Would you be able to add in another day of riding? Without the duration of your sessions needing to increase (or picking harder workouts), youāll find it more and more challenging to continue increasing volume without adding in another day/week of riding. To avoid too much intensity, try adding in a day of free-riding or a 2-diamond endurance workout. That would add about 60 XSS/hr, which can be a nice way to top off on XSS between other training sessions.
Xert does have some logic built in that recommended workout difficulty should generally track with your training status (e.g. 3-star athletes should be recommended ~3-diamond High-Intensity workouts when theyāre fresh). While intentionally picking harder workouts every once in a while can be good, doing so too often might lead to feeling overly fatigued afterwards and needing more time for recovery.
Question : does that mean that Xert could make a general prediction an athlete response to training load? And sort of predict if someone has a V8 under the hood or a 2-cylinder ? (hey, 2-strokes are awesome at what they do!)
Thatād be interesting to know and see what goals are actually achievable within a timeframe or all at.
A sort of predictor like this : You can achieve X watts/Y Kg if you accumate Z amount of traing load in W amount of time.
If used as Iāve done (interpolating potential signature based on historic performances), yes. I think great care is needed if youād want to extrapolate and make estimations about potential maximum FTP beyond your recorded data in Xert (e.g. if youāve only been 3* TL in Xert, Iād be skeptical to estimate potential performance at 5* TL).
Likely not. A lot of this is pre-determined genetically. As I alluded to previously, I can train all I want and get to 5* status, but I still wonāt be racing the Tour next year Its very likely that the relationship between performance (as measured through your fitness signature) and Training Load is different for each & every athlete. IOW, the marginal change in performance per unit of TL is likely highly individualized.
You might find this blog post rather interesting! Itās sort of addressing the questions that youāre asking
Hello Scott,
Iām happy to have stumbled on to this thread as we have some similar goals. Iām ramping up for the P2A as well; Iām also starting at around 40 TL. Iāve just come off a spring and summer of running training, so I did a one month challenge at the extreme level just to get my cycling legs back. I was about to ask someone, who had done the race before, what athlete type they were going to use. I was using puncheur workouts predominately but I didnāt feel like I was getting enough longer intervals.
Iām not planning on an everesting attempt, but I was hoping to do some Zwift races on Saturdays and I lead a 100k zwift ride on Sunday. Other than that, Iāll let the XATA choose for me.
Two questions: 1. Have you done P2A before? and more importantly, is there a danger of overdoing the pre-base phase if Iām already training 9-10 hours a week? Hereās my progress chart for reference.
Exciting! Best of luck to you with your preparation
Iāve wanted to do it for a few years now, but havenāt had a chance. This year will be my first attempt at it From the analyses that Iāve seen, somewhere in the range of Puncheur (4:00 power), Breakaway Specialist (5:00 power), or Rouleur (6:00 power) would be good!
I think the key is on monitoring your training status. Itās easy to be gung-ho about training now & overdo things. Iāve found myself juuust skirting red status following a Moderate - 2 IR. I feel that there are days where I want to do more, but I can see see if a longer/harder workout will push me too far into the red (using the fitness planner). For now, Iām settling with what I can do & will likely try to push my Improvement Rate up a bit more once I can start getting back outside!
Iāve actually done the race 4 times now; if you want any āveteranā advice, Iām actually quite old too . The reason for my question is that Iām just not that familiar with athlete types that Xert uses. What Iāve learned about the race is, more than any other race Iāve done, itās unpredictable. Iāve been dropped because someone goes down in front of me, or because my shoe fell off in the mud, but most consistently is getting dropped on a hill when Iāve been fighting for my life to stay on the back of the group. For me, thatās my weakness. I experience similar situations in Zwift races. Any advice you could give on workouts that would help with that situation would be appreciated.
And seriously, feel free to ask me anything about the event itself.
Certainly! The only thing you can control is your fitness going into the event But 300W TP doesnāt matter if you get involved in a wreck or stuck in the mud and dropped from a group
Iām guessing some workouts in the Climber range might be good, as well as some fast-start intervals. For the formerā¦try something like the āIron Manā or āEnter Sandmanā workouts - those are good for building your endurance at harder efforts. For the latter, try something like the āCloserā series of workouts or āSomething Just Like Thisā. Both of those use the concept of fast-start XSSR intervals before settling in closer to Threshold, giving you the feeling of holding TP when your MPA is lowered. It makes for a unique/interesting workout. In fact, I think we have a few more fast-start interval workouts to add yet.
Thanks for that, Scott. I will definitely look for those workouts.
Changing my athlete type yesterday to Breakaway Specialist has already opened the door to a different kind of suffering, so I look forward (begrudgingly) to the Climber workouts. Now if I could just stop weighing 175 poundsā¦
How nice to read about your plans, and how you aproach training to your TED.
I was wondering though, in calculating your progress in the incline of your TL and weeks, shouldnāt you include rest weeks in it? I guess your ramp rate in such rest weeks is set back to maintenance. With those rest weeks you will not have the same outcome in TL (and thus FTP) on your calculated date.
Like Armando was writing, you canāt keep progressing all the time.
What are your thoughts on this?
Good luck in all your preparations and training. Hope to join some day on the Open Sessions.
