Suggestions for how to use this information? Does this mean that intervals at this wattage should be included in my next workout? If so, how long? how many?
Hi Jeff. Check the FAQ for an explanation. We also have the glossary that explains the concept of Focus.
Jeff - this is the bit I found helpful
“The last value shown in your Interval Targets. This value provides a rough estimate of the power target you should be looking to maintain during intervals, if you are planning on just riding and not following a workout. The more time you spend at this intensity, the more you are training at the correct focus. Combining efforts above and below this intensity is also effective.”
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Is there any guidance about how long these intervals should be? Some days are quite high compared to others. I assume I should hold lower ones for longer, and higher ones for shorter, but it would be great to see some guide about the length I should aim for at these intervals, as well as rest time between.
Hi Philip. The guidance is not meant to provide a workout structure but provide some simple guidelines you can apply when just riding and using the apps that show Focus and XSS. Training with Xert doesn’t need to be so precise since we’re capturing all your strain, even with semi-random power data. It is the reason why our workouts are not so repetitious and provide more interest. Following simple and rigid workouts is becoming a thing of the past.
Yes, it’s been quite liberating for me - kudos
Thanks Armando, after installing utilising the focus app on my Garmin it’s making much more sense I think. So if I understand it correctly, when the adaptive guide says something like endurance, 3:00:00, interval target of 220watts, and XSS of 60, and I want to do the ride outside, I really just need to pay attention to the focus of 3:00:00, which is an indicator of intensity (being quite easy) and keep going till I get my XSS to 60?
While a focus of say 5:20 means I want to try and hover my focus around that until my XSS meets the desired score. Is those correct?
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Yes. The only thing to remember is that doing any intensity is likely going to put your focus much lower. It’s quite strict. Note that if your colour is black or yellow on the Focus field, it’s polar which is mostly entirely low intensity work. To get the ideal high intensity focus you should be seeing blue or even green on the Focus field. To get that, you’ll need to be much more strict about hitting the focus power (or slightly higher), and only that power, i.e. high resting intensity intervals will increase the focus duration value.
I’m sorry to say, but this is another great example where valuable information (if not ‘required’ information) gets burried into a forum thread. I think/believe there is great potential in Xert, but it’s really hard to get all out of it without adequate documentation. And please don’t refer to the FB group - I neither use FB nor am I willing to spent a huge amount of time to maybe (!) find the information I need or to just stumbling over valuable information by chance.
So - please provide an adequate documentation - at least for your paying(!) customers (although it will also help to get new subscribers, I’m sure). Thanks for listening.
We understand Axel. Part of the reason is that things continue to change and many times it’s because of user feedback and new ways of using the software that we discover. The forums (both here and on FB) play a vital role is communicating new ideas and to provide direction to the software. We’ll definitely improve things as we continue and it’s very important that we do but also appreciate that the conversations between users is an important piece since we can’t possibly document everything there is to know about the software on our own.
Thanks for the reply, Armando. Keeping documentation up-to-date is hard, especially if things are changing quickly - I know that. But you need to track your changes anyway, at least internally (I’m sure you do…) - so why not providing this information to all users via regular updates of your glossary for example? Add new or more detailed information, remove information not valid any more, add the date of last update - that’s it. You could try this for “Focus” in your glossary right now ;). Thanks!
Appreciate the nudge Axel. The FAQ on Focus shown with XATA has been updated and the glossary refers to it as well. 
This is the information I was looking to understand. Thank you for this post. Is Xert still an active, growing/maturing product? I have been a subscriber for a few years but only a random user.
Yes and with a great user base and equally great support staff.
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I read and digested this before a ride on the road yesterday. I still dont understand the Focus data field on my Garmin.
Before the ride my interval targets were 286w; Focus was 2:15:00 & required XXS was 167. I started the ride with green dots on the data fields to indicate my Garmin had been updated with my lastest signature. About 6 mins into the ride I hit a climb. Up until this point the Focus field had been blank. The climb was steep and about 2 mins, and my Focus populated to around 32:00. During the course of a near 3 hour ride I did around 6 intervals around 286w. My power figures changed from blue, to green to yellow the higher the power went, not the Focus time, as you suggest it will in your post. I was under the impression the more I hit my interval target of 286w, the more the Focus time came down. By the end of the ride the lowest the Focus had been was around 22:00, and when I hit the required XXS of 167 it was still there.
I was left scratching my head a bit as I am still unsure what the Focus field on my Garmin is telling me.
Any Focus Type 20 minutes or higher falls into the endurance quadrant which means a low intensity ride. This can be tough to maintain if you encounter many climbs especially any steep ones. Try to keep the in-betweens below LTP.
Reference:
Understaning the Training Advisor - General - Xert Community Forum (xertonline.com)
Training Advisor recommendation (focus and target) - General - Xert Community Forum (xertonline.com)
@ManofSteele’s demonstration video with a Garmin – Ride to Xert’s Focus Metric with Scott - YouTube