Newbie Questions

Support
1

Hi fairly new to Xert, I’m a time trailist and thought I’d give Xert a go as I’d read good things about it. I’m using other training platforms so have a reasonable grasp on training with power as prescribed by more traditional methods/terminologies. I have a couple of questions though that I’m struggling to get my head around. So here goes.

1: My training status is 3.75 yellow stars and I’m being listed as tired, this hasn’t changed now for a couple of weeks yet if I don’t train I get a training deficit score (my tiny mind struggles with having a deficit!) I’ve read the article on taking a mid season break, but as I have TTs three out of the next four weekends this isn’t really that feasible, I was expecting the adviser to prompt recovery rides or even rest, or is there something I should be doing to get it to do this? My plan is to have an easier few days next week and then race a short TT (10 miles) on Saturday, will this mean I run up a huge deficit score that I’ll struggle to get down or will it reset at the end of the week?

2: Focus Duration, I’ve read the blogs/F AQ but the constant use of the word Focus, rather than an alternative explanation still has me struggling a bit. For example, my suggested focus duration is currently listed as 3:00:00 interval target 247w, my understanding is that the FD is the amount of time I could hold the interval target, I think this would be a tough ride and wouldn’t help with the tired status listed above, or am I completely wrong in my reading of this? I have the data field on my Garmin but I’m not sure I’m understanding it correctly, what I’d really like is to be able to watch a video that explains it and shows what I should be looking at, I’ve been told I’m a visual learner! Or maybe I just have stronger legs than brain!

Thanks for any advice.

2

Hi Sean, good questions.

  1. You can decrease the improvement rate so that you dont fall behind with your XSS deficit and taking some time to freshen up.
  2. Suggested focus duration is the intensity at which you should perform intervals. For an focus time of 3:00:00, you should be focusing on low intensity riding, so structure inst really needed. Stay tuned, we have a video on this exact topic dropping in the near future! Cheers
3

Hi Sean, first of all, I just wan’t to make clear, that I am not a trainig specialist. So feel free to be sceptical about my answer.
According to Xert, yellow stars means that you are tired, but it also means that you are allowed to do endurance workouts. Since you are focusing on TT, I think that you can continue in this yellow status by doing endurance workouts which is actually what you need as a TT specialist. If you get red stars you should consider to rest. Depending on how much training data Xert has, the prediction of red stars can be more or less precise. In case of doubt, I would chose to take a rest. If you want to know how long does it take to switch from red to yellow, you can check the training planer.