I’m not sure how a high strain data field would be actionable as you and Scott have pointed out - you can’t target just that number since efforts above threshold also generate peak strain, and the resulting focus (mix of low high peak strain together) may not be ‘right’ depending how you try and do it (and how you’ve generated high strain already in the ride)… not sure if you have in mind an alternative data field / approach to help?
Another question is whether updates will clarify whether the intention of ‘recommended focus’ during different training phases is meant to apply to your whole weekly training load, or just on intensity days? Depending on how many intensity days you have (and how long they are) the resulting weekly focus can be hugely different. Said another way, if you want a weekly Rouleur focus and do two endurance rides a week, the intensity days probably need to be puncheur or shorter focus to achieve that over the week.
And with the changes to training status, it seems the resulting polarization is different e.g it’s been mentioned elsewhere that those with lower TL will see less yellow (so more intensity) than before while those with high TL will the opposite (so less intensity and presumably ‘longer’ weekly focus durations than before…) This is linked to comments above where you suggested that once you hit a ‘target’ high train you can just ride endurance, which lowers ride (and weekly) focus
You have a current high training load of e.g., 2.0 and some positive improvement rate
You have set an athlete type, lets say 10min (climber)
XATA wants you to increase that high training load to make you climb faster. So it prescibes a bit of high XSS.
You go out, riding however you prefer. But among that, you target to generate the prescribed high XSS riding close to your 10min power.
Job done. High training load has increased, while you adheared to specificity. xata will continue to push you further next time.
Yes, shorter power athelete types will also want to explicitly fullfil their peak XSS targets of course.
Polarity can be kept high or low according to individial preference. Just stay below TP during your ride apart from that surges at 10min power if you prefer to have it. I myself don’t really care and just prefer following terrain and my feeling on that day.
So that is very actionable and easy to do. In fact the new AI workouts work exactly like the above as well. They translate target low/high/peak xss to one specific layout of power over time (among unlimited possible variations). The result is just a bit less flexible than doing that freely by yourself according to upcoming terrain.
This I understand, and agree it’s a way to manage outdoor rides, but that’s riding to focus, not riding to hit a high strain target. And it’s also not ‘adjusting your outdoor ride based on whether you have hit a high strain on a data screen’ (paraphrasing a bit ). To me, seeing a high strain number mid ride, and even having a high strain target in isolation (independent of low and peak strain) don’t really help. It’s the focus and XSS that counts in Xert world (or at least has been till now)…
I think what you’re saying is that combined, riding to focus, plus a volume metric (high and peak strain) could be used to guide how much intensity is ‘enough’ for a day. That makes sense. A related question though is if you have more time, should you just add endurance (and lower the resulting focus) or also add more high and peak strain to maintain the focus. Am not sure there has been a clear answer to that so far…
Its stats pretty much matched the xata recommendation
As I didn’t want to go full in right away and in general would prefer to spread HI efforts a bit out over the week, I decided to only go for 2/3 of the indictated sets, leaving the rest for later days.
Question: Would at make sense to have an option to advice xert to spread HI efforts out versus prescribing all for the same day? I thought the polarization slider setting maybe would do that, but it doesn’t seem so. Mine is set complete left (“none”).
Setting up the workout on my Edge
In the generated AI workout, effort power slightly differs between sets (higher->medium->lower). I just used the power of the medium set for all of them to avoid a more complicated workout structure and having to update more values.
So, as I already had created a workout with the typical AI workout structure on my Edge, I just needed to update the 3 key values as prescribed for today (effort power, effort length & #repeats per set). That literally took me 20s.
Going to ride
All worked as expected. Loaded the workout on the edge, started the activity. The warmup interval went by and the Edge waited patiently for me to press the lap key to start the first HI set. Which I did after reaching my fire road climb being warmed up.
I executed the repeats as prescribed. Some of them I pulled together, jumping the rest interval via the lap key. Some sections of my climb are just too steep for having any meaningful “rest”.
Else wise, during rest, I just kept climbing in the first gear with minimum possible power. I didn’t even program any number for them into the workout.
Took the trail back home as happy end…
You see, the achieved focus was classified as “Mixed Breakaway Specialist” (5min). Compared to the goal set to “GC Specialist” (8min).
I assume that is because I overachieved most of my efforts in terms of power target. It’s just too hard to match 8min power on a variable climb. And I guess I am more the better-too-much-than-too-little kind of person.
