A fellow rider friend of mine has been using Xert for maybe a year or so, only the last few months with a powermeter. Xert seems to have a good handle on his power parameters, has nicked him for a few near breakthroughs, given him a few here and there lately. Normal stuff.
Today he did a 2 hour ride pretty hard, and the XSS numbers are out of range from what I have ever seen in my time with Xert. Do these look like they make sense to me? Is it possible Xert is incorporating heart rate data into the XSS estimation? I donât know if he turned off Heart Rate Derived Metrics, or if xert automatically disregards heart rate when power is present.
Can someone check out the screenshots of his 2 hour ride and tell me if the total XSS, amount of low XSS makes sense?
What happens to the chart if you flag that entry?
Looks like lots of time spent above TP so >100/hour is expected but >150 DS reached during the two hours would be rated Hard 5-diamond Difficulty. Is that what it felt like? (wiped out)
In my experience, it wouldnât be possible to ride at a rate of 150 XSS for two hours. Thatâs more or less 50% over threshold. I know FTP isnât necessarily 1 hour, and TP isnât exactly the same as FTP, but 150% of FTP for two hours is impossible by definition.
The Difficulty Score (DS) of 182 is the highest point achieved during that activity.
You can see this score resulted from the repeated MPA drawdowns without recovery as reflected in the shaded portion of the chart.
This is an example where TSS and XSS diverge in principle and application.
Note the example work allocation ratio referenced in this XSS article â Xert Strain Score â Xert
Your signature will determine inflection points on this chart â Work Allocation Ratio â Xert
So no, they didnât ride at 150% TP/FTP for two hours.
The high DS is very possible if that portion of the ride was very difficult as indicated on the chart.
Approaching 200 DS is when one should question their signature values if the expressed effort doesnât correspond with the score. Otherwise, those approaching 5 status stars TL should be able to tackle 5 diamond Difficulty workouts or generate that level of strain (>150 DS) on hard group rides and events. If especially strong (high durability) they can repeatedly draw down MPA without full recoveries to drive up DS.
If you want to experiment with DS ride a micro-interval workout indoors like this one â Let the Sparks Fly
See how far you can drive up DS by the third set by slipping into Slope mode and exceed targets (if able). If youâre not feeling punished by that point ride the last interval to failure. That should generate a BT if your signature is due for adjustment.
How accurate do you think his signature is? I see a breakthrough but he repeated those so likely can do more if he went all out. That is unless heâs a pro and can really repeat max efforts without fading. So looks he has another breakthrough in him and TP is too low⌠I would either flag it or manually increase TP (and maybe decrease HiE, but hard to say without knowing the overall signature)
HRDM only applies to activities with no power data in the FIT file.
Yes, the chart makes sense if the ride was 1) all out and 2) the rider is well trained and capable of pushing to their limits like that.
The screenshot is clipped but I assume the activity indicates 5 diamonds and the title is something along the lines of â[abso]lute full gasâ.
If that doesnât reflect what happened Xert provides the ability to play what-if scenarios and tweak a signature. That is another feature in Xertâs toolbox.
Scroll through posts in this topic to find examples of unusually high DS â Letâs See Your BREAKTHROUGHS! - General - Xert Community Forum
This includes cases where manually raising TP a point or more would correct a signature that is underestimated by the algorithm. No model is infallible.
Just telling you what I see along with an explanation⌠300 XSS in two hours and 182 difficulty score are not normal and for sure not what youâd expect from riding âpretty hardâ as you put it, so some aspect of his signature is wrong (assuming power meter is the same and calibrated etc but thatâs normally a given). And itâs highly likely he could have achieved a bigger BT had he truly gone all out
- General - Xert Community Forum