Getting back on the bike after 2 months

General
1

Back in February everything was fine, I was riding the trainer regularly and there was good agreement between how I felt and what Xert assumed was my condition. The recommended workouts were well balanced and I felt improvements in my form coming in. Due to having to take care of small medical issue I didn’t ride until today, almost 2 month break and I feel Xert may need some help to get me back on track in the best possible way.

Here are what my settings used to be in February:

Profile: GC specialist. Chosen based on the fact that it is well rounded profile, not that I chase any particular goal here.
Event time: 20.05.2021. Chosen based on the fact that approximately at that time I would be riding mostly outdoors, so my structured workouts were going to be pretty much done at this point. There is no any event I am pursuing.
Improvement rate: varying between maintenance, slow and moderate-1. I switched it to off-season right before taking my break.

Today Xert recommended me “Hardness level 2” workout, which I read is for people recovering from injuries. Good enough I guess. The workout was relatively easy and I feel pretty good after it. However, xert has bumped my status from relaxed to tired and is now recommending me “Feel LIke Makin’ Bike” which from what I read is slightly above “just fooling around on the bike”. At the same time I feel fresh and enthusiastic to put some nice workouts, without overdoing it of course.

I assume my situation is corner case and Xert’s algorithms cannot fully adapt to it, so they probably need a little help to nudge them in the right direction. What I think to do is as follows:

  • Perform a breakthrough workout tomorrow. Purpose being to refresh my signature, however this goes against the current xert recommendation of doing a relaxed endurance workout.
  • Bump my event time to 30.06. On the current settings my “peak” phase is supposed to start in two days, but due to the time-off I missed most of my “build” phase, so I want to have some build exercises as well. I feel my “base” phase was fine before, but I am not sure if I should include some long endurance base building exercises too if the groundwork I laid in February has worn off. Will moving the date forward sort this out?

Does that sound like a good plan and is there anything else I should tweak to help xert hit the ground running with me?

2

As you surmised you need a week or more of data for XATA to “reset”.
You can move the TED forward to extend a phase or into the past to float in post-event phase in which case XATA will recommend a variety of workouts based on current focus duration (athlete type).
Remember XATA needs your feedback and if tired/fresh calculation doesn’t reflect how you feel you should use the Freshness Feedback slider. For example, move slider towards fresh, click update, then review the new recommendations. Move slider back to neutral before next workout but slide again in future whenever necessary.
For me fresh and enthusiastic (bounding up stairs) indicates a good time to consider a BT workout or something more challenging (indoors or out) regardless of what’s recommended today. You might, for example, decide to do Hardness Tests in a row over several weeks and see how high up the ladder you can go. Or ride a favorite loop but deliberately ramp up before the end of each climb and throw in a sprint.

As you learn how to self-coach with Xert, there is an aspect of learning when to advise the advisor. :slight_smile: That can include any of the following –

  • Moving Freshness Feedback slider (changes recommendations)
  • Choosing which workout to do (from list of top four or full list of twenty)
  • Adjusting IR up/down (to match desired training load/intensity)
  • Taking days off (or a recovery week when warranted)
  • Deciding when to target BTs or challenge yourself (workouts or rides)
  • Adjusting TED (extend a phase or move to post-event float)
  • Allocating your week (follow a pattern or simply monitor the pacer needle and go with the flow)
1 Like
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Thanks, very informative and elaborate as always :slight_smile:

I think I will be going for a BT workout tomorrow, xert has dropped my TP by 10%, which I feel does not reflect my form and this is likely going to affect all my upcoming workouts. I’ll also push the goal date further and after doing approximately a month of build phase I’ll see if I want to go to peak or simply move the date back in the past.