And I also decided to not care about being too precise with training prescriptions. Until someone starts paying me, I just bike for fun.
Xert prescribed me 5.2 high XSS, following the xata recommendation.
I targeted doing about 2/3 of that, but looking at the activity in the planner, I overachieved:
Also fine.
Summery:
Manually replicating the AI workout structure in Garmin works well and allows more flexibility riding outside, by allowing to start work sets on demand via the lap button
Once an AI workout is created on the garmin device, updating it to match the demands of a specific daily AI workout is fast and easy
With that, the new AI workout function should allow me to steer my progressive overload much more precisely riding outside.
I tried to build a workout on the Garmin Connect web page, but that seems very poor and missing needed options.
I did it directly on the Edge device’s integrated workout builder. That worked great.
@ManofSteele
Why do I see the progression improvement in high training load with 1d delay? So for the 24.01. in example below, while the activity was executed yesterday, the 23.01.
so from a technical point of view why would the AI generate the same workout for two different individuals? Sound like the generator picks from a selection of workouts it has in the can and says this is a good option for what is your situation? Is it really AI generation or AI selection?
I ran it a few minutes ago and lo and behold look what it advised:
look familiar?
In fact I have run the AI gen a few times and this is the only workout it delivers.
I know Xert put AI in the title. I would say AI is not a good term (not only for Xert), they better use Auto generated, Optimized or Personalized — or something similar.
So basically they have a few workout variants (or only one) where they can adjust a few parameters like the duration of the intervals, number of intervals and target power. Then they try to find the workout that will give the highest score, that is the best match to XSS (low, high, peak) and difficulty. And maybe they take the time into account in a way.
But it is not magic. It will not invent a totally new workout structure that is better for you based on your previous training history. It is basically generating all these variants in the background to see which one will be the one to show at the top of the recommendation list for you right now.
Could you arrive at similar strain numbers with more variation in interval types?
No doubt, but this is the first iteration of Autogen. It’s designed to create a “simple workout” for a reason. Gets the job done efficiently. Works indoors or outdoors.
If I don’t especially like it, there is a list of alternates I can chose from.
It might looks similar, but its very likely not the same workout. Different workout interval targets, duration, rest interval targets & duration, not to mention total number of repetitions.
If you run Auto-gen without any change in the training recommendations, it should deliver the same workout, no?
I’d have to check again… IIRC, we plot the daily L/H/P TL’s once per day at midnight, which would make sense as your HTL would have gone up following the workout
I’ll buy that… it is interesting though that it seems to be a simple variant of a single option, ie yes number of intervals etc may change but the overall but in essence pretty similar no? I would expect a different profile/ type but maybe I am not following the idea correctly.
But will it make sense to have the option to generate smart workouts as well? Assuming these will allow for the same XSS and duration with a lower difficulty (maybe only relevant above TP).
You can experiment with it by changing your athlete type and changing your improvement rate to have it generate different workout L/H/P goals. Putting today in the Peak phase of the 120 day program also allows you to experiment with different specificity values on the Goals and Settings.
After experimenting to see what it does, you can put your Goals and Settings back to where you want them.
Isn’t that something for trainers in ERG-mode? I wonder how you would follow such an interval outside. At least I find it hard to hit anything more precise than maybe +/- 30w on the MTB for any given moment.
Yes, it looks like that. I had hoped that you update progression right after each workout, as that would be a more motivating feedback. “Yes, your legs might draw all blood out of your brain right now, but look at your high-TL graph!”
If I’m green or blue, do a workout at target Focus and Difficulty.
If I’m yellow, do endurance.
First priority is to get to target RR for the week, and 2nd is to get to Focus, if freshness allows.
If I planned more in advance, I suppose I could put in lower Focus workouts and ignore some yellow days, and more often hit weekly target Focus. I guess I view it as trying to stay on XATA Focus and Difficulty as much as I can, while respecting form indications as well. If I did ignore yellows more often, and laid out weeks more to target weekly Focus, I guess I’d just get to shorter Focus earlier in the build up.
EDIT TO ADD: Maybe I should have left it at my “First priority….” sentence. That sums it up as well as all the other rambling.
). To me, seeing a high strain number mid ride, and even having a high strain target in isolation (independent of low and peak strain) don’t really help. It’s the focus and XSS that counts in Xert world (or at least has been till now)…
Gets the job done efficiently. Works indoors or outdoors.
