Grimace Less, Laugh More, Train Smarter
One of the most overlooked aspects of endurance training is something called Time to Exhaustion — or TTE for short. It might sound technical, but it’s really just a fancy way of describing how long you can ride at your limit before your body says, “That’s enough.” And if you’re looking to improve your stamina or stop fading halfway up a long climb or late into a sportive, it’s worth getting to grips with.
In this blog, we’ll look at what TTE means in practice, how to know what your own is, and some simple ways to train it so you can ride stronger for longer.
What is Time to Exhaustion?
Put simply, TTE is how long you can hold your Functional Threshold Power (FTP) — that’s the highest power you can sustain without blowing up. For most reasonably trained cyclists, that’s somewhere between 35 and 60 minutes. So if your FTP is, say, 250 watts, your TTE is the number of minutes you can keep riding at 250 watts before fatigue forces you to back off.
The longer you can hold that threshold, the more resilient your engine is. It’s a direct measure of stamina at high effort. Think of it as the difference between sprinting up a climb and fading halfway, or settling in and grinding it out all the way to the summit.
Why Should You Care?
TTE matters because most endurance events — whether it’s a hilly sportive, a gravel race, or a multi-day charity challenge — don’t just test your fitness; they test your ability to resist fatigue over time. And riding at or near threshold is where the wheels can start to come off if your TTE isn’t up to scratch.
If your TTE is short (say under 40 minutes), you may hit your FTP in a time trial or a long climb, but you’ll crack before the finish. You might be strong, but not durable. On the other hand, if your TTE is closer to 60 minutes or more, you can hold a strong pace for longer and recover faster between efforts — which is exactly what you want for endurance riding.
How Do You Know Your TTE?
The easiest way to get a rough sense is to do a 20-minute FTP test and then extend the effort in future rides to see how long you can hold that power without fading. Or, if you are a coached client of Cycle For Fitness, we calculate TTE for you based on your power data.
You’ll probably notice that your power starts to fall off a cliff after a certain point — that’s your current TTE. The good news is, you can train it.
How to Train Your TTE
Training TTE isn’t complicated, but it does require a bit of commitment. Here are a few tried-and-tested tips:
1. Sweet Spot Intervals
These are efforts just below your FTP — typically 88–94% of your threshold. Start with 2x15 minutes with a short recovery between, and build up to longer intervals like 3x20 or 2x30. You’re teaching your body to stay just under the red zone for longer stretches of time.
2. Threshold Over/Unders
This involves alternating just below and just above FTP (e.g., 2 minutes at 95%, 2 minutes at 105%). This helps condition your body to handle fluctuations in effort, just like you’d experience on rolling terrain or during group surges.
3. Long Steady Threshold Efforts
Once you’ve built some base fitness, try holding threshold power for 30, then 40, then 50 minutes. It’s mentally tough, but that’s the point. The goal is to stretch your TTE gradually over time.
Final Thoughts
Time to Exhaustion might not get as much attention as FTP or VO2 max, but it’s arguably just as important — especially if you’re training for events that demand durability and consistent pacing.
By increasing your TTE, you’ll not only ride stronger, but you’ll also reduce the risk of blowing up in the second half of a ride. It’s about building a diesel engine that just keeps going — mile after mile, climb after climb.
So next time you’re putting together your training, don’t just focus on raising your FTP. Spend some time holding it, too. That’s where stamina lives.