Noting I have 3 stars and am just about to go to “peak” phase. Every time I do a long or hard ride the planner shows that I am “tired” for the next 3 or 4 days. The training suggestion therefore shows I am tired and suggests an endurance ride on those next 3 or 4 days. I have adjusted the freshness feedback all the way to 5 just to get to the suggested training. Noting that I am about to go to Peak it can’t be right. How can I do Peak training if it keeps showing me psuedo recovery training. Frustrated. I have years of training behind me but this isn’t reflected in any of the stats. E.g. last year I rode 8,500 kms. I have been recovering from injury so haven’t been going more than 65 kms at a ride but I have been doing Sunday races (60 mins plus a lap crits). I rode 105 kms yesterday and Xert thinks I am shattered. My target goal is a 120 km Fondo on 20th Oct. All I need is a basic recovery ride today and I will be good to go again. I am not going to follow this “tired” advice as I will get nowhere. I need to peak over the next 3 weeks and taper the last week. The softw are seems to want me to almost taper now so I can train again. I started out liking Xert but now I am having to insert my own training knowledge to ensure I will be ready. Am I doing something wrong? My data goes back to 22 June. All entries have XSS scores, outdoor rides are estimates as I don’t have a power meter. I have lots of Wahoo kickr rides (power meter and heart rate) as the weather has been rubbish. The ramp rate last week was 1.8. I tried removing earlier entries as they weren’t really reflective of my ability as they were performed just after 2 months off due injury. When I did this adjustment it improved a little however reduced my thresholds to stupid low values, threshold Power 144 watts ( I am 61 years old). Which is lower than when I resumed from injury. I have been targeting 8 minute power in the profile (GC specialist). Info that may help; My STRAVA estimated FTP is 162 Watts.
Advise or instruction please.
Hi Gary,
Good questions, I had a look through your data to see what’s going on so I can provide some explanation to what you’re seeing. Your low, high, & peak training loads all contribute to you being able to handle high stress workouts through the build and peak phases, and these are only weighted averages of the last ~4-6 weeks (in that regard, you’re correct - your total historical training history doesn’t necessarily matter). Seeing yellow often, or being constantly told to perform endurance rides, even in peak phase, often indicates that your easy rides aren’t easy enough to fully allow your body to recover from the hard ones. Xert is suggesting endurance rides to you in order to allow your freshness to increase so that you can be prepared for a proper HIIT session, while trying to keep your lower training load high. You’ll notice that as your training load increases (from 3 to 4/5 stars), it’ll be increasingly difficult to have yellow days.
You had a coup le back to back days of very high/peak strain in late Aug/early Sept, so these will naturally take some time to recover from. Hope this helps! Cheers
Scott, Thanks for taking the time to have a look at my data and respond. I was thinking that maybe I should consider doing one of the breakthrough trainer sessions to ensure my fitness signature is correct. I am travelling for work so was thinking friday. what do you think?
Sounds great! You can always try for a breakthrough effort - it doesn’t necessarily need to be on the turbo. You could also do a zwift race, try your best at a local strava segment, or go hard on a club ride. There’s plenty of “fun” ways to reset the fitness signature. Cheers
FYI (and last entry on this from me - promise). I did the “fitness test for breakthrough Version 3”.
Achieved Gold Breakthrough, it would seem PP +116W, to 653 W; HIE +4.2kJ to 31.1 kJ ; and TP +7W to 149 W.
Now the Freshness Indicator says I am tired, and I most likely am tired.
Cheers