Near miss for me today! Endurance with Coco in France into some harder efforts up the Aqueduct KOM segment, Petit KOM segment, and then some 30-30’s into a final sprint to top up all my XSS Buckets for the day. I was testing a new feature in development which had crashed on me today 
If it wasn’t for that, I’d likely have been able to know I was so close & maybe held on a bit longer.
I’m still amazing that my signature is still so dialed in - last Breakthrough for me was about 6 months ago!
Fair point.
Went in and manually increased my peak power by ~100 watts (peak 5 s power from last 6 months) on the activity and dropped TP to 235 (10 watts below Garmin FTP estimate from same time) and that got it fitting more nicely and feels closer to right - hit save
I was scheduled for a high intensity training today which generally means a Zwift race. 
. I filled up my buckets and had a fun time racing with the second group in Cat D. 3 watts ain’t much but it’s honest work!
I went for a breakthrough today. It was nice to get one, but I am also woried (and strongly believe) my fitness signature is skewed a bit now. The lastest breakthrough gave me PP at 795 W, HIE at 13.6 kJ, and TP 343 W. I would be very happy with the TP if I believed in it, but I suspect my TP is closer to 320 W. 13.6 kJ is also at the lower end (at least compared to the TP), so I guess that it not that unlikely.
I have previously done a few max sprints and were able to bump the PP to 820 W or so. I have not that lately, but the PP should probably be a few watts higher.
Q: What is the best workout to be able to tell if I need to increase my HIE and reduce my HIE? Or prove otherwise.
Or should I just keep the old TP and increase HIE until the MPA chart is valid?
In the previous weeks I also got some other breakthroughts:
I could have had a better placement but I knew I was close to a breakthrough so I drilled it at the last 800m and gave everywhere a good leadout to finish 
Small but effective and properly on track. Improvements but all manageable:
TP +8w :265 → 273
HIE +4kj : 25.2kj → 29.2kj
Peak Power +3w: 1244 → 1247
It was supposed to be a easy workout with a few minutes in zones 3 and 4. Cold, wind, and rain, so somehow it turned into a stronger run.
Thinks happens.
I completed the treshold efforts at the end while i should’ve ran out of mpa. But everytime it turns out my MPA has improved. I’m not even doing much HIT. I’ve just about reached the build phase of my program
Hi,
if I start a fitness test for breakthrough during red form, does xert take the form into account or do I just risk to reduce my fitness signature because of tiredness?
It is not taken into account.
But just flag the activity if you do not want to keep it as a fakethrough.
Note that the Xert fitness tests are just normal workouts. The only difference is that the power targets, durations and rests are carefully constructed to push you to the limit.
For best results you want to be blue/fresh or green/v.fresh to ensure your best BT effort.
You also want to do all fitness test workouts in Slope mode so you can effectively attain or exceed targets or durations (if able) and make sure to ride to failure points on any intervals designed for that purpose.
With red/v.tired form you are less likely to achieve a BT. Or you may get a Near BT and want to flag it as @hpbieker suggests.
Or you may get close to a BT indicating your signature is dialed in but you weren’t up for a BT challenge that day.
Thank you both for your responses!
I wasn’t aware of flagging an activity. I should have flagged at least one activity in the past 30 days
And the advice using slope makes sense for me too.
I am going to rest today and perhaps I will post my new breakthrough tomorrow than
Here we go! How could I have adjusted my fitness signature if I just use xert smart workouts?
Even if I use slope mode I usually just try to hit the targets. If I feel stronger should I just finish workouts with 105 % for example? If I don’t race and in winter don’t ride outside for personal bests I don’t see a way to avoid some testing….don’t get me wrong I enjoy xert a lot but try to improve my experience!
Try some of the mixed mode workouts such as A Pain That I am used to. Also make sure to run your Garmin with one of the MPA data fields. It will notify when you get a breakthrough. This workout allows you to push as hard as you can in each interval. If you are strong enough you will prove the MPA calculation wrong and you have a breakthrough.
Any workout that draws down MPA sufficiently is a candidate for a potential BT. 
The easiest way to go for one is by switching to Slope mode so you can control the intensity and duration required. In this case you will ignore the target watt cap and/or target duration as necessary to flatline MPA for at least 5-7 seconds or as long as you can.
Upping % intensity in AUTO mode can work too but that’s going to be hit-or-miss. For example, you upped it to 105% but the interval ended before an MPA failure point.
Once your signature is dialed in you can go weeks or months without a BT and your signature changes can track accurately based on TL alone. While “fitness test” workouts from the Library won’t appear on recommended lists you can always elect to ride one whenever your form is blue/fresh or green/v.fresh. Make sure to ride it in Slope mode.
It was time for a High Intensity workout today, so I fired up the new Magic Bucket data field. Pushed for shorter rest intervals and a bit above the target power in the start. This gave me a nice breakthrough. But maybe I prefer the higher HIE to the higher TP.
Went out for my usual early morning short intense ride of 38km with friends after 2 days of rest, is fun as we push with each other. And legs felt good that got me a Gold breakthrough. Going forward, workout will get tougher. 
My first time doing the SMART - Harder to Breathe - 120 workout. I enjoyed it! It’s Mixed Mode, so needing to shift helped keep me engaged and made the time pass quickly. Added some tempo + a few intervals at the end (courtesy of Magic Buckets) to finish filling my XSS targets for the day!
I could probably flag this Fakethrough- I felt like maybe I had a bit more to give. But I’ll probably just leave it… it’s just a single Watt 
I’ll get it back (& then some) soon enough 
