Let's See Your BREAKTHROUGHS! đŸ’„

Good effort with significant adjustments.
Slope all the way is fine to use and you could raise above 2% if that doesn’t let you max out when you want. Otherwise try shifting gears and raise cadence to same effect.
Resistance mode is similar but requires more tapping.
You want to avoid AUTO (ERG control) when the going gets tough so you can exceed target/duration when able.

Both are similar in that they hold the trainer at a fixed resistance and you can use your gears/cadence to influence how much power you’re actually producing. The difference is that resistance is/was designed to replicate the way that older fluid/magnetic trainers worked.

IMO, I find slope easier to work with, as a slope of 2.0% is consistent across all trainers. On the other hand, I’ve found Resistance settings to be far more variable between trainer manufacturer’s (Wahoo, Tacx, etc.) and even between different models of the same manufacturer. Your experience may vary.

10 Min Warmup to LTP, 10 Min @ LTP, 5 step ladder 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 sec at 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8MMP respectively. All recoveries were 30 sec. Intervals we’re at decreasing slopes.

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Four of us did SMART - Harder to Breathe today in a group session. All of us had breakthroughs:





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I did theTour de Zwift Stage 8 ride B in the new Scotland world - joining the 7am group.
It was the Rolling Highland route & short enough with plenty of punchy hills.
I was hoping to get a breakthrough, but generally find in the mornings I am a bit down on power compared to evening rides so wasn’t sure how it would go.

I had a bad end to 2022 training-wise into the first couple of weeks of 2023 with a bad case of flu, so I am hoping to see that with regular training I will see frequent breakthroughs.

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Test day after a few days of reduced training load. Not a BT, my first attempt with SMART training. Could’ve been a BT if the second interval had been a bit longer and the third one was messed up as I didn’t understand properly how the SMART workouts work. I’ve been training with No decay, so the previous fitness signature is about 4 months old.

It’s not the best feeling as I had some hopes of achieving a better result, but it’s just one test during the base mesocycle practically without any VO2 efforts so far. This result is for adjusting the training zones, nothing more. Work in progress.

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Always perform BT workout attempts in Slope mode so you can exceed target power, duration, or both when the moment arrives to go deep purple. :slight_smile:

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This is one of the valuable lessons learned today! I’ve been riding mostly on ERG mode and thought it would be a good idea. Slope is the way to go and usually feels even a bit easier than ERG. Another one is trusting the SMART and the process. I shouldn’t have ridden the last interval as the recovery leading to it was too long to lead to a BT.

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Just from an endurance spin but decided to push a bit on a short climb. I haven’t pushed hard yet for a BT a few just came over the space of 2 weeks
image

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Strange breakthrough, PP went up 37 watts and TP down 5, I never got close to the PP the FTP App was 15 watts higher than my new TP

and yes the exert app was successfully updated. I guess the I should earn a new Breakthrough on my TP as it is lower than what I can do.

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After about a month of base training

I’m hoping the road to P2A will continue to be fruitful!

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My TP breakthrough a day later, still low but I topped out the climb so that is as high she goes on this ride

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Decided to push for a BT today. Last few weeks training was spot on but i was disappointed that it showed my TP dropping

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Great job @Levitronix :muscle: :boom:

Which Decay Setting are you using? Keep in mind that the default (Optimal Decay) setting will slightly underestimate your fitness, especially if it’s been some time since your last Breakthrough. This makes it a bit easier to achieve BT’s more frequently and keep your signature up to date :slight_smile:

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its set at optimal decay
what i noticed was it was 2 weeks since last BT but training was spot on, i wasn’t training trying to get a BT just pushing watching my numbers but on 2 rides 5 watts got knocked off my TP because they where near break BT . In my mind my efforts were exactly the way i wanted

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Guessing this means my signature is dialed in pretty good? Wish I had pushed a little harder to get it, but didn’t have Xert running in conjunction with Zwift this time. @xertedbrain @ManofSteele I switched to a different setup so I was hoping to get a breakthrough to verify numbers.

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First BT since start of December. Little training in December also due to COVID, and have been slowly rebuilding during January. No decay - training load matched the whole time. Not sure if Xert overstated my fitness loss during December, or the last BT was a bit understated due to fatigue / it coming after a ramp test (but not complaining either way!)

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This is a signature confirmation BT - and I’m shocked by the accuracy.

My last BT was almost 4 weeks ago. I’m having trouble with my outside PM, so all the outside metrics are only HR based.

My signature have been raising (small decay) and I was wary this could be bad data from HR derived metrics.

Blimey, its all I can say!:+1:t2:

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My most difficult Zwift race and BT ever. Scotland/Glasgow crit, in case you’re wondering. Pushed me over TP 300 for the first time ever. Thanks Xert!

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206 Difficulty is bonkers. The ride that Xert figured MVDP’s sig on (Dwars Door from last year) was 150-ish.

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