I‘m totally new to Xert, which was recommended by a friend last weekend.
Ich like the concept of it, especially the fact that training plan is adapting after every Strava import.
Now… I plan an IRL Everest+ (10K Everest) on June, the 15-16th, so 2 months from now. I couldn’t find any „Everest“ or similar choice when I setup my goal event on Xert. (I chose GranFondo and 12 hours, but I’m not convinced I can get nearly as precise previsional workout data out of that.
Good question and been wondering that myself as I’ve got a 3 day event coming up in August and not sure if there is a setting for such an event. Also things like Long/Ultra Distance rides. I’ve been working on the basis of not training for an Event in Xert but training to a target training load prior to the event, but this probably doesn’t allow for a taper before the event, so I just changed availability for a few day prior to the event to ensure I’m rested.
I’ve been using Xert for a couple of months now and the endurance aspect has been harder to plan for.
The app and website are different I think I found.
So if you can find a PC to use so you have the full website experience - you may be able to select 3+hr endurance target (I think I found that option - though then when I used the app it all for reset to 20 min power and it got a bit confused then).
Long and short of it …. most trainers / coaches would suggest doing lots of endurance riding ahead of these kind of events and through in occasional high intensity to keep oneself topped up. It’s almost like a plan that says ‘do as many hours as you have inside your own home ecosystem while not injuring yourself’ and that doesn’t almost doesn’t need a plan.
I’m using Xert to see what it thinks almost after the fact
I Just finished a 110km Gran Fondo (training for 3hr 30 finish time).
Last year I completed in 4 hours.
This year 20 minutes slower.
I set Xert up as GC Specialist using AI Forecast. I was worried Xert was not giving me enough long rides. I think this was proven by my performance.
There does not seem to me to be good settings for longer events. Eg. no suitably long Focus Duration type. In the extreme I would be wanting to see a focus length of the length the event and workouts that will reduce my performance time. For me 3 1/2 hours at the highest speed/ power I can manage. I compete against myself and do not need to vary power output to catch people, maintain a break, sprint …
Would be happy to be corrected on my settings this year as I want to be better next year.
Perhaps we is something we can make more clear for users… Focus duration does NOT equal the duration of the event you’re training for! Rather, Focus helps us understand the balance of energy systems - Low, High, & Peak - that need to be trained to adequately perform in your event!
The only time you’d want to select a long focus duration is if you’re never going to exceed threshold power at all during your entire event. In this case, training & preparing for this type of event would be as simple as riding as much below TP as you have time for & increasing your TL as high as possible before the event, which would increase your Threshold (and in theory, your max sustainable power for many hours).
On the other hand, if you ever ride above threshold during your target event - to surge up a short hill to maintain momentum, hold a wheel, bridge a gap, etc. - then you absolutely should train with a shorter focus duration!
Here’s an example of a 286 km race that I did a while back - despite the duration of the event being ~10 hours, the Focus of the ride was ~12 min (Climber focus type). Therefore, if I wanted to prepare for this event again, I would want to train for a 10 minute (polar) focus. This means that my training & preparation will include high-intensity sessions that will prepare me for the short/hard efforts throughout the event:
Using the ‘Mountainous’ option should set a Polar Climber focus, which will generally prioritize your low energy system, but still mix in some intensity as well!
From there, it’s a matter of scaling the duration (which controls the XSS) of your planned Everesting attempt. You can use the Everesting Calculator (here) to start figuring out the specific demands of your selected segment/climb, which can help you narrow in on the anticipated XSS. However, I would say that ~500 total XSS is a good starting point.
I provided more detailed example in a separate thread - I can edit this to post a link to that thread.
From there, getting the event readiness as low as possible will be best! The more trained you are heading into the event, the lower (better) your event readiness will be Obviously, increasing your max weekly hours will help your event readiness.
Hope this is a helpful start! Best of luck in your preparations!
Hi Scott, yes I understand the principles of the focus duration. I was trying to make the point that my training sessions from Xert did not seem to be preparing me well for the length of the event and seemed to be too focussed on the possible above/near threshold threshold efforts. In my event there aren’t many of those and I would not be intending to go above threshold unless I have to. I am too old.
I have a hard section of 15 min climb which comes at the end of the race. But as you say the rest I will be aiming to raise my LTP and try to maintain as high an average power as I can for 3 hours or so.
Could you give me your advice on how to prepare for next year in terms of Xert.
How should I set up Xert ?
Should I use AI Forecast, Goal, Event, Race etc?
What options should I choose to get maximum long workouts which will gradually extend my range at higher average power.
Last year I was Mixed Rouleur - Today’s Plan. This year Polar Climber -Xert
Does this mean you didn’t ride longer on days that you could have?
Example, LIT forecast was Endurance for 2 hours. It was an especially nice day so I rode a 4 hour loop instead.
What type of constraints did you define? (max hours/week and Availability)
Regardless of any constraints I may define, I’ll ride more when I can especially if the option is to ride outdoors.
This is a great step in the right direction already! Not that Mixed Rouleur was bad, but I think switching to a polar specificity will help you achieve more low-intensity training in your program.
Side note: The ‘specificity’ refers to the amount of high strain you will receive in your training program. If you’re training for a road race or criterium where you need to be able to dig deep frequently, or you need a well-trained Peak Power/HIE system, then a Mixed/Pure specificity would be appropriate. In my example above, and for most (ultra)-endurance rides/racing, ‘Polar’ is probably be the way to go!
For the volume/duration of your rides, Xert bases its default recommendations on what you usually do. It’s not going to recommend ~6 hr long rides if you’ve historically been riding only ~2 hrs on weekends. However, you can manually set (increase) your availability on Sat/Sun and Xert will likely incorporate longer sessions.
For example, I’m still mostly on the turbo this cold/wet spring (). Therefore my ‘usual’ Saturday long rides have been ~2 hrs on average, so by default, Xert will try to keep me around a similar duration:
Knowing that I’ll be outside soon, I used the availability options to override this to ~6 hours (arrow above) and then adapted my forecast. Looking at my upcoming training, I can see Xert is including bigger training sessions each Saturday:
Obviously, increasing your max weekly hours will help your event readiness.
). Therefore my ‘usual’ Saturday long rides have been ~2 hrs on average, so by default, Xert will try to keep me around a similar duration:
