I focus on 70.3 triathlons, which include a 2:20ish ride. Is “triathlete” my best Athlete Type, or should I choose Century Rider? How does Xert periodize for these types of races? In other words, what types of workouts will be recommended during Base vs. Build vs. Peak considering that “specificity” is a little different for triathletes than pure cyclists?
Hi Jack. For these long distance athlete types, there isn’t a change in Focus so much as a steady increase in volume provided by the Adaptive Advisor. Depending on how much volume you are hoping to do, will determine whether you need to add intensity in order to continue to see improvement. At upper levels of training load for these types of athletes, the challenge isn’t so much with Focus (in the Xert sense) but more about how to get more volume and not plateau. Adding intensity incorrectly can actually be a detriment to doing this.
Thanks Armando! I opened my activity file for my last race (2:29 bike leg) and Focus is “Sprint Time Trialist” with Focus Duration of 24:04. Could you elaborate on why that is? Should that be my Athlete Type in order to get the best workouts from the Adaptive Advisor for this type of race or keep myself a “Triathlete”?
What this means is that the ride resembles a 24 minute all-out effort in these sense that your systems were being used in a similar way (ratios). So if you trained to improve your 24 minute power, you would improve your results in this race. 
You can set your Athlete Type to Sprint Time-Triallist if you want to be nearest this Focus. If your event is going to be more technical (hilly … many 180 turns), you may want to lower this to Climber or GC Specialist. If your event is flat and you won’t need to vary your pace much, you could leave it as Triathlete. The lower the Focus Athlete Type Duration, the more high intensity training you’ll get.
The chart that you have on this page for Puncheur - http://baronbiosys.com/glossary/program-phases/ - are you able to provide the same chart for the other Athlete Types? That would really help me pick which one to use based on the focus progression. Thanks!
The same principle applies really only the focus progression starts at Endurance and ramps to the Focus athlete during Build and stays at the Focus athlete during Peak.
So for “Triathlete”, does the focus start with intensity (VO2, for example) during base and move toward endurance (sweet spot, tempo, longer rides) as the plan progresses?
For Triathlete, there is no progression in focus at this time as the base training is the same as build and peak. You get progression in terms of training load and threshold improvement. There is an expectation (for this athlete type) that you’re interested in producing as much power for durations over 2 hours. High/peak intensity training won’t help in this respect.
First off, thank you very much for the hand-holding as I try to get started on Xert…it is very appreciated! Your last response has pin-pointed the exact source of my confusion. I am indeed very interested in producing as much power as possible for 2+ hours (half Ironman bike leg). However, my “Focus” my rides at the half Ironman duration/intensity show a Focus of “Sprint Time Trialist”…which I’m fine with - I’m willing to trust however the software figures this. So am I overthinking this, and I should just put Sprint Time Trialist as my Athlete Type and go with it? Or will the Sprint Time Trialist workouts give me unnecessary intensity at the “wrong” training phase? Thanks again!
I may have just figured this out by looking through the “focus” on my progression chart for various types of rides. Looks like tempo and sweet spot are Sprint Time Trialist. So if that’s the Focus toward the end of the Sprint Time Trialist training, then that’s precisely where I want to be.
Using the Fitness signatures chart, you can also view Specificity Rating and if the value is Polar (below 33%), you can consider the Focus to be a “light” Focus. This means that most of the work is performed below threshold (tempo and SS). It would not be like a 20 minute all-out effort (that’d be Pure Specificity Rating). You can then more narrowly plan your training to include sufficient intensity for the event.