailasher
Participant

Apologies if this has been addressed before. I try to race a 5k about once per month during a training cycle and use this info to set my pace and HR zones. I’m new to using power and I’m wondering if there is a quick way to figure running FTP from a 5k. I’ve read the intensity guidelines page, so would you still use 95% of you average power the last 20min of your race (as you would in a 20 min test)? That doesn’t seem quite right since my 5k is closer to 30min than 20min and therefore would have a lower power than a 20min test. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

October 13, 2021 at 4:18 pm #14749

David Warden
Keymaster

A,

Great question, I don’t recall seeing it on the forums before. I don’t yet have a formula for 5K to rFTP, but we can still base it off of your time. Our original (and many system’s current) protocol was 100% average FTP for a 30 minute TT, but we’ve dropped it to 95% of 20 minutes to make it a bit easier on the athlete.

So, if your 5K is 30 minutes, take 100%. If it’s 25 minutes, take 97%. It’s not precise, but it’s accurate (close enough) for you to essentially pro-rate the time between 20 and 30 minutes to match between 95 and 100%.

David

January 5, 2023 at 3:44 am #18695

machinekoder
Participant

Sorry to dig out that topic again, but I have a question that build on top of the original one.

Is a 5k below 20min still a reasonable measure for rFTP? Let’s say you run a 19min 5k, interpolating from the 20min and 30 TT that would mean to calculate rFTP with 94.5% resulting in an rFTP of ~4:01min/km.

I’m asking because there are organized 5k park runs in many cities around the world, and it would be nice to be able to use those to measure rFTP from time-to-time.

January 5, 2023 at 4:51 pm #18703

David Warden
Keymaster

M, I use this method all the time, as long as you use the 95% measure. 19.5, 19, 18.75 minutes… those are close enough for me. Same for 20.5, 21 minutes…

Remember, 100 % of 30 minutes is a much better measure than 95% of 20 minutes. We only push the 20-minute TT because the 30-minutes was really brutal on most athletes.

If you are running under 20 minutes for a 5K, you should probably be doing the 30-minute TT anyway.

David
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