How does FTP work in the app?

The Pedal Pulse app automatically calculates your FTP (Functional Threshold Power) by analyzing your best power efforts from recent rides. This smart calculation adapts over time, ensuring your training zones and workout targets stay accurate as your fitness evolves. Understanding how this works helps you make the most of the app's coaching features and know when you might want to step in with a manual update.

How the calculation works

Rather than relying solely on formal FTP tests, Pedal Pulse takes a more comprehensive approach by analyzing your best power efforts across all your rides. The app specifically looks at your strongest sustained efforts, typically over 20 minutes and 60 minutes, to estimate your functional threshold power.

This method has a big advantage: you don't need to schedule dedicated test days. Every quality ride you do—whether it's a tough group ride, a climb, or intervals—contributes data that helps refine your FTP estimate.

The 365-day lookback window

The app examines your efforts over the last 365 days, but not all efforts are weighted equally. Pedal Pulse uses a time-based scaling method that gradually reduces the value of older efforts to reflect how fitness changes over time.

Here's how the scaling works: an effort completed today carries full weight, but as that ride ages, its influence on your FTP calculation decreases. By the time an effort reaches 365 days old, it's scaled down to 85% of its original value. This gradual reduction happens smoothly across the entire year.

Automatic updates with every ride

Every time a new ride syncs to Pedal Pulse, the app automatically scans it for best power efforts. If you've put in a strong performance, the system compares it to your previous bests and updates your FTP accordingly. This happens behind the scenes—no action required from you.

The app is also smart enough to detect formal power tests. If you complete a structured FTP test (like a 20-minute all-out effort or a ramp test), Pedal Pulse recognizes this and gives it appropriate weight in your FTP calculation.

Manual FTP updates

Sometimes you know your FTP better than the algorithm does. Maybe you've just completed a lab test, or you have strong reasons to believe the calculated value isn't quite right. In these cases, you can manually update your FTP in the app.

When you set a manual FTP value, it becomes fixed for 60 days. During this period, the app respects your input and won't override it with automatic calculations. After 60 days, the automatic calculation resumes, incorporating any new ride data you've accumulated.

For step-by-step instructions on manually updating your FTP, check out our guide on How to update your FTP.

The importance of regular quality efforts

Because Pedal Pulse's FTP calculation depends on analyzing your best efforts, the accuracy of your FTP is directly related to how often you're putting in hard, sustained work. If you're only doing easy rides, the algorithm has less data to work with and may underestimate your true capability.

Your FTP feeds into everything from your training zones to the power targets in structured workouts, so keeping it accurate ensures you're training at the right intensity to reach your cycling goals.

To keep your FTP accurate and up-to-date, aim to include quality efforts in your training regularly. This doesn't mean going all-out every ride—but including threshold work, tempo efforts, or challenging climbs a few times per month gives the app the data it needs to keep your FTP dialed in.