Zwift crit-city 16 laps. Relatively new to xert from TR (converted 2 weeks ago or so), fitness signature was a bit low coming off of a ~3 week āactive recovery breakā after completing their sweet-spot base high-volume 1 & 2.
Felt good to actually get out and stretch the legs oppose to being pinned at 92% FTP, interesting to see the MPA line compared to RPE as thatās about right I think, HR was pinned at 180bpm for the entire race so a tiny bit of room to move.
The only thing now is that even though Iām in the middle of build, Iām constantly ātiredā so just getting endurance rides.
Similar to my first breakthrough on Xert. Itās a short climb, a very brief respite, followed by two sharp pitches in succession. I empty the tank on the initial climb and then stand and give it everything up the steep pitches at the end. With sufficient freshness, it almost always generates a breakthrough (or a fake-through if Iām not rested!). Itās been nearly a month since my last breakthrough, so thatās why the large jump in TP.
Admittedly, Iāve been pretty critical of Xert in the past, but Iām now going to give credit where credit is due. The ability to get a breakthrough during a ride is just a great feature. Iām not really sold on Xata yet, but the breakthroughs are exhilarating. This was a 5 mile Strava segment, 100% gravel, and I beat my previous PR by more than a minute! I really killed it. Iām showing the ābeforeā and after signatures here. The actual segment starts where I started riding over TP, the red. I got a 15w boost in TP, and both Strava and Intervals.icu agree, both with 15 watt increases. Iām surprised Strava doesnāt make more of their FTP estimates. You have to go digging for it on the power curve page. They ought to have the FTP pop show right there in bold on the activity page, I think theyāre really missing an opportunity.
Strava does show my peak power. As far as HIE, no, but Iām not sure I understand the value of knowing that number, Do people actually train to increase their HIE? It seems to me that people train to see the resultsā¦faster intervals, faster segments. HIE is theoretical. What my watch says after a 5 mi segment is a real piece of data.
HIE isnāt theoretical. In fact, it plays an essential role in your 5mi segment performance. You donāt train HIE directly. You could train your 5 minute power, for example. HIE would be roughly 10-15% of that effort.
Well, youād think I would have gotten at least a Silver breakthrough then. HIE remained unchanged. If you look at the graph, before and after, Xertās assumption of what my HIE was had me conking out halfway through the segment, assuming Iām interpreting that correctly. I buried the needleā¦it went flatline. Iām assuming the fact that it is horizontal means I depleted HIE.
You have to remember there are two variable at work here: the capacity of you HIE ābatteryā and the point at which you start draining it. In this case, based on the way MPA and Power interacted, Xert thought that it was only your TP that has changed - your capacity didnāt change, but the power output above which you drain the battery went up significantly, meaning you could hold on much longer.
The way in which MPA is exceeded will help Xert determine which parameter(s) should change and by how much. In general, exceeding MPA for several minutes would generally indicate that an athleteās Threshold Power has increased.
First breakthrough since joining Xert. This was a long outdoor ride to prepare for a double century ride next weekend. My focus was on energy management and did not intend to try for a breakthrough. I did get a bronze metal at the 3 hour mark but the graph does not reflect this breakthrough at all. This was steep hill and surprised to see my time TTE under a minute so I pushed until it went negative. The breakthrough just before 8hrs was on a steep hill and it was an all out effort. Happy to have the stamina to do this late in the day
Nice effort. Way more than I can think about pedaling.
To view the before-signature-adjusted chart, open the activity details, select Advanced MPA tab, scroll down and select Previous button.
You can then zoom in on the BT section to note where you exceeded MPA and for how long.
Select Current button to view that section with the new signature adjustment.
On occasion the BT analysis during a ride (EBT or Connect IQ app) may differ than the uploaded analysis on XO which has more information to work with including your historical data.
Great evening ride tonight. Unfortunately ran out of hill on the first breakthrough and had to stop at a junction, but hadnāt anything left on the second. Been on a continuous program now for a bit, and think itās starting to pay off. Switched from time trialling to longer distance riding in April so went for a different rider type to address my lack of power above threshold and was a bit surprised just how many efforts I had in the legs tonight. Iām not always sure how Xert works, but it does work!
I found too easy to achieve a breakthrough in this descending pyramid workout. I even added an extra all out sprint after each block to overcome by a lot the MPAā¦my TP and LTP were increased by 15 w and also my PP by 60 w.
I do not know what to think. Is this real? Surely next workouts will be a lot harder
Got a small BT the other day on a 10 mile TT. Mehā¦ whatever.
Bu todayā¦ today was season opener mt bike race, erā¦ ātraining seriesā. I knew I wasnāt up for the two laps, so I paced for one. I had the little Lezyne GPS instead of the Garmin so I was just going on heart rate, no fancy Xert fields for distraction. The stochastic power of pushing hard on the mt bike is not how I normally ride, but it is so much fun. Looking at it now, ended up with a BT not even halfway through the lap.
Another Bronze Breakthrough on my favorite segment of gravelā¦TP up 11 watts, confirmed by Strava and Intervals.icu which gave me similar increases. First 13 minutes were the warmup. If the ground is relatively dry, this stretch can definitely pull a breakthrough out of youā¦if you are worthy. Iāve got to say though, going all out on this segment can be āinterestingā this time a year. Lots of ruts, pieces of tree branches, wet leaves, large stonesā¦lots of things that are itching to remove you from your bicycle. XATA told me I was tired, but I disagreedā¦Iāve had three days off prior. Still donāt understand XATA.
