For the purposes of this poll and discussion the requirements are –
You are a subscriber to Xert with access to the full workout library
Your fitness signature is valid based on recent BTs and activities
You use a Xert workout player (iOS, Android, or Connect IQ) for all indoor workouts
Answer applies to indoor workouts completed in AUTO mode
Recommended means the workout was selected from the top four list or from Load More (all twenty recommendations). If you used Filter it was to limit selections by Duration.
100% means the workout was completed from warmup to cooldown without any DNF intervals, paused intervals, or reduced difficulty (<100%) to complete an interval.
If these conditions don’t apply to the way you use Xert feel free to explain why.
How often do you complete recommended workouts at 100%?
Not sure but you may be better off asking two questions…? Sounds like you are after 1) how often people follow recommended workouts, and 2) how often they are done at 100%. With the combined question I’d have to say rarely, but not sure that’s what you want.
I try to polarise and broadly follow XATA for high intensity days (but use filter to increase difficulty and sometimes restrict focus to that recommended, and don’t always like the top 4 options) and would always do those workouts at 100%.
For endurance I rarely use a Xert workout as I find they are above what I’d call easy endurance in a polarised model. I free or group ride eg in Zwift or RGT instead. I typically (but not always) follow XATA for guiding high vs low intensity though, as well as keep a rough track of load increases.
Main interest is percentage of users who complete Xert workouts at 100% when selected from recommended lists whether following a progression (TED set) or not (post-event).
If you filter by difficulty and jump too high doesn’t that lead to failure or do you select HI workouts that match your status stars?
Perhaps that is one reason why Xert describes their model as hybrid polarized.
Definitely wouldn’t say they are easy endurance the whole time, but here’s the intervals.icu chart showing my 45 day Base phase in Xert at Moderate-2 ramp rate.
All data was from recommended workouts ridden indoors.
My TL is about 50 / 2 stars and I do high intensity days at 3 (or sometimes 3.5) diamonds, so not a major stretch but enough to make it interesting. I always manage at 100%. And no, I’m not someone that previously had a high TL or has done years of high intensity - just an amateur with I think highest TL ever of around 60. I think going to 5 star workouts would be a bit much - doable from time to time but mentally not something I’d want to do often.
I find that there just aren’t very many 2 or 2.5 diamond workouts that offer high intensity, and actually doing those is too easy (HR doesn’t get high enough for long enough), so to me not the best use of a ‘hard day’. Also tough to really build much High TL with easy high intensity workouts. (Given how XATA manages Polarisation, it’s tough to build much HTL even with harder workouts… XATA will have you starting from a very low / near zero HTL after base if followed precisely, so you will by definition end up yellow quite a lot in build as each workout pushes your High Form significantly negative)
I see your dilemma. You could create a few HI workouts of your own by viewing the workout library, show 100, sort by Rating then scroll down until you see something with enough red and orange to pique your interest. Modify that in Designer to suit your needs.
I’m no expert at creating workouts from scratch but inserting mods and tweaking is easy.
I actually like using Xert as is, including the 3 diamond ish high intensity workouts. There’s a good range at that level too (though have created some of my own as well). I just find XATA doesn’t do what I want, other than the TL and Staus tracking. Seem to have good results from the current approach, which is actually only one high intensity session a week using it as outlined.
I do most of the recommended workouts but sometime I will do a hard HIT session and the next day it wants me to do another one and I am still not fully recovered so I will do something easy. I also do a lot rides outside and at that point I am just trying to hit the XSS for that day. If I am doing some climbing or a hard group ride that will give me way more XSS for the given day. I always do a longer warm up 15-20 minutes with a few full gas efforts then start the workout from the IOS app. If I have a race or event I been working towards I will the improvement rate to taper then I am doing workouts that I created for the taper I want to get rid of unwanted fatigue so I am fresh. Hope this helps
Never as, I think , my Training Load is set based mainly on long outdoor rides and the indoor workouts which are recommended are just too much for me. I find that in order to get the necessary XSS to keep my progression up, they are either much to intense or far to long for me to sit on a turbo trainer. Buts that’s OK as I only use indoor workouts to keep me topped up so to speak or to do short high intensity VO2max type workouts. I don’t follow the Base Build Speciality progression as I’m not training for an event just a summer of riding with my friends.
There are going to be a number of variables at play here possibly making it hard to infer anything sensible no matter the data set size e.g. the workout intensity vs the rider’s fitness level, a 2.5 workout for a 4 star rider is going to be easyish even if they are tired whereas a 4 or 4.5 will always be challenging even if well rested. How long has the rider been using power and xert, if they’ve just started they may be making improvements every ride so find things easy all the time.
What phase is the rider in, they may have always been in pre-base or base since using xert so only prescribed endurance and always complete workouts easily.
Don’t know what you’re after of course but just my thoughts.
I just failed my first recommended workout since November. (2) Xert - Workout Designer (xertonline.com)
Got three quarters of the way through #3 and bailed. Then muddled through #4 and #5 at 90%. Coulda gone higher but once you talk yourself out of one it’s hard to get back on track.
My point is you can go a long time completing workouts at 100% difficulty with Xert.
That hasn’t been the case with other platforms I’ve tried especially TR which I expected to be better than canned plans I followed in the past. It wasn’t but I shouldn’t have gone down the SS rabbit hole (twice) before realizing that approach wasn’t for me. Xert has been a revelation in that regard.
Which would you rather do? Follow a plan that ends in DNF and failed workouts or learn a method of training that produces better results and doesn’t drive you into a wall?
I’ll post more about my Covid-19 stuck indoors experiment at some point.
Title will be along the lines of “100% at 100% for 120+ days”. Pre-Base to TED.
