I’m quite new to Xert and am still finding my way around. However I am wondering what is the best way to keep my signature up to date. The thing is that I just do one or two races per year and also almost no hard group rides. Usually I do mainly structured workouts. The problem here is that this creates almost no breakthroughs. Since joining Xert my TP already declined from 215 to 207. I’m thinking of setting my decline to small and do a Ramp test on a regular basis like I did before using Xert Is this a good thing to do to keep the Signature up to date? I probably want to do a sprint as well to keep pmax updated as well, right? Or is it a better idea to do several all out tests? I did do that last year as well from time to time as a test, like do a 15sec, 1min, 5min, 8min max effort. Is this advisable? Or do I just use the Xert fitness tests from time to time?
I am in a similar situation. As it gets warmer I will get out more and make efforts on short climbs. On Zwift I try and go for the sprints and if all that fails I will do one of the breakthrough workouts.
I have also set my decay as no decay not the default optimal decay.
My races this year will be all TT ones and I don’t expect any big breakthroughs in those as I will be managing my power to stay at or below TP.
If you are in base phase you won’t get challenging workouts unless you purposely pick one. Easy to do – select Workouts, search for “breakthrough”, pick one, ride in resistance mode or ERG to start then switch to resistance on the last intervals and push hard until failure. Or use slope mode if you are a masochist.
You can also search for “ramp” if that is what you prefer, but an occasional challenge ride/workout will confirm your signature without a continuous ramp test.
As mentioned you can also set your signature to no decay during base phase.
It’s pretty easy to throw a couple of sprints into an endurance ride every two or three weeks to keep the PP accurate.
Although no decay stops the decay of TP, just be aware that it doesn’t seem to stop the decay of HIE. If XERT thinks your HIE is decaying when it isn’t, there is a risk that you can end up with over inflated TP and LTP values when you next have a breakthrough.
I’m starting to see the “breakthrough” anxiety coming up with athletes (and to a certain extent myself).
If I understand correctly from the Xert folks (from the topic being covered in podcasts and articles) during a base or maintenance period it’s advisable to change the decay method.
With that said if say the TP drops too much and there isn’t any actual effort that bumps it up in the signature, then you may end up under-doing some workouts (based on TP), with the result of your TP dropping even more… kinda like a positive feedback loop (not good)
As @Old_Major said, the best strategy (which makes sense also from a training perspective) is to throw in some random short efforts and keep that signature “fresh” (and your legs too)
I found that short bursty efforts (Kung Fu Fighting is my favorite) usually refreshes your signature. After that all my steady state workouts are suddenly harder… so careful what you wish for
Actually, on No Decay, the decay of HIE can be stopped as well. However, since most people are using No Decay while doing mostly low intensity work, it’s expected that HIE will decline since you’re not training…if you don’t use it, you lose it! Fortunately, HIE (and PP) responds more quickly to training than TP.
Is there a way for the user to turn off HIE decay?
I can’t see much of a correlation between HIE and High Training Load in my progression chart. If I could view all the training load categories in the table I could easily export the data and do a regression analysis.
I also use the no decay setting. As it can pass a long time between breakthroughs. Ramp test is an option that I sometimes use. Zwift ride is where the last breakthroughs have come from though.
