It was mostly a âfartlekâ ride, where I was doing some practice efforts simulating taking a 1 min pull on a ~38-40 kph group ride & then recovering following along with Magic Buckets. It just so happened that towards the end of that section I was on a recently repaved road with a known segment on it & I saw that MPA was already pulled down a bit, so I pushed until I saw MPA reach my power, then closed my eyes and aimed to push as hard as I could (seated) for another 10s (I maybe lasted 7s before the legs were screaming to stop ). All things considered, Iâd say Xert continues to predict my fitness within a handful of Watts consistently, both as my fitness increases & decreases
The latter sprints were to top up my peak bucket for the day, as High was already filled. If you donât have much data in Xert, then of course adding in a few max effort sprints can help dial things in. But I usually hover somewhere between 1050 & 1150 W max, depending on how much sprinting Iâve been doing lately (e.g. my Peak Training Load).
Signature look immaculate! Totally dialled! Impressive that you were riiiiiight at your limit ~1/3 of the way into the race and you still held on, even with a high difficulty! Well done!
Depends⊠if you could have only gone a couple of seconds, likely not much of a difference - immaterial for day to day training. If you could have kept going for another minute, then there might be more of a material difference in the signature.
Yesterday I tried the Hardness Test Level 7. Uff it was tough
I have a question, though. For a few intervals, letâs say, half the way through the 3 minutes ones, I have to step off the saddle to handle the power, is that ok, or are all the intervals supposed to be done seated?
Beginner here (3 month into cycling), now with proper power meter.
It was pretty tough, I have to admit. In the last three seconds of the final interval, when I pushed to my absolute limit, I felt like my field of vision was narrowing. Is that still considered normal?
Nice job! This is exactly how the standard fitness test should be executed.
This type of workout is designed to bring you to a breaking point.
Being new to cycling youâre testing your limits and discovering what it feels like.
You donât need to do this that often. You signature will rise based on an increase in Trailing Load alone. But when you feel especially fresh and want to confirm where youâre at, search the Library for âfitness testâ and pick one to ride in Slope mode. Or perform a similar effort outdoors.
Even if you donât achieve a BT youâll confirm your signature is dialed in.
I often stand out of the saddle for a lot of high-power intervals - totally okay!
For myself, I like using standing to get the flywheel up to speed (or literally accelerating myself & the bike outdoors). Once the flywheel (or myself + bike ) is up to speed, then I find it easier to push the power from the saddle again.
Been on/off (mostly off recently) of cycling for a long time, but starting to get back into it, and remembering that Iâm definitely a sprinter and not an endurance cyclist
Found a good hill, and wanted to see how well i could accelerate/output (after a good stretch - heavens Iâm out of shape) - turns out Iâve been sandbagging a bit maybe in that department
Maybe ill be back here in a month or so with a more â5 min powerâ type of breakthrough
I was doing a recovery ride but I felt like my peak power wasnât right in Xert (I am still in the trial) so I did a little sprint towards the end and it was very cool to see the app say I had a breakthrough. I like the motivation element there.
On the way home from work, I was feeling good, so I threw in three sprints at 300 to 350 watts, each lasting 60 seconds. In the last two kilometers, I did another sprint like thatâbreathing and heart rate were maxed out by the end, but I only stopped because I had arrived home. I think I could have kept going for another 30 seconds.
Does this perhaps mean that Xert underestimates a beginnerâs progress, and that accumulating XSS without breakthroughs isnât sufficient for an accurate TP estimate?
To your question: yes, itâs possible that Xert might slightly underestimate your fitness if youâve been consistently training but havenât recorded a true Breakthrough in a while. Thatâs because Xert uses a combination of Signature Decay and Training Responsiveness to estimate how your fitness is evolving behind the scenes - even without breakthroughs.
However, breakthroughs are key signals. The more often Xert sees you expressing your fitness (e.g. when youâre right near your limits), the better it gets at predicting your improvements during periods without maximal efforts.
So keep it up! Maybe next time youâll push just a little further past the driveway for a bigger breakthrough!
Woohoo! The fitness is continuing to come back. I had big High bucket to fill today, so filled most of my low bucket first and then did some 30-30âs to failure to fill my High & Peak buckets⊠ouch.
