A 1w increase in TP. Iâll take that thanks 
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I really am not sure how this happened, background the last 2-3 weeks I have been feeling really poor and performance has been mediocre. I kept following my XATA as best I could utilizing outside rides and sprinkling in some indoor rides. I really pay attention to my training status and form and listen to the recommendation on it, I never ride on red star status and yellow star I just try to do the proper recommendation.
Yesterdayâs ride (Thursday nights of insanity) was slightly chilly, it started out somewhat subtle and got hostile quick. It was my second day back on blue status and the first quarter of the ride I didnt feel well. The ride was super windy and I thought I was going to get dropped in the cross-winds.
We finally turned north and faced a head wind and something just clicked (this is at about the 30-35min mark) and I started getting aggressive. Towards the end I noticed my MPA was low and just started to attack.
I donât know what happened, it just felt like I had endless power (to a degree) haha.
I initiated a split in the group with some big peak attacks that you can see on the graph, only (4) of us survived. This is a very strange phenomenon and Xert has been a 100% new approach to training for me.
Edit
Looking at my progression chart for YTD, it looks like this is how I adapt to fitness. I âstairâ step, not sure if thats how everyone does it or not.
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Depends on your selected decay setting. The more aggressive decay you apply, the more youâll see TP dip & jump back up from BTâs. On the other hand, less aggressive decay methods use your training loads to estimate where we expect your signature to be, so there is less âstair-steppingâ.
I typically use âNo Decayâ in the winter months & âSlow Decayâ in the summer months, which works pretty well in terms of tracking my fitness signature over time, even though I donât typically have many BTâs:
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Thank you Scott!
I have it set at optimal, and I will be honest I am hard on my training. I race a lot and do at least (1) social/group âhardâ weekday or weekend ride. I am way better than I use to be and a lot of that reason is due to Xert telling me to slow my roll.
I may change my decay to slow - although I donât really care if it stair steps or not but would rather make sure I am in an optimal training area/zone.
I have not had any complaints about Xert yet, it seems to read me like a book a lot and has the power/training zones ârightâ for me. I honestly plan on heading back to my trainer for more training and minimal outdoor riding because I flat out see how in-efficient outdoor is and I am time-poor anyways.
Do you think changing it over to slow is better? If body willing will allow me, I can get a breakthrough almost any other week through a race/group ride. Yesterdays ride I could just tell a breakthrough was going to happen although I had no idea this much. I was riding purple for so much/long I started to pull back some with the thought in my head of no way!
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If youâre getting breakthroughs relatively frequently, then youâre fine with the Optimal decay method. In fact, since the siganture decays a bit faster, itâll be helpful to identify even more breakthroughs (where your fitness signature is validated).
Using more aggressive decays will only lead to underestimating your fitness if itâs been over a month since your last BT. In fact, Xert will prompt you to change decay methods to âNo Decay - Training Load Matchedâ for you if youâre using Optimal Decay and itâs been a long time since your last BT. This change tremendously improves the Xert experience for users who tend to not have many maximal efforts in their data for whatever the reason.
Outdoor riding can still be very efficient for training! You donât have to do intervals on the turbo to get more fit. In fact, one of our changes in the last couple months includes the ability to recommend outdoor (& virtual) rides as part of your training program with Xert.
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One downside to Small Decay is you can ride for many weeks without a BT.
When you decide to deliberately go for one you may only get a bronze or Near BT.
That can be a bit of a bummer if you like the reward aspect of frequent BTs. 
OTOH it indicates the algorithm has been pretty darn accurate calculating your signature changes based upon TL hours & intensity alone.
With Optimal you get frequent validation you are either improving or maintaining your fitness. You get dinged for those extra hard efforts versus sitting back and trusting the algo to get changes right.
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I got my BT yesterday riding Under Pressure outside (40/20s instead of 30/15s):
11 days ago I head a near breakthrough in a race (TP=316W)
XPMC for context:
I am wondering if I should use a different protocol for BTs, as Under Pressure surely plays to my strenghts and may overestimate my CP?
Last year I had several BTs using Under Pressure in the 335-345W range. Regardless of my training/feeling good or not.
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How do you do this outside? Are you able to record the GPS location when you do the workout?
Iâm not sure what you mean? I just ride the protocol (6x40/20 +2min 400w into a sprint). Xert then processes the file and creates the report. As any other BT.
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Hereâs mine. Weâll mostly call this one an âaggressive decayâ BT, meaning that most of this improvement is just making up for some signature decay that happened while I was traveling & unable to ride.
I love that I live where I can do these sorts of efforts outside 
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I use Wahoo Bolt so I am currently only able to use Xert during workouts when inside (using the iPhone app). In the iPhone app (even if used outside) you really only have two options: Ride or workout. If you want to record the you ride you need to use the ride option, but then the intervals will not be shown.
Up Zwiftâs mountain route. Found out that I was anemic so I have been treating that and been feeling better on the bike. Got a PB and a silver breakthrough.
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@ManofSteele do you have any suggestion for this :); Are all BT protocols âcreated equalâ, or will I likely see different results depending on how the BT is performed?
And should we strive for a certain type of BT depending on relative strenghts/weaknesses, in order to get the most reliable values?
as long as you empty the tank it is irrelevant how it is performed, you just need to ride till empty
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Kind of, but not really. So long as you do a maximal effort, you should get pretty solid results, as @josh812 mentioned.
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If you were to do a 10-15s all-out sprint and surpass MPA, that effort doesnât really tell Xert much about your Threshold Power. That would be a better indicator of your PP & HIE systems, which are the major contributors to your ~10s power.
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On the other hand, doing a 20 min effort to failure would be a good way for Xert to determine your TP, since your TP system is contributing most of the work at your 20 min power.
Great, thanks a lot Scott
I did a BT ride using Xert fitness test for breakthrough on April 28th, and got a WAY different result - which I cannot attribute to training/feeling.
Both were ALL OUT
April 28th - Xert fitness test for breakthroughs
June 7th Under Pressure - I even sprinted again after a few seconds a got another BT
In my mind a big part of the reason for the discrepancy is that I feel the sustained efforts above CP are way harder for me than the on/off nature of 40/20s, couple with the sprint effort at the end.
I want to want to do a 20min test, but I think I have gone soft after not doing them for a few years. Emptying the anaerobic capacity slowly over such a long time is super painful for me 
While there is a distinct benefit to chasing a carrot-on-a-stick, itâs not necessary to load a Xert BT workout on your head unit to achieve a BT outdoors.
@poulbentsen used the principal of Tabata intervals at 40/20s (instead of workoutâs 30/15s) ending with a longer interval to failure and final sprint effort.
@ManofSteele followed a similar strategy with a Ronnestad-style set (30/30s) to draw down MPA repeatedly then exceed it until failure.
All you need is a timer to perform these style intervals at whatever point during your ride you decide to go for a BT. If unsure of watt target, view workout details on XO and hover over a red spike. Aim to hold that number or above during the intervals. RIBs should be easy pedaling but are short enough that MPA never recovers.
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A regional one hour race yesterday with a few pro riders and the national champ. Pretty sure I missed a gold breakthrough here as the Bolt missed recording the first ~5-10 mins properly - it was full off attacks left and right.
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