I suggested to my wife to start using Xert. She did, imported Strava excercises etc. She has some hours on smart trainer but not a huge amount, and doesn’t have a wattmeter outside. Heartrate based analysis is turned on, and only rides are imported from Strava.
She did a Zwift ramp test recently, and got a pretty tough number out of it with a lot of willpower, maybe about 195W. As a consequence, training in Zwift was always too tough, couldn’t make it although I claimed she can as she did the test Now with Xert she has the same problem, too tough, threshold power at 222W. Her heartrate is way up with even excercises which should be endurance.
Her TP curve is heading down, but in the meanwhile, is there anything that could be done to get her closer to more meaningful excercises sooner? The calculated training load also seems to stay low, although is over 12 now and going up. Freshness has been tuned down already.
I would say she should do a breakthrough workout on Xert. You can look at these on Training > Workouts. Are you using a dumb/smart trainer that can use power as one of it’s measurements?.
That the same trainer as me. A Xert breakthrough will mean that the training level is equal to her ability and therefore the power and workouts should be achievable. I personally use Xert fitness test for Breakthrough. It’s only 30 minutes long.
You can open the activity (in Xert) where you think she achieved a Threshold of 195 W and manually key that into the signature at the bottom of the page. Once that’s done, click ‘Save’ and all her activities since then will be re-analyzed using the new Threshold Power. HTH!
You can seed a signature using the Power Curve Calculator.
You could also manually adjust numbers under Activity Details for last activity by using Save/Lock. Subsequent training, decay, and detected BTs will adjust signature moving forward from there.
When you say “imported Strava exercises” was that limited to cycling?
If not, I suggest you reset the account (under Account Settings) to clear everything and import only cycling data. Then adjust as above if necessary to ensure a viable starting TP.
Below 15 TL she could simply ride workouts in Slope mode at whatever is comfortable to build up a starting base. Once enough cycling data with HR, cadence, and power is on file you could enable HRDM (heart rate derived metrics) to capture XSS for outdoors rides without power. HR with cadence is preferred, but can also work with HR only.
Thanks! All of this sounds useful. I’ll check all data so far and use the manual controls where that looks viable.
Edit: Very effective correction was to simply enter the result of the FTP ramp test to the TP manual entry for that excercise. Problem solved right away! Now the power levels are reasonable & she can do the fitness test to check the situation.
Scott, how about manually reducing the TP to a number that one ‘knows’ is low, for example in this case 175W. Then perform a BT workout to sharpen the number. Would this work?
Now with Xert she has the same problem, too tough, threshold power at 222W. Her heartrate is way up with even excercises which should be endurance.