Hi, new user here and just on a 1 month trial. I’m a Wahoo SYSTM and Training Peaks user. Also a Wahoo user (not Garmin). Loving the look and feel of Xert but finding it incredibly complicated to understand - spent all day yesterday reading stuff when I should have been riding .
I’m just looking at the program tab / forecast AI and have input one event. Playing about with the max weekly hours slider and event duration sliders it switches me between excellent and fair.
Questions -
I can do these events easily (I do them every year) but how does Xert determine my readiness when it doesn’t know what my goal is e.g. a easy ride or a PR/PB? As my training plan will be based upon this I need to understand it.
I have multiple events coming thick and fast in Spring, all about 2 weeks apart. Some road some gravel. Not sure yet which one to focus on. How do you input multiple events and will the planner build in the rest needed between the events
Alternatively I may do my own plan as I do each year and see how it affects the Xert numbers week to week.
Event Readiness (ER) is explained here – Event Readiness – Xert
Essentially how prepared do you want to be in terms of crushing it with your best performance with least recovery required afterwards versus simply completing the event as part of your ongoing training with more recovery time expected.
A key element is monitoring the delta tables for Training Load and Fitiness Signature before running a forecast. If you want best performance (lower ER value) you’ll want the highest TL you can reasonably expect to attain before the target date.
If you are time-crunched with a restricted schedule your TL increase may be limited but note the deltas for low, high, and peak strain shown in the Signature table. An increase in high and peak strain indicates the rise in intensity during the plan progression.
Hi, thanks for responding. I’ve just amended to another easier event however for that event it says I’m not ready. It’s a relatively short gravel race, which I can complete in my sleep. My Fitness Signature is only slightly below what it is from a Wahoo 4DP test over 3 months ago. So, I wonder if I’m getting a ‘not ready’ because Xert only has 3 months of my data which co-incides with a quiet time of year for training including my usual winter break. See attached screenshot which will make more sense to you than me.
I’ve spent another day trying to understand as a much as I can and I’m having a real struggle, so thanks for the links to the beginner stuff. I’m hoping it will click but if it doesn’t I’ll stick with Training Peaks and Wahoo SYSTM, which are very simple.
Turn off Auto-calculate option for Event Readiness and start lowering the value while watching the numbers change in the Training Load and Fitness Signature tables. Then run a forecast ignoring any Achievability warning to see what the forecast comes up with.
That should give you a good idea what the system thinks is possible with your current history and TL but you can further tweak the plan (if desired) by adjusting General Settings.
You can confirm if your signature is in the right ballpark by riding this short “fitness test” workout which is nothing like a RAMP or 20 minute FTP test. No need to pace it. Ride it in Slope mode (not AUTO) exceeding target watts and duration (if able) and make sure to ride to a failure point on the interval designed for that purpose. .
Even if you don’t achieve a Breakthrough (BT) you’ll know how close your signature is dialed in by how it feels when MPA is fully drawn down.
As you have things set up, the event has 440 total XSS, with ~40 High XSS and ~8 Peak XSS which is a lot of intensity. Given your current high training load is 2.7 (and peak is 0.6) those systems aren’t very well prepared for a race with 40 High XSS. You can do the event, but if the event gets really punchy (attacks & surges up short hills) you might not be as prepared as someone with a high training load of 10, for example.
You could look at some of your previous gravel races and look at the breakdown of Low, High, & Peak XSS to get a feel as to whether the event XSS is relatively accurate given your past activities.
Ok, this is starting to make sense. Playing around with the sliders and event types helps me undertand it. So, just by changing the event from Race to Recreational I end up with what you can see on this screenshot. As I say I can ride this in my sleep right now so not sure why/how is works out I’m not ready. My trining time is quite considerable for an amateur but it keeps saying I’ll need more time?? Again could this be due to not having much TL in the 3 months data it has for me?
Post a screenshot of your XPMC from the Progression tab that shows your activities and TL history.
If you were able to sync a year’s worth of data, what would be the low and high values for TL?
I see you recommend doing the test in slope mode, but the workout itself is a #mixedmode workout. The two sprints are in slope mode and the rest is not. Wouldn’t it make sense it change the workout if it should not be done in Auto?
Hi, here is a screenshot showing the 3 months for which have data entered on Xert. Hopefully you can make sense of it. As I’m on the trial I can only upload 3 months data, so not able to see what low and high values are for TL. It would be quite high around early early Jun and again early Oct (just before data started) as those weeks were 30 hour weeks in Mallorca. The low would be in August following an injury lay-off of a couple of weeks. 2024 time on the bike is 600hrs plus another 200 hours of off the bike activity. TL would be quite high I suspect.
Here is a screenshot of a typical long zone 2 ride data. This was before winter break / bad weather but would be typical of a Saturday ride from around March onwards; hence why I query Xert’s analysis of ‘not ready’ for a similar ride but as an event but with a bit more High / Peak XSS.
Once a signature is dialed the fitness test workouts could be ridden in AUTO mode which should confirm your status. But if someone is not confident of their signature or it’s stale or they don’t have sufficient max effort data points on file to derive an accurate signature, they are better off riding a fitness test workout entirely in Slope mode. That’s the best way to fully express your signature.
With the short standard test the last interval designed for failure looks like this (MPA drawdown touches interval at the very end) –
Someone with an understated signature may glide through this workout and claim “That wasn’t so bad. I could have kept going but the interval ended.” Uh-oh. That likely also means prior intervals could have been ridden at higher wattage than targets to better express their fitness.
Version 3 is probably the best fitness test candidate for AUTO mode since the two intervals to failure flatline MPA mid-interval like this – …
I would still ride the workout in Slope mode though if signature validation was my goal.
Consider how you might tackle these workouts outdoors – thrashing the sprint intervals and pushing to your absolute maximum effort on intervals to failure. You’re not going to let a watt target or duration cap get in your way. When the time comes you want to fail naturally.
I think the decription in the Xert Fitness tests should be updated to describe when the workout can be used in Auto (which should be the default) and when you should do it in Slope mode. Or, they could create separate fitness tests which can work when your signature is far off. But I still need to know if there are times I should not use it.
My point is that you should be able to open an official Xert workout (such as the Xert fitness tests) and get the neccesary instructions stright from the description. That way it makes it much easier to use.
I have run into the problems you have described a few times, and my solution has been create copies of the Xert Fitness tests workouts with an extended last interval well beyond the breakthrough point just to be sure Xert doesn’t turn down the resistance too early.
Also, there are three Xert Fitness Tests (1, 2, 3), but I think the descriptions (and names for that matter) can better describe when it makes sense to use each. Or the number a version number, so 1 and 2 are basically depricated? If so, then they should probably be marked so.
I am perplexed by the ER level 5 for the event on May 31.
I would think the number would fall into the 1.x range.
I’ll defer to Xert Support on this one.
If you haven’t created a ticket already contact support@xertonline.com.
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That likely also means prior intervals could have been ridden at higher wattage than targets to better express their fitness.
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