Hi,
Fairly long-time Xert user. For the longest time, I only used the platform to track bike rides with power, and relied on TP/GC for runs, yoga, etc.
I just recently became aware that xert now does HR calculations as well, so am now wondering if the general advice is to sync everything with the idea that fatigue/freshness presumably becomes more accurate.
Would love feedback on how others manage sports besides cycling within Xert and whether adding these activities helps in deriving a more accurate signature.
As an example my TP for cycling is 290 but my running is 164. I cycle regularly but only run when chased by things that can eat me or that are trying to eat my food.
Not sure if others have a different experience. I just added a weight training profile and am interested to see how this is tracked (if there are any special metrics or if it just incorporates the time spent lifting and HR data).
My understanding is that if you include XSS activities other than cycling in the same profile it âthrows offâ the Xert algorithm which associates Training Load your fitness signature as the benefits you get from them doesnât necessarily benefit your specific cycling fitness.
Seems a bit tricky. Personally, stress from non-cycling related activities would be taken into account by the signature and training algorithms, particularly with regards to fatigue, but not necessarily count towards cycling-specific training load.
Up to now, with only power-related cycling activities synced to Xert, I have found my fitness signature to be relatively accurate but I constantly need to dial back my improvement rate and/or drop the freshness feedback as the system doesnât see the stress added from non-cycling activities.
But syncing just a couple of weeks of non-cycling related activities to the same profile saw both my TL and TP increase to unrealistic levels. Would separating activities into different profiles address this? Basically, would like to keep the fitness signature purely based on cycling power, but have the training advisor and status take into account stress from other sports.
I personally would like to have both. Not sure if that is possible with the profiles now though. Does anyone know? I have one sync-everything (from Garmin) profile now, with power data only from cycling, everything else just heart rate data. I donât want to change that but if possible would like a second profile with only cycling to compare.
But Iâm no cyclist and not who Xert was made for. Iâm a barely one star couch potato with occasional bouts of motivation for some more training but I do love the Xert indoor smart workouts (Raining Blood, Killing Me Slowly, Blood and Thunder, Revolution, Olympic attackâŚ). They work wonderfully to have a fun workout quick and easy whenever I feel like it (once or twice a week if that), even on a level so low most of you would fall asleep doing it. Itâs good cardio exercise for me since I found the signature that works for me and that doesnât change much if your level of activity is more or less constantly low, I use âno decayâ to keep everything steady. So Iâm probably misusing Xert
I think the usefulness of both variants depends on how much sport you do and how much of that is cycling. If you donât do much (one or maybe two stars) or if only a small part of your activities are cycling then Iâd guess the all in one profile (with only cycling using power of course since power measurements of different sports are not comparable) would work better. Assuming general fitness at a low level does contribute to cycling fitness more than it would for a pro cyclist.
If you train a lot (3 or more stars?) and/or most of what you do is cycling itâs probably better to only sync cycling or if youâre concerned with your signature being as accurate as possible, since depending on the other sports you do and your general fitness the training load from none cycling activities would inflate your signature.
Xert is really flexible in lots of ways for very different people and use cases.
Best to keep the activities in separate profiles.
HRDM is designed to âfill in the gapâ for rides without power and it relies on your historical cycling data that includes HR, power, and cadence for best results.
The Freshness Feedback slider is designed to handle what you describe where calculated form does not match how you feel due to other activities or how quickly you recover from recommended training load and intensity.
