Unexpectedly hard workout - why?

[arnea (Arne Ansper)]

Xert surprised me today with a workout that I was not able to complete. This has happened to me only couple of times before (not with Xert, but with other systems/coaches).

This is the workout where I failed: Xert - Activity | SMART - Radar Love - 120

I skipped last five 15 second intervals (not visible in activity, but can be seen in workout description Xert - Login ) and reduced the intensity to 93%. I was almost stalling during the last 15 second interval that I was able to complete.

Background: I’ve done 2-3 1 hour workouts at ~80 XSS and something longer at weekends for past seven weeks without problems. I’m on continuous program, moderate-1 improvement rate and focus on 20 minute power. Training status is two stars,

I just changed the rate to Maintenance to have easier week and changed focus to 8 minutes for variety. After that I had two days off. I had 1 XSS surplus before exercise and now on Saturday Xert prescribed me 190 XSS workout, with 3.5 diamonds difficulty. I decided to do it but was not able to complete it.

This is my current progress. I had some health issues and was able to resume training only in the beginning of February.

First of all why did Xert prescribe me such workout? I wanted easier week and reduced the rate, but this didn’t affect Xert suggestion. I’m worried that Xert is not training me right.

Why I was not able to complete the exercise? Is it because I’ve done very little work above the threshold power in last months? BTW, I didn’t eat during the workout, only drank water with electrolytes. Was this a mistake?

I have another question regarding the MPA.

Please take a look at the purple and cyan lines. Cyan shows the expected MPA and purple actual one. Why did the system think that I recovered much faster than I really did? Especially arounf 0:50.

[wescaine (Wesley Caine)]

Looks like a very difficult workout and you can see difficulty is around 100, and at that level for about an hour which sounds unpleasant, also considering your current training load and history. There is likely an element of not being used to such efforts, but honestly, even if well trained such a workout is very hard. Especially those anaerobic efforts with short recoveries when fatigued (which makes sense for a kitchen sink or race simulation as noted in the description)

Fueling could have played a role - for hard workouts over an hour it’s generally recommended to 1) have full glycogen stores (be fresh, have eaten well, be well hydrated to start) to begin with and 2) take carbs (and the current trend is to take a lot).

As to why Xert prescribed that workout, I can’t really say for sure. Re your question about moving to maintenance, that only affects your improvement rate, not intensity. Set focus to endurance if you want to skip intensity. And it does still consider your weekly patterns so will prescribe a longer weekend ride if that’s what you always do. Plus if you had skipped some workouts already, you need to do more XSS to just maintain?

Re your MPA question, first guess is that it’s when you reduced intensity to 93%? That, or you weren’t hitting the power targets (riding easier means faster MPA recovery)

[arnea (Arne Ansper)]

I understand that continous mode is very much DIY and requires certain expertise. E.g. it doesn’t do any periodization. In older forum posts it was recommended to use ramp rate to achieve periodization, so this is what I wanted to do

Regarding the MPA: I reduced the load at very end. Near 1:45 mark. At 0:50 I was completing intervals perfectly (ERG mode).

I will pay more attention to the difficulty curve in the future.

Too bad that I cannot give any feedback to the system about the hardness of the workout. I read some old forum posts where the authors (?) of Xert described it as a good thing, but with ERG mode there is actually no way for the system to know how I’m doing, unless I fail the interval. This feedback is too binary IMO.

[wescaine (Wesley Caine)]

Yeah you may be better off building a plan… XFAI or XATA… or switching to endurance in your easier week if that’s what you’re after…

Not sure re MPA lines as have never seen the cyan line before… when I look at the workout, for my signature at least, the purple line you have more closely follows the workout… it’s the cyan one that looks odd… or maybe when you reduced intensity, it retrospectively adjusted the MPA track of the whole workout… guess the screen shot was from the end of your workout

Re your final point, as far as I know there is no way to tell Xert whether you fail a workout, whether in erg or not… so you still need to manage your own workout selection.

[ridgerider2]

XATA Continuous is a perpetual build phase under your control.
DIY starts with where you set Focus Duration and Improvement Rate then how often you change them PLUS which workouts you elect to do.
There is never one workout you must do to meet the goal for the day.
What were the alternates?

In general, you should be able to complete all workouts under ERG control at 100% intensity AS LONG AS the workout is within close range of your status level. I.e. stars count close to diamond count. Whenever there is a mismatch, you can expect the workout will be easier or harder to complete.
In your example, at 2 stars status a 3+ diamond difficulty workout is above your current pay grade. Be prepared for some hard times.

2 hours on electrolyte water only was definitely an oversight especially for a hard workout if you want to finish strong.
Fuel and hydrate as you would outdoors and more so if you don’t have sufficient cooling fans indoors (no puddles).

BUT you don’t have to complete a tough workout at 100% in ERG control mode (AUTO) to fulfill the goal today. You have options.
Remember, the goal of a HIT workout is to accumulate X Low, X High, and X Peak strain.
How you get there is up to you starting with the selections you make from recommended workouts. Check the alternates. If the pickings are slim, use the Magic Buckets generator tab or Autogen (three sets of tapering intervals) to create a workout.

Since you are using EBC Android you have additional options to fill the buckets under your control.
The first way is to switch to Slope mode (at any time) and do the best you can.
Slope mode doesn’t negate SMART intervals. You just need to pay close attention to the rainbow gauge during execution (match the arrows).
Sometimes the ability to control the work interval and rest-in-between is all that’s needed to successfully complete a workout.
You can also swipe to the buckets page to see how you’re doing. If a little short you can toss in a high/peak interval or two (in Slope mode) during Cooldown to top off any missing points.
You can even leverage Magic Buckets and never “fail” a workout goal again.
Maybe you’re not up to the rigid structure today, but you can still fill your buckets.
Here’s an example (Radar Love BTW) where I started the workout in AUTO, decided midway I had done enough structure and switched to Slope mode with XMB to fill the remaining buckets:
I even revved up Challenge Level after a few intervals and went for a BT. Then finished up at an easy pace to fill the Low bucket.

To do this on EBC Android, select Slope, swipe up, End Workout, Continue, swipe upper and lower screens to display the XMB rainbow gauge and intervals guidelines. Follow those guidelines to fill any remaining buckets.

Here’s another example (showing targets) where I began to fail intervals, so I bailed on the workout and switched to XMB. Problem solved.

Changing the IR to Maintenance lowers the ramp rate from positive to neutral and adjusts the Training Pacer needle. IOW you can level off your TL and ease up. Intensity and extra rest is up to you. Changing Focus to a lower X-minute target will bump up high/peak strain targets on HIT days.

Surplus/deficit is simply the relative position to Noon on the Training Pacer.
The +/- value does not carry forward from one week to the next.
With XATA as long as the needle floats between 11am-1pm position you are on track to maintain your currently selected Improvement Rate.
Since the Pacer represents a weighted moving average over a rolling 7-day window, it will take a week+ for a rate change to settle.

The power chart’s MPA cyan line (EBC Android feature) isn’t a target. It’s a predicted response. It’s not meant to match exactly during intervals and wouldn’t be “correct” if you happen to achieve a BT during the activity.
At a glance the MPA line lets you know what you’re in for and when.

Your XPMC shows a promising progression.
If you need some extra rest, take it.
When you reach 3 stars expect those 3-diamond workouts to be less stressful.