Hi,
I am new to this software and I am trying to train for a 40 minute race. Right now I only see options to select a 20 minute or 60 minute focus duration (Athlete Type = Time-Triallist or Sprint Time-Triallist)
Is there a way to make a custom Focus Duration of 40 minutes?
Focus Duration is Xert’s method of establishing “zones” to consider while training.
The labeled points represent ranges along the power curve that fall into these quadrants –
Is your event a TT on a relatively flat course?
Have you ridden the course before with power data recorded? If so, it can be analyzed to determine which focus duration/quadrant is most appropriate for that event. However, that doesn’t mean you train exclusively at that focus duration.
See this article: Training Right For Your Event – Xert (baronbiosys.com)
Lots of newbie tips posted here – Beginner questions
Academy series videos are the quickest way to get up to speed – Discover + Improve + Perform
FAQs here – Support Home – Xert
Welcome aboard. 
It’s a hill climb that took me 38 minutes (Strava segment). I have the activity in Strava with power meter data. Looking at the race results on bikereg though, it seems like the race starts before the segment though and will take an extra 8 minutes about based on the results of other people who I normally finish near in these hill climbs. So I’m going to want to target a duration on my power curve shorter than an hour and longer than 20 minutes. Those were the two choices I found. I guess choosing the hour makes the most sense if I don’t have any more specific choices.
Hi @colokurt ! Welcome to Xert
From 20min power & on, the strain is almost exclusively on your Threshold Power system, so there’s little difference between a 20 min, 40 min, and 60+ min focus. In your case, you could use 20 min focus and be fine!
As @ridgerider2 mentioned, Focus doesn’t describe the duration of your event, but the overall contribution of TP, HIE, & PP (or the ‘combined intensity’) that helps you perform for your event! Focus becomes even more insightful for efforts that involve your HIE & PP systems - which could be the case if your a hilly TT where constant-power the whole way isn’t possible.
To provide an example, here’s a race file from a 45 min, 6-turn criterium, which included a lot of sprints out of corners to stay in the pack, resulting in a lot of strain on my Peak Power system. The focus duration for this event was 1:52 (Road Sprinter). Based on this, if I were to train for this event in the future, I would use a Road Sprinter athlete type (Road Sprinter = 2 min power focus):
Alright, thanks guys! I’ll go with the 20 minute power focus since it is a straight up mountain. It will be a pretty stable power output.
