Great question! Matching your training status stars to the workout difficulty diamonds is how XATA used to function, and I still find it a helpful rule-of-thumb. If you’re cruising through workouts rated well above your current star level, it might be worth checking if your signature is understated or try and push for a breakthrough. Some athletes are also able to mentally suffer more than others…. I’m not the most mentally resilient rider myself. I think I quit on myself the last time I tried Hardness Test 11.
In addition to the actual XFAI programs themselves, our development & refining of Forecast AI resulted in some great improvements to how XATA works as well, IMO. Rather than assigning workouts based solely on Focus and Difficulty Rating, the system now builds recommendations based on XSS targets for each energy system (Low, High, and Peak), which are aligned with your:
- Current training load (L/H/P)
- Athlete type (e.g. Rouleur)
- Periodization settings (e.g. 4:1 vs 2:1)
- And importantly, your XSSR preference
The XSSR (XSS Rate) preference determines how much strain gets packed into the time you have available. The default is 100 XSS/hour, which typically translates to a max difficulty of about 3.5 - 4.0 diamonds. But you can scale this up or down depending on how hard you want your sessions to feel or how much time you have.