Such a beautiful morning on the bike⊠buckets filled, a great workout done outdoors, & a breakthrough!
Still making progress towards my Forecast AI goal of increasing my 8 min power by early October (and hopefully finally reaching 4-star status)! Whatâs been working for me so far:
Getting out consistently for a longer ride on Saturdays Filling XSS targets on HIIT days with Magic Buckets Keeping Low Intensity Days Easy
A short max effort that abruptly ends without a natural point of failure can trigger the algorithm to issue a BT.
In your case it was a longer effort that flatlined MPA for the requisite BT (a legit one).
To see that moment in action, view activity details and select Previous button under the chart.
Whenever you feel a bump in a signature value isnât justified, you can flag the activity.
That removes the BT adjustment while retaining the strain score analysis.
I have been running with a fitness signature at around PP=814 W, HIE=14.1 kJ, and TP=354 W for some time (which is shown in the first image below). This was identified by the algorithm by a breakthrough done outside during magic bucket intervals multiple times on the same hill. I have got similar fitness signatures on breakthroughs inside. 814 W is close to the max power I have ever been able to put out both inside and outside (standing and using the handle bars), so I assume that is accurate enough.
I am however struggling to hold 354 W for longer durations, thus I am wondering if my signature is a bit skewed towards high TP and low HIE. If I adjust the TP to 315 W and HIE to 22 kJ while keeping the PP I guess a reasonable match for the breakthrough activity (second image below).
What is the best test I can do to get the correct ratio between the HIE and TP?
I reached 167 bpm, 169 bpm, 167 bpm, and 157 bpm as max for each of the sets below, so it makes sense that I got the breakthrough on the second set. However, the first and third set should probably not be too far off. It should also be noted that the green dot was at the top of the hill.
On the contrary: I think this BT shows that my FTP is still slightly underestimated. Itâs probably closer to around 220 in reality, since I wasnât yet at my physical limit during the intervals.
Thanks for pointing out the Previous button â I wasnât aware of that.
Did a spontaneous short trainer session in Zwift today â everything was properly calibrated, and the power data looks solid. Tough but productive workout. After a quick break, I felt like finally locking in my true peak power in Xert. Iâve known from past tests that it should be around 1200 W, but Xert always down-adjusted it because the sprint wasnât long enough. This time, it stuck.
Now hereâs the unexpected part: Xert not only updated my PP to a realistic value, but it also bumped my TP (and LTP as a result) by nearly 37 watts! I was already pretty sure that my TP was higher than the previously estimated 212 W â but that much higher? The entire breakthrough came from just this one sprint.
Can it really be that my LTP is now 188 W? I know I could flag the activity⊠but should I? What would you do in my shoes?
Iâd flag it and adjust PP to the number you want to use and click Save (lock).
Xert will use that signature as the baseline moving forward.
Future BTs (or increase in TL) will raise TP when warranted.
You can check your LTP by riding a âfree rideâ workout in Slope mode for 30 minutes or more.
Settle into a comfortable pace using gears/cadence.
RPE will confirm what level watts push you past relaxed conversational breathing.
This assumes your trainer setup includes sufficient cooling.
Thanks. Could you elaborate further on why you would flag this activity? There were no technical issues, incorrect power data, or anything like that. So what would be the objective reasoning here? For me, the fitness signature and the derived workouts are a key feature of Xert, which loses significance if I have to flag breakthroughs even though there were no recording errors.
Would you say I should potentially flag anything where a significant increase is based solely on a peak effort that only lasted a few seconds? Or whatâs the general rule of thumb here?
The effort should be to failure. Do a hard sprint and then follow that with a sustained effort, 2-10 minute power would be a good starting point, to failure.
See these links on how to optimise a breakthrough.
Ok, but even if I had continued riding after my 1200-watt sprint â for example, holding 300 watts until failure â it still would have resulted in the same Breakthrough (or perhaps an even bigger one). So how does your comment apply to my original question?
Depending on how long you hold the 300 and how fast you drop off towards the end of the effort you might have a larger increase in HIE and a smaller increase in TP. I donât remember the exact formula but increasing HIE at constant TP results in a lower LTP.
). All things considered, Iâd say Xert continues to predict my fitness within a handful of Watts consistently, both as my fitness increases & decreases 
Getting out consistently for a longer ride on Saturdays
