is there a way or is there a plan to have text prompts within workouts, such as prompts to do certain cadence or to note up coming changes on screen with the workout player?
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Hi Ron,
We dont have any sorts of cadence drills, since the research has generally discovered that an athlete’s preferred cadence is optimal over drills/attempts to intentionally increase/decrease the cadence.
We offer prompts (audio & visual) on the workout players to indicate upcoming changes in intervals. Is there something more specific that you had in mind?
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I was thinking the sort of thing to help either give you motivation, I realize that the upcoming power target is displayed, or other info. For instance, if the next interval is slope mode not erg. I am certain there are 100’s of ways one could use a pop up text box. Motivation in a hard interval for instance… I am certain others can come up with lots of ideas for them. There are ways I have seen that allow you to determine when and for how long a box pops up etc. As for whether cadence is optimal or not, the work out player sets a cadence range pointer… a text box might say to watch this and stay in the middle for instance as a reminder? I also know that if a sudden change in power is upcoming it may be a good idea to pick up your cadence so that you do not bog down when the power changes. When you are getting tired sometimes a prompt helps.
Maybe there should be a place to vote on features that users want?.. for instance I asked for actual moving time to be displayed in the workout data report and Armando told me why it was unnecessary in Xert. The thing is I understand that some things may be not needed in the Xert platform algorithm but there may be other reasons these can be useful such as if the actual moving time is displayed then also it is easy to see the actual moving avg speed etc… these are metrics that are useful to see. Similar with text prompts some people may find them useful other maybe not. I am not certain if the Xert user base would find it helpful?
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another place whee\re a text prompt might be useful within a workout is a slope section where you want the segment to hit a certain target or to sprint all out… this is one good way to remind the user the idea behind that section, it might say try to hold a steady power at x and so on. A really cool option would be to be able to insert the current target from the workout in the text box as in there there is an “x” that would insert that segment target ie target is 250 and text box was set up as " maintain a steady “x” watts and what would pop up is maintain a steady 250 watts, and as the workout would differ with time the x would be the current setting?
I would second this. I’m new to Xert and have been doing Zwift workouts for the past few months. Xert workouts make a lot more sense to me, but I surprised myself when I realized that I’m really missing (what I thought to be annoying) text cues from Zwift workouts. I guess workouts are as much physical as mental, and (even Zwift’s corny) text cues help you maintain focus and mentally prepare for work ahead.
Ideally it would be nice to have cues as part of workouts, reminding what the focus/goal of workouts are, when you reach half way, when only a couple of hard intervals left, and so on, but may be even some quick tips on proper breathing, hydration, etc. I can imagine that some people might not like it, so it could be an option to turn them off.
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I see that this topic is somewhat dead, but I do believe that a pop up text field can be useful. There are numerous ways it can help. I don’t think it is that hard to implement but say for instance you want to watch your heart rate that it stays within a band for a certain interval power? What if the section is slope mode it is nice to get a prompt that indicate the target wattage (yes I know it is visible) but sometimes a pop up works to get that going, or in a hard long interval to provide a motivation… I just think it is a reasonable add on to what I think is a very good training platform.
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If it ends up being added - please make sure it can be turned off as user see fit.
I’m not a fan, mildly put.
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As long as it doesn’t obscure any of the data. I hate when messages pop up that hide the fields that I have my eye on.
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I am once again reviving this thread. I think it should be possible in personal workouts that one designs to add text prompts during a segment. As for general workouts etc maybe text prompts could have an on-off toggle? I see so many times where a text prompt would be helpful or useful. Maybe for instance when you want to do a series of stages in a work out where you vary the cadence or you want to hold your heart rate to a certain level, or you want to start easy or hard at the start of a section. There are so many times a prompt would be helpful. Other workout players/ design options allow text to be added even to the extent of when they appear within the segment. So if others can do it why is it such a no go for XERT? FOr those who do not like them they can edit the workout and remove them. It seems trivial but maybe I am missing something.
I’d prefer they take it in an automated direction. Essentially a rule-based Virtual Coach option to enable text content. All of which happens on the Session Player. The feature is server based so no EBC changes are required.
Possibilities –
- transition call outs, especially low/high spin up alert
- “drink” during RIBs
- training tips?
- extended BT announcement
- “halfway there” call out once you’re past midway (after a set)
- cadence drills (not a fan)
- what else?
Keep the messaging to RIBs as orange/red intervals aren’t a good time to be reading text. 
Not by workout but for all workouts. I.e., Virtual Coach On/Off under Account settings.
If enabled perhaps an option under Session Player settings to disable it during a session. So those who don’t want it can disable it completely and those that want it can disable on demand.
Text could appear over the chat box or roll up line by line in title bar temporarily hiding workout title/elapsed time/XSS.
You could also take it a step further and make it compatible with text-to-speech built into OS so if you’d like to hear text messages you can enable that. In this case it would be cool if any phrase ending in an exclamation point would yell at you. 
interesting idea, any sort of thing like this if implemented well is worth a try.
You mention creating your own workouts.
Is the interval naming option insufficient for this purpose or is the 30 characters limit the problem?
That is a partial solution, what I am talking about is a prompt one can give for say 30 seconds to go, or part way through to up the cadence, etc. As another for instance when you do a VO2 max test in person the techs will give you verbal encouragement to go as hard and far as you can, this could be done via in session prompts or even better text to voice prompts, but that is fat too much to ask for. This sort of text within a section is not new or innovative it has been around for a long time relative to training software. I have used this in other software, it helps with motivation.