I’m completely new to Xert. I did my first workout this week, or rather tried, as it was way too heavy. To be expected as TP and LP were way too high. So I’ve manually lowered my TP to at least be able to complete a workout. Now my questions:
Does Xert know that I failed to complete a workout due to it being too hard, and is my profile lowered accordingly? And how does it know that, since heart rate is not considered, correct?
I get that my profile is updated according to the workouts I completed. The workouts will be made tougher according to the projected training progress. But how does Xert know that the projected progress is in sync with the real progress, such that the workouts don’t become easier or more difficult over time?
How much data did you import?
How many BT (breakthrough) events are indicated within the last 90 days? See circles (size and color matters) on your XPMC chart under Progression tab.
You need enough data points expressing your max performance under fatigue to establish a starting signature. You can alternately adjust signature manually to a ballpark range as you have done then prove the numbers in the future with some BT efforts.
Difficulty of workouts (diamond count) is tied to your TL (training load; stars count), calculated form (fresh to tired), program type (TED, Continuous. Challenge), and Athlete Type (focus duration).
You can control intensity based upon the selections you make and what filters you apply. For example, changing duration based on your schedule or difficulty based on how you feel today or opting to ride outdoors whether solo with a focus duration goal in mind or a group ride at whatever intensity that involves. Your outdoor rides are quantified by difficulty, specificity, and focus.
XATA adapts and your fitness profile is updated regardless of what you decide to do or not do.
Thanks, I imported 3 months of data, but I haven’t ridden for 1,5 month or so as I needed a break after my cycling holiday. There are exactly 0 BT’s in the XPMC chart. I watched the whole series on Yt so I know most of what you said.
But my question remains: How does Xert know when I wasn’t able to complete a workout, and does it use heart rate to evaluate that?
In general it doesn’t know you failed a workout (a workout is processed like a normal ride in the end, and you can’t fail a ride) and doesn’t use heart rate for that purpose .
Xert does have the concept of ‘near breakthrough’ which lows your signature if it detects a failure event near your modeled limit, but that’s not what you are talking about, and also doesn’t use HR
If rides are too hard your signature is likely incorrect and your best bet is to email the support team. It’s really important to get that right and you shouldn’t need manual adjustments in general. It’s odd that there are no breakthroughs in your history so am not sure how it is even estimating your signature, but impossible to resolve from here.
Thanks, that’s some good advice. My fitness profile is way out, the last workout I tried was described ‘achievable’, well it wasn’t for me, I could not complete some of the sprints and saw my heart rate rising to values I’ve not seen in a very long time.
When importing 3 months data from strata it also imported runs, and as my watch reports ‘running power’, it seems like Xert took that into account. But even after I deleted all runs from the activities, the profile is way overstating my abilities.
Power is king, but Xert can use HR when you have cycling activities without power but capture HR and cadence on those rides. This requires sufficient data on file with power, HR and cadence to enable HRDM (heart rate derived metrics). If so all of these metrics can be estimated.
Xert Strain Score (XSS)
Average Power
Xert Equivalent Power (XEP)
Focus Duration/Athlete Type
Specificity Rating
Fat and Carb Utilization
Difficulty Score
I have been training the last few months without a power meter on my main bike, but I have tons of historical power/HR/cadence data (indoors and outdoors) to ensure the accuracy of HRDM. The results are uncannily close. For example, I have a favorite 3-hour loop that HRDM estimates XSS within 10 pts of same ride (at similar intensity) with power data captured.
On Tuesday this week I rode with a B group for about an hour plus another hour at my own pace. The HRDM result was a “Moderate Mixed Climber Ride” which is exactly what it was.
I’ll be adding power back to my main bike in the next month to accurately track my metrics especially when breakthrough efforts are attempted, or a ride involves a sprint workout or free riding to a focus duration while monitoring watts.
Running data is best entered under a separate profile. If clearing those records did not help adjust your profile, you can request an account reset by contacting support@xertonline.com.
If you are up for a short BT effort on your smart trainer to validate your signature, try this workout, ride it entirely in Slope mode using gears/cadence to achieve targets (or exceed them if able), and right before you are about to fail the final interval, spin up (stand if you want) and go as hard as you can for at least 5-7 secs. That should generate a BT event. If not, there is a way to use that activity to zero in on your current signature and establish starting values.
Please explain how to use that activity to zero in on my current signature and establish starting values. As I said before, at current it’s so far off that I can’t even dream about reaching this TP in any near future, let alone reach a brakethrough. I have contacted support but have not gotten an answer so far.
I had zero intention of importing running data, it was done automatically by Xert when it imported the last 3 months of data. Xert should only import cycling data, this is definitely a bug of the auto import system. There’s no point in trying to mix running power with cycling power.
I also have zero intention to train without a power meter. Heart rate is by definition unsuitable for tracking fitness improvement!
I suggest waiting for reply from support as they can review your account data and make changes on the back end for you.
Alternately you could reset the account under Account Settings, Personal Info tab, Reset.
Then sync from Strava again after editing Activity Types to only include Rides and Virtual Rides.
If you did that the first time around with mixed results, are you sure Strava is classifying those runs with power as runs?
If filtered sync works as expected, you can also create a second Xert profile under your account name and only sync runs for that profile.
Another option is to plug two or more known values into the Power Curve Calculator to create your starting signature.
The third option is to manually adjust your signature on the activity with the max effort under fatigue until a BT is evident on the chart. The steps would be to edit the values (namely lower TP) at bottom of MPA Analytics tab until the expected BT is displayed when you Refresh the chart. You can then Save(/Lock) the seeded entry and Xert will use that as your signature moving forward. The Extract option goes one step further and attempts to extract a new signature with the seeded values. Be aware Extract will generate varying results if Peak Power and HIE aren’t in the correct ballpark.
Maybe it just needs to recalculate after you deleted the runs. You could use the ‘recalculate progression’ button under settings - profile. To get useful results you need to estimate your signature at the first activity (3 months ago) and fill the values on the top of the page with those, less is better here since then the system can find max efforts or close to in your data and generate breakthroughs to draw the values up to reality. You can experiment with the starting values if it does not work as expected but the calculation can take a while depending on how many rides there are but 3 months should be pretty quick.
Thanks but no, I’ve waited for the recalculation to finish after deleting the runs- almost 0 difference. ‘Recalculate progression’, tried that, again slightly different numbers, but still way out. I was analysing the progression chart and then discovered that even before the first workout, the values were too high. Then I discovered about the starting value of the first workout (like you have pointed out, thanks for that!), and here is exactly where the problem was. Now that I’ve substantially lowered these, after finishing recalculating the numbers are somewhere near where they need to be.
I wish Xert would explain this option and save new users from these starting problems. I have also no idea where these values come from. Alas, now that it’s fixed, I hope that from now on I can start focusing on progression.
I ended up deleting my profile, have imported data since January, and set the values deliberately too low for the first workout so that Xert would catch the breakthroughs and adjust my fitness up to the correct level. Now it seems to be OKish…
It could be due to my Garmin Connect set to Swedish, that it did not want to import any indoor workouts at all. I spent a lot of time adjusting the categories in Garmin Connect but for some strange reason Xert didn’t import them at all after that… hours wasting faffing around with Garmin Connect import, in the end I ditched this and used the Strava import. Since I have my trainer power in Strava but my pwoermeter power (which I consider “the truth”" in Garmin Connect this is not my preferred method but at least I’ve got something in there that should be close. So far eager to get started but not impressed with the ease of use. Also got several “internal server error” when importing from Garmin Connect.