So far, Iāve been able to maintain a Moderate - 2 Improvement Rate (+3 TL/week) without feeling the need for a recovery week. Iāve been skirting the edge of Red Status, but I can use the Fitness planner to make sure that my planned trainings donāt make my training status red for too long. I may include a few occasional weeks at Aggressive - 1 (+4 TL/week), which would offset some recovery weeks that I would spend at Slow (+1 TL/week). Overall, I suspect an average Improvement Rate of Moderate - 2 will be achievable.
I also forgot to mention in the original post that using the āGoalsā tab, Xert can predict where my TP will be on my TED. At a Moderate - 2 IR, Xert predicts of TP of 280 W TP (predicted 287 W TP at an IR of Aggressive - 1). Both these I think are more reasonable/likely than my goal of 300, but Iāll keep trying anyways!
Thanks for your response. Iām just getting back to pre-base training myself. With 3 weeks done at around 1,5 IR, Iām feeling the training load pretty good
I hope I will get used to the trainingload again
Now that Iām getting ready to enter the Base phase for my Paris to Ancaster Gravel Race coming up this spring, so I thought Iād share an update on my progress so farā¦
As is good practice, started my fitness rebuild with a Breakthrough activity. This helps to confirm that my starting signature was accurate and that my initial workouts are at the appropriate intensity. From there, I started my pre-base phase using the āNo Decay - Training Load Matchedā decay method.
So, from the end of October through to end of December, Xert has helped pace me at nearly a perfect 2.0 ramp rateā¦ I was at an IR of āModerate - 1ā (+2 TL/week) for most of that time. My TP has increased a bit slower than I would have liked/expectedā¦ from the period stats, you can see that Iāve been averaging a 1.2 W/week increase. But I also keep in mind that these are also predictions of my fitness based only on my XSS from the past 2 months. I will likely attempt another Breakthrough effort in the near future to confirm (or disprove) the current signature.
You can see from my XPMC below that my form did drop quite a bit at times, but I never had the feeling that I was too tired to train or feeling burnt out. Taking at least one rest day per week helped tremendously I think I reached red status maybe 3 times in the past 2 months, but usually only for a half day after a high-intensity ride. Keeping my training very polarized has helped avoid prolonged periods of red/yellow status!
Iāve been leveraging the usefulness of Xertās adaptive training for staying on top of my day-to-day XSS deficits, but I have generally followed my weekly schedule:
Monday: High-Intensity (I manually choose Endurance/Climber/GC Specialist focus)
Tuesday: Fat Burning Tuesday Xert Group Sessions (typically ~90 min of sub-LTP riding)
Wednesday: Zwift Xert Surplus Seekers Group Ride (75 min moderate endurance)
Thursday: High-Intensity (manually select a Endurance/Climber/ GC Specialist focus)
Friday: Free-ride/endurance to meet XSS target
Saturday: ālongā ride day (typically 1.5-2 hrs) free-ride endurance to meet XSS target
Sunday: Rest Day
I hope to keep the same(ish) routine, as I progress into my Xert Training Program, but will likely allow my High-Intensity days be determined by my training status in Xert. Hope this adds to the discussion!
Finding this a great post to follow, thankyou for sharing. I was due to start my base phase this week, but unfortunately Iāve picked up Covid, today is the seventh day and I feel okay, pretty much how I always feel after a bad cold, so hopefully I will start my base at the weekend. (Iāll move my TED back a week or so as Iām not aiming to peak for one particular event, more a period of time in the summer)
Iām curious though as to your use of Decay, Iāve left mine set to Optimal, but given Iāve not ridden due to the aforementioned Covid, my signature has declined quite a bit, would you say that I wouldāve been better (should) switch to No Decay for base? If so, when and what would you recommend setting Decay to during the remainder of the training program?
It sounds like you plan to continue to manually add high intensity days with shorter focus, rather than follow the Xert periodisation (which would suggest purely focusing on endurance during base phase)? If so, would help users to understand why?
Either way, an athleteās fitness signature will always decrease when youāre not training (because of illness, no time to train, etc.).
Depending on how long itās been since your last BT, you may consider leaving the decay method and trying for a Breakthrough to reset your signature. Maybe not the first day you return to training, but perhaps when youāre feeling up for it after a few days of training. After the BT effort, you could consider No Decay while in the Base phase Just my thoughts from what youāve shared!
Iām leveraging the adaptive capabilities of Xert! I donāt have to blindly follow itā¦ I can still do what I like and Xert will help flex my training on the other days of the week to meet my training goals.
Historically, Iāve almost always done a very low-intensity base training seasonā¦ However, I (anecdotally) saw good results last winter when I kept some high-intensity in my training, so wanted to keep adding 1-2 days of harder rides in along with my base/endurance miles. I think this will also better prepare me for my gravel race in the early spring
All that said, I will be giving more control to Xert for my high-intensity workouts as I progress further into the training program. HTH!
Its very likely that the relationship between performance (as measured through your fitness signature) and Training Load is different for each & every athlete. IOW, the marginal change in performance per unit of TL is likely highly individualized.
From the analyses that Iāve seen, somewhere in the range of Puncheur (4:00 power), Breakaway Specialist (5:00 power), or Rouleur (6:00 power) would be good!
