I have followed a Base-build-peak plan for 12 weeks. I have had a few days disruption due to work, but generally have followed the plan. I’ve had a few breakthroughs too, but I am actually feeling quite demoralised as I seem to have a breakthrough, but then my signature degrades very quickly despite me continuing to train. I can’t do maximal sessions (ie exceed the prescribed intensity) each week as I take a long time to recover from these and therefore have followed the prescribed power intervals etc but my signature degrades hugely. I’m at the end of my 12-week plan and I am on paper worse than when I started!! I love xert and the variety of workouts, but before I decide on my next plan, I would like to understand where I am going wrong and which plan could suit me better.
Ideas and thoughts welcome.
Did you go to failure on the breakthroughs?
Signature decay can be adjusted.
On recovery, try the recovery demands slider. Right to allow more recovery.
A couple of breakthroughs I did go to failure, for example I was out on a chaingang and hung on as long as i could until I blew! If I change the decay from default, surely that is just fixing the numbers and not a reality of what training effect I’m having?
If I change the recovery demands slider, I seem to decay quicker to give me more recovery.
All in all, my signature declines and I don’t seem to benefit
Post your XPMC set to YTD,
What Focus Power and Improvement Rate did you set for your Base-Build-Peak plan?
What is your current status stars count?
Are you primarily training indoors or outdoors?
Nothing wrong with using Small or No Decay when you don’t test your limits often like someone who competes would. Signature Decay Method – Xert
Recovery Demands affects form calculation which is most easily viewed as the gradient bar on the Planner. If you adjust the slider, save the new position, then refresh the Planner page to see the change. Recovery Demands – Xert
Primarily indoors, but now I am doing more weekend rides outdoors.
Also do approx 1 gym session a week (with est. xss) but this is a small amount of my xss
Marked when I was sick, and also when we went on a cycling trip
Progression is set to Moderate-1 which is determined as achievable
I’m not training to race, but purely for building my ability to do long days (back to back) with high amounts of climbing when we go on holiday, and just generally feel stronger, with an increased 8min power and FTP. I come from a cycling background of track sprinting, so climbing and endurance is the polar opposite and a great challenge!
I am now just over 3months out from my next target and therefore trying to decide how to optimise my plan for that. Any help would be appreciated!
Changing Decay Method will help reduce the rate of TP decline, but TL has much to do with what’s happening on your XPMC.
While your training is consistent week after week, the load rises and falls.
That’s to be expected if your schedule restricts you from a continuous ramp up.
For example, here’s my current Base-Build-Peak program at Moderate-1 ramp rate.
Being retired I have the luxury of no constraints on availability or a weekly schedule to maintain.
I can continue to ramp up to 5 stars status if I wanted to.
Main point is my TP is rising by the progressive TL ramp alone, not BTs which I won’t try for until later in Build or Peak.
You have a productive ramp too between Mar 24 and May 26 then TL drops off.
If you’re reached your max hours/week limit you can still improve your fitness by performing deliberate blocks. By that I mean 3-4 weeks of increasing load with the last week at the highest intensity (frequency and/or difficulty) followed by a easy recovery week. Then repeat the cycle.
You can use XATA Continuous to do this by managing ramp rate and Focus target. A 20-minute Focus will be a lot easier on HIT days than 4-minute power target.
The other option is a 4-6 week XFAI Goal making sure the projected gain is reasonable with your max hours and recovery demands.
One advantage to XATA is you can deliberately make HIT days harder and take two days off to recover if that works best for you. While you can waver on XFAI forecasts and adapt the plan, you’ll more likely try to follow the distribution of HIT/LIT/Rest as mapped out. If it’s feeling too hard you can adjust one or more of the sliders and recast the plan.
I’ve used both program types successfully but appreciate the additional freedom a blank calendar offers on XATA.
Don’t forget that TP isn’t the be-all indicator of fitness. You can continue to improve without raising TP. You’ll know that because the same workouts suddenly feel easier than you remember them or you’ve raised the difficulty level. Or you’re riding your favorite routes faster because your durability has improved. Same TP but you are stronger and more resilient.
That would make sense as I had business trips and deadlines for most of June, and then when I did ride I was stressed or tired.
Despite tp decline, resilience has definitely improved, especially at 6-8min power.
Interesting regarding the 3-4 periodisation and how to use xert to achieve this as I have responded well to 4:1 blocks in the past, so I think I will try the continuous but adjust the improvement rate over each period and then rest (with some adjustments if I have trips etc)
