New Xert user here, a rather untrained M28 from a very flat country - 128W Xert TP on a month’s data, two months cycling experience. I have some endurance running background (half-marathon distance), and my long term goal is to become a recreational triathlete. What I am wondering about is if there are benefits tor me to explore other athlete types for the sake of “general cycling fitness” before settling into triathlete focus, if that makes sense.
I’d actually generally recommend selecting an athlete type with a lower focus power over the Triathlete Athlete type. The Triathlete athlete type is mostly going to be recommending low intensity rides most days. As a general all-arounder, Breakaway Specialist can be a good one to start with. After that, I might recommend something like GC Specialist or Climber (even if you’re preparing for tri’s).
I see, so Triathlete type is something I should treat as more of a “topical optimization”. Makes sense, since in comparison to the running training I’ve done it was feeling maybe a bit too chill for what I felt in me. I’ll set it to Breakaway Specialist and then re-evaluate this in 3-6 months time, cheers!
Type can be changed at any time but regardless of selection the recommendations will have an endurance focus during Base phase.
The spider chart under Ranking shows your relative strengths and weaknesses compared to the population of Xert users. Types roughly fall into quadrants along the power curve starting with Power Sprinter (20 sec power) to Triathlete (3 hour power).
A round plot indicates few weaknesses whereas a star-shaped plot shows what you are better at. You can elect to work on a strength or weakness depending on your goals and time of year. If you decide to do that you’ll want pick a type in different quadrant.
You can also do this on-the-fly using the Filter option for Recommended Workouts and selecting a specific Focus. In all cases recommendations will contribute to your training so don’t hesitate to experiment. IME the key to learning Xert is taking an interactive approach (what-does-this-do) and not set-it-and-forget-it. 
If you set TED (target event date) in the past XATA will recommend a variety of workouts at the current athlete type (focus duration) whereas a phased progression follows a graduated pattern of focus (see reference link below).
Lots of newbie tips are posted in this thread if you haven’t seen it –
Beginner questions - Support - Xert Community Forum (xertonline.com)
Welcome aboard.
References:
Program Phases – Xert (baronbiosys.com)
Choosing your Athlete Type – Xert (baronbiosys.com)
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Thanks, this is very informative! Very nice rider type classification chart, I’d say it’s worth considering updating the official one here with this for improved readability. I saw that article, but completely missed the broader focus areas. Then again, I’m probably just way less experienced than an average Xert user.
And yeah, newbie tips is in my bookmarks, I really should get to reeding it sooner 