Hey all,
I thought I would continue on here. First of all thanks to everyone who is working hard on xert!
I thought I was getting to grasp the concept of focus up until today when during the 1h30min workout I have received almost 3 hours of focus. Can someone please point me in the right direction to understand it? Xert - Activity | SMART - Easy on Me
The 3hr focus time showed up on workout report picture on Strava
Not sure I fully understand how to set it up to train for an event of specific length. E.g. will be training for ~10 hour ride with 4 major climbs on the way - I have chosen GC Specialist - to adjust the advisor for the specific length I play with ramp rate?
The easiest way to think about focus duration is by thinking of it in terms of your power-duration curve (select âpower curveâ). A 3 hour focus duration suggests an endurance power you could hold for 3 hours, which is less than TP. Al focus beyond 1 hour is generally considered âenduranceâ
On the other hand a 5 minute focus is at the power you could hold for 5 minutes, which is much less than TP. Note that this has nothing to do with the actual duration / elapsed time of your workout. It also doesnât mean you rode at that power for the whole workout (else the 5 minute focus workout would be very short), but if you did repeated intervals at your 5 minute power, with very easier recovery your focus would be ca 5 min.
Where it gets a bit complicated is for unstructured rides where Xert looks at the peak high and low XSS generated and matches that to a focus duration that matches that ratio of peak high low⌠they also use specificity to differentiate between rides that are all over the place but average out to say 5 minute focus vs rides that have efforts mostly around 5 minute power
Understanding the above may help with your second question. It depends whether you will be needing to ride above TP (to cover attacks, get over steep climbs with faster groups etc.) or are just riding steady endurance / tempo / sweetspot. The former will require shorter duration like climber or gc specialist, the latter a longer endurance focus (though you may want to choose a slightly shorter focus to get some above TP workouts for variety). If youâve done the event before you can analyze it in Xert to see the resulting focus actually
Ramp rate determines how quickly training load increases over time and how many hours per week you need to train to achieve your goals. For example, you might start a TED (target event date) progression at 3-5 hours/week with a goal of reaching 10-12 hours/week prior to the event. Improvement Rate (IR) controls that increase. If you modify IR (improvement rate) under Goals the weekly changes are shown when you drag the ATP slider on the Training page.
For an event like that youâll want to spend some long hours in the saddle while training, but no need to actually ride 10 hours at a time.
See this article: Training Right For Your Event â Xert (baronbiosys.com)
