@ManofSteele As I understand it, a 200 Difficulty Score is rare, but I have 257. Should I do something with my Fitness Signature?
How closely do your PP and HIE align with the median band shown in this normalized scatter plot chart?
1 Like
Depends on the type of Breakthrough. Since MPA decline is exponential, riding for a long time near threshold means that moving threshold up or down a few watts can make a massive difference in the final analysis.
If you really wanted to, you could try bumping up Threshold a few watts and then hitting ‘Refresh’ under the MPA chart to see the chart update with the new MPA/difficulty data. Repeat until difficulty maxes around ~170 or so, it might take just a handful of watts - not much if you consider that at ~290 W TP, the error margin of most PM’s will be around 3-6 W.
1 Like
I tried playing around and managed to raise my threshold power to 303 just to see a Difficulty Score of 170, as you mentioned. Question is: should I actually save it, since it will affect my future training?Honestly, I’ve been using Xert for a year now, but some things still feel like ‘mind games’ to me. 
Is there any love for Near Breakthroughs in this thread? 
I wasn’t watching my MPA during this attack at all - I was just trying to hold on for dear life and push as many watts as I could to hold off the pack at the end of a race. After many years of Xert, it’s still fascinating to me how well MPA tracks with how close I was to my limit for the last ~2 minutes of the race during a 1200m attack to the finish. I figured that was my best chance, rather than trying to outspent some 80kg powerful sprinters:
3 Likes
First decent hit out in a few weeks. Very happy with it tbh! Too much ice on the roads at the moment to get out so only been zwifting, but thats better than nothing!
4 Likes
This maybe a daft question. But how do you track you MPA? In Zwift especially?
This was an unusual Silver BT. Doing a downhill race on Rouvy. 24km and about 950m of descent. I know because I rode the Death Road, Bolivia upwards as well
Pedalling at an avg of 99rpm with a max of 122rpm I averaged about 180 watts. Right at the end, as Rouvy does, there was a sprint segment over the last 300 metres.
Still being in gear 22 (Wattbike) I just kept on spinning very fast and hit a 3 year max power of 619 and best numbers between 5 and 37 seconds.
Saying that, I have started using the gym in the last 3 months and my legs are undoubtedly more powerful.
Happy days.
2 Likes
Not a daft question at all! Zwift doesn’t support MPA directly, so the best option is to use a second device (like a Garmin, Hammerhead, or the Xert EBC app) to track your MPA in real-time. Just make sure it’s connected to your power data only (no trainer control).
Then, pair your trainer + power + control to Zwift as usual. This setup lets you ride in Zwift while still seeing your MPA, Magic Buckets, and other Xert metrics on your secondary device.
1 Like
That spoils the surprise though!
I love doing a race and then checking back to Xert to see if I could/should have gone harder or if in fact I hard earned a breakthrough 
3 Likes
I did a Zwift race using the app last night and I went harder than I normally would have on a climb because I could see I could recover after. Was interesting using it.
Still exploded though later This time it was a smaller climb and I just lost a wheel, tried to chase on (wasn’t looking at the app) and then on the descent just let some wheels go as I was dripping and needed to catch my breathe and then bang. They group had gone.
Was interesting though seeing how fast you do recover that MPA. I was still hanging at the end and had good fun. Its just something interesting to look at.
1 Like
My team had a punchy Zwift Ladder race featuring 2 laps of the “Cobbled Climbs” course in Richmond, which made for an intense ladder race with lots of attacks & counterattacks.
As expected, it was a calm start until the base of the first climb - then it was full gas!
We were pretty evenly matched after the first lap. A teammate and I did try to breakaway on the second lap, but we were reeled back in after 5 min or so. We attacked again over the two climbs & got a small gap, but they were relentless and caught me before the final climb to the finish. The team was able to secure 1st & 2nd, and I was able to out-“sprint” one of them at the line for 4th place. Sprinting when your MPA is only 500 W is so painful!
I wasn’t happy to be caught by the group behind me before the finish, but at least my consolation is that I achieved my first GOLD breakthrough in quite some time! 
4 Likes
Just after I had a breakthrough on monday last week climbing Alpe du Zwift (228w for 59 minutes), I had another breakthrough on Elevation Evaluation (grade KOM) riding 255w for 15m. Started easy and then last 4/5m you can see I accelerated to 270w contineously. Exceeding MPA.
I had calibrated MPA 2 weeks before by riding the fitness test (max sprints + 4 treshold efforts) when I returned to Xert. Now my TP sits at 240w and MPA at 755. Almost back to my best level of last september (I lost a lot of fitness in december month by doing nothing).
1 Like
First outside ride of the year (thats not on my commuter)..
And another one.
I know indoor and outside power differ for me. But what the fuck. I had magic buckets and completed the intervals on my favorite segment… which lead to a spectacular breakthrough.
So in the space of 1 month I went from 225 TP due to lack of training to almost my all time high, its now 259. My peak was 260 last september.
2 Likes
Keep having breakthroughs when i go outside. HIE has been going down everytime though. Not that I’m too bothered by that. Its just a slightly undulating part I use to fill the intensity buckets and then the rest of the ride is filling the endurance magic bucket.
Yesterday was a warm day in the 70s with a slight wind. Spring has arrived!
I went outdoors for a 3+ hour meander and got carried away charging up the crest of hills.
The result was this –
Hey, this happens sometimes! I’m not worried about it. 
I treat Near BTs as confirmation my signature is dialed in.
What freaks out many newbies is when they see any number decline for the first time, especially during a training block. But that makes perfect sense. Consider it a rite of passage.
Your signature values are not static numbers and should float day to day.
I blame old-school periodic FTP test indoctrination. It was a number you hit on that particular day – with that particular test protocol – then relied on it as an anchor point for the next 4-6 weeks. However, all along your FTP was fluctuating and likely increasing during a progression. That means those 82 and 94% SS block intervals you blindly accepted as sacrosanct were only 82 and 94 for a few days after your last test. 
The other factor is TP/FTP isn’t a value measured to a decimal point. Sure, a math model calculates in that fashion, but no one should kid themselves into thinking their TP is 188, or 251, or 302. It’s +/- 2% or round down to the nearest 5 pt increment.
All you really care about is whether your TP is trending up, down, or plateaued (stagnant) over time. And when it does plateau that doesn’t mean you can’t continue to improve your fitness.
1 Like
Absolutely. I think watching the overall trend is what’s important & not so much the day to day variability in performance!
I had a tough run of 3 back to back to back hard days:
Sun: 3Dapt Research Study 12 min power test (Breakthrough)
Mon: Zwift Ladder Race (Near-Breakthrough)
Tues: Another Ladder Race (another Near-Breakthrough)
I’m chalking up the two Near-Breakthroughs to having residual fatigue in my legs from the previous couple days of hard riding. I did flag the Near-Breakthrough on Tuesday as I felt it was a max effort on that day, but I know that I’m capable of more when I’m fresh, so I wanted the numbers to reflect that.