Covid-19 permitting I’m off to the French Alps for 3 weeks next summer. I think most of the climbs will be around the 1 to 3 hour mark for me. I’m completely unsure as to what Athlete Type to use. I considered the Climber but it seems to target 10min power. Has anyone used Xert to train for the Alps or any other long climbs? Would you have any advice?
Thanks
George
Yes and no. I have used Xert to monitor my TL, but largely ignored XATA.
Increased TL to above 200, mainly doing sweet spot, to account for long days and high altitude. I have no realistic training ground to mimic the Alps, as I live below sea level, in a pancake flat polder.
What works for me, might not work for you though. I set my profile both to GC specialist and Climber, but if you ignore XATA, it doesn’t really matter.
Thanks for this. So do you no longer use xert or the xert workouts for your Alps training?
Not really, no. I’ll keep my signature up to date, by manually overriding PP/MPA, which will decline, unless you keep throwing in the occasional “all out” sprint. This in turn will increase (L)TP to an unrealistically high value.
As I’m never fresh enough at my TL for an all out sprint at my “true” potential, this is the only workaround I got.
Ah okay thanks.
Hopefully someone that’s using xert, xata and their workouts whilst training for high mountain riding such as the alps (not fast in my case 
) will be able to give me some guidance. Many thanks for your input 
“We have plenty of users who may or may not be strictly following XATA. Many coaches and athletes instead use Xert to track their weekly progressions (XSS/day, TL, etc.) while following their own programs, racing virtually on Zwift, etc.” @ManofSteele
Ah I see. Can I ask what sort of sweetspot interval durations you found of most benefit for long climbs?
Long outdoor ones, mixed with indoor climbs on my Neo 
You can see my diary on Strava, if you want. Link to my blog is in the other topic - the blog also has a sticky post with activity feeds.
I’d really appreciate a look at your strava rides
My profile is not completely public, but my rides are…
All your rides are showing as private when I look at your strava account.
That’s weird - they’re all public. So, if you do not open up your profile completely, so anyone can follow you (which I don’t want), the rides are not visible?
I’ll check what the options are.
I’ve got the same profile setup as you. I thought anyone could view my rides too. Strange.
Ah, it could be because I’m using the android app
Seems unlikely - the apps just connect to the website. Anyway, send me follow request - I don’t mind making an exceprion 
While @cyclopaat has a lot of experience using Xert, reaching 200TL (7 stars???) is on the very outer fringes of althletic training. XATA is really aimed at the majority of athletes in the 2-4 star range, although you an still use outside this range but you’ll need to be sensitive to your specific situation (which of course Xert helps you assess).
Listen to our podcasts for help in identifying how to train for an event, if indeed you are most interested in optimizing fitness. Many times simply following along with XATA to get progressive overload within the bounds of your own limited time is more than adequate, choosing an Athlete Type such as GC Specialist to get all-round improvements. That works for the vast majority of athletes that want to improve as it gives them a way to see how to get from A to B in terms of fitness over a given period and to have the right balance of high and low intensity in the process.
While Sweetspot training works reasonably well for time crunched athletes, it is regarded as the blackhole of training. See our blog on polarized training. It can wear you down over time and you end up underperforming relative to your training load. (We are looking to better capture this effect in fact as we dig deeper into the data.)
Hope this helps. Great to see you back again!
