Cycling Power Zones Calculator

If you follow Peloton classes, use the Peloton tab, because an instructor cueing zone 4 means Peloton's 91 to 105%. If you train with a power meter and a Coggan-based plan or app, use Coggan.

If you use TrainerRoad workouts, use TrainerRoad, since its Sweet Spot band is its own. Switching systems changes the labels and a few edges, not your FTP.

Friel's table has the same percentages as Peloton's, so use the Peloton tab for his zones. His FTP test is different, though: he takes the average power of a full 30-minute time trial, not the last 20 minutes and not 95% of it^[18].

Coggan describes level 1 as easy spinning that is too low on its own to cause significant adaptation^[1]. Level 2 is an "all day" pace, and daily sessions of about two hours are possible if you eat enough carbohydrate.

Level 4 sits from just below to just above time trial effort, and is normally done as blocks of 10 to 30 minutes. Level 5 is for intervals of about 3 to 8 minutes, and level 6 for about 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

Level 7 covers jumps, standing starts and short sprints. Coggan gives it no percentage of FTP, so the calculator gives it no watts.

Zones describe average power. Coggan notes that shorter efforts fall toward the top of a band and longer ones toward the bottom^[1]. A ride of 30 minutes in level 1, 60 in level 3 and 30 in level 1 is a tempo session even if its overall average lands in level 2.

His adaptation chart marks level 4 as the strongest for lactate threshold and mitochondrial enzymes, and level 5 as the strongest for blood plasma volume, maximal cardiac output and VO2 max^[1]. Level 1 has no marks. It is a rating by one author and not a trial result.

Why watts start one above. The sources print percentages only. I round each band's upper edge to a whole watt and start the next band one watt higher, so a reading never falls between two bands. At 247 W, level 1 ends at 136 W and level 2 starts at 137 W.

Printed edges also differ by a point between publications. A TrainingPeaks guide that quotes Allen and Coggan gives 55 to 74% for zone 2^[18], where the levels article says 56 to 75%^[1]. The effect is a few watts.

Peloton builds its zones from FTP, which it describes as the highest power a rider can hold for one hour^[2]. Its seven zones are under 55%, 56 to 75%, 76 to 90%, 91 to 105%, 106 to 120%, 121 to 150% and over 151%.

At the 247 W example, zone 6 is 297 to 371 W and zone 7 is 372 and up W.

Peloton says class types use the zones in set patterns^[2]. Endurance rides stay in zones 2 and 3, regular rides use zones 3 to 5 with recoveries in zone 1, and Max rides can reach zone 7.

Two things to know. Peloton's FTP guide uses the same 0.95 for a 20-minute test and says the Bike does the sum for you^[16]. It also describes output as watts worked out from cadence and resistance, and I found no comparison with outside power meters^[2].

If your Bike shows different zones, go with the Bike. Use this page to see the watts and to compare Peloton with the other systems.

In Coggan's table and in Peloton's, zone 2 is 56 to 75% of FTP^[1][2]. Coggan calls it endurance and Peloton calls it moderate. At 247 W that is 137 to 185 W.

Some coaches and labs define zone 2 by blood lactate or heart rate instead, which is a different measurement. Seiler's review describes low-intensity training at about 2 mmol/L of blood lactate, not as a share of FTP^[9].

I found no source that converts a lactate-defined zone 2 into a percentage of FTP, so this page does not. If your plan means lactate or heart rate zone 2, the 56 to 75% band is a starting guess, not the same thing.

TrainerRoad defines Sweet Spot as 88 to 94% of FTP^[3]. At 247 W that is 216 to 232 W with this page's watt rounding.

TrainerRoad says Sweet Spot is defined more by its usefulness in training than by a distinct physiological change^[4]. It sits between tempo and threshold.

Other places draw it differently. Peloton says its zone 4, 91 to 105%, is sometimes called the Sweet Spot Zone^[2], and British Cycling's calculator lists Sweet Spot as a band between its tempo and threshold zones without printing percentages^[12][13]. Treat 88 to 94% as TrainerRoad's number and not a universal one.

Seiler's review found that descriptive studies of competitive endurance athletes converge on about 80% of sessions at low intensity, around 2 mmol/L lactate, and about 20% dominated by high-intensity work^[9]. It counts sessions, and the abstract does not map them onto percentages of FTP.

That is why this tool does not offer a polarized %FTP table. If you want to follow an 80/20 plan using power, mostly stay in the lower zones of your system and keep the hard days clearly hard.

The same review found no convincing evidence that more high-intensity interval training gave well-trained athletes long-term gains^[9]. That is evidence about athletes who already train a lot and does not settle the question for everyone.

The 95% rule held for highly trained riders. It is the Allen and Coggan convention^[5]. McGrath and colleagues had 19 highly trained cyclists ride 60 minutes at 95% of their 20-minute power^[6]. Seventeen finished.

It does not fit everyone. In 120 cyclists, the best-fitting factor was 0.88 for recreationally trained riders, 0.92 for trained, 0.95 for well trained and 0.96 for professionals^[7]. A second study had 87 riders hold 95% of their 20-minute power until they stopped, and median times were 35 to 51 minutes, not 60^[8].

FTP is not a lactate steady state. In 18 well-trained participants, steady-state power averaged 93.1% of the 95% figure, with wide variation^[10]. A scoping review calls the evidence on the 20-minute test limited^[11].

What that means for zones. If your FTP reads high, every band is too hard and intervals feel impossible. If it reads low, every band is too easy. CTS suggests checking any result against how threshold workouts feel^[14].

Retesting. I found no study that sets a retest interval, and the advice varies. Friel says every 4 to 6 weeks^[18], Zwift says 6 to 8 weeks is generally ideal^[15], CTS says the shortest gap is typically six weeks^[14], and Peloton says 6 to 12 weeks^[16].

To work out FTP first, use the FTP Calculator, which covers the 20-minute, ramp, 2 × 8-minute and 60-minute tests and shows how the result shifts by training level.

• British Cycling zones. Its calculator page lists six zones plus Sweet Spot but prints no percentages^[12]. Third-party sites I looked at gave conflicting numbers, so I did not include any.
• The old page's Friel table. Friel's real power zones are in the table above. The old page's zone 4 to 5c edges (99, 102 and 106) match his heart-rate zones as a share of lactate threshold heart rate^[18], not power.
• Polarized and six-zone sweet spot %FTP tables. No first-party source for either. The 80/20 idea is covered above as what it is, a spread of sessions^[9].
• Duration, training-focus and power-to-weight category text. The old page had them without sources. For W/kg benchmarks, the FTP Calculator uses Coggan's published chart.
• Running, rowing or other sports. Everything here was written for cycling. For an erg, use the Rowing FTP Calculator.

Once your zones feel right, the Cycling NP, IF and TSS Calculator turns FTP into training load for a ride. The Cycling Critical Power Calculator and Cycling Race Predictor use your own efforts.