How do I find workouts that are 2+ hours long? I have my availability set to 2 hours during the week and 4 hours during the weekend, but the workout library only seems to contain workouts up to 2 hours.
When I use that filter option, I only get workouts that are 2 hours but not longer.
However, I have now noticed that Xert auto-generates a workout when the day of the 4 hour ride arrives, which is great. Does it only auto-generate this workout when you are actually at the day of the planned workout. Or is there a way to preview this workout earlier?
If you’re interested in longer workouts, you can make a copy of a longer workout and then modify and make more copies as desired. These will then show as a recommended workout in your profile.
Are you using XATA or XFAI?
Do you mean indoor HIT workouts over 2 hours long or endurance level rides up to 4 hours?
Do you ride mostly outdoors on weekends or do you ride that long indoors?
The Workouts Library does thin out over 2 hours in duration, but any workout can be extended in a few clicks using Workout Designer, Copy, Edit, and Save to your Personal folder. As mentioned, those workouts will also show up on recommended lists when suitable.
If you just want to plug the calendar with a planned workout you also can assign past activities of similar duration/XSS.
Or add manual entries with the Manual tab such as Cycling, 180 minutes, 50 miles with approximate XSS values. Example, 180 Low XSS for a 3-hour easy endurance ride.
Or simply ride with XMB on those days which will use the top-level advice (XSS ratio). No need to select a workout. If HIT is recommended, you’ll see the Interval guidelines to fill the buckets. If LIT is recommended, you’ll see the Endurance screen (target watts = 75-100% LTP).
If you’re seeing an auto-generated workout appear on its own, it means you have Automatically Schedule enabled under Planner settings. That happens after midnight each day.
Thanks for the elaborate reply.
I’m using XFAI.
I do all of my training outside. I have access to several stretches of long traffic-free roads, so I can do most intervals outside, as long as they are not too complicated.
Extending workouts seems like a hassle, I prefer to to just have an optimal workout suggested to me or be able to pick from a list of workouts that are ready to use.
I do not think I will be using Magic Buckets a lot, as the terrain is mostly flat here and I prefer to have a workout tell me when I need to go hard and for how long, as opposed to just doing random surges.
The auto-generated workout is very nice though, will that provide a suitable workout for every type of training? And will there be enough variation to keep things fresh, or will it always be a variation of ‘do x number of intervals for y time at z wattage’. I prefer to have some variation like 40-20’s, some sprints, low cadence intervals etc. But no crazy complicated stuff that I can only do on a trainer like some of the workouts that have intervals that are all over the place.
If riding outside with a Garmin Edge you can send any workout you like to your head unit then use Garmin’s native workout player to execute that workout when ready.
To randomly fill the buckets, you could monitor XDB (Xert Dashboard) on a Garmin.
XMB is hardly random surges but provides structure to rides that dynamically adjust in real-time depending on your execution.
XMB is essentially SMART intervals gamified for outdoor rides although it also works indoors.
The flatter the terrain, the easier it’s going to be to execute XMB sessions in a disciplined manner. I.e. closer to an indoor session.
Here’s an example where I execute a long XMB workout on a route with rolling terrain with little traffic and no stops worry about. I rode 45 minutes more at an easy pace on the way back in (not shown).
I’ve also ridden my favorite loop (with traffic and stops) to different Focus Durations (FD) and Difficulty targets.
Depending on target FD the interval durations can range from as little as 5-7 secs to 5+ minutes.
By default, XMB will suggest micro-intervals as the most efficient method to fill your buckets, but you can vary that during execution. For example, the default guidelines might be 30 intervals at 23 secs at X watts with an estimated workout duration. But you can lengthen the intervals and push to a higher Challenge Level (CL) which will lower interval count, shorten estimated ride duration, and increase the Difficulty score. One could even complete a traditional set of VO2max intervals on XMB. Ignore the guidelines, ride at 105-125% TP (yellow band on rainbow gauge) at a duration you’re capable of holding for 2-5 minutes. Rinse and repeat as you fill the buckets for the day.
To see this in action go to Planner, locate a HIT or green day in the future, tap +, select Magic Buckets Generator tab, and note the default CL and interval duration. Now tap the edit duration icon and notice how far the slider can be adjusted and how that affects workout duration at the default CL.
Slider duration range is dependent on the target Focus Duration.
With a 2-minute power target the slider will top out around 45 secs.
At 20-minute power the slider will top out at 5+ minutes.
This makes sense. You can’t ride at your 2-minute power for 2 minutes or you’d be cooked after one interval. That will be a short workout. 
The generator tab uses the XMB algorithm to create a workout. You can save the result and send it to your Garmin and execute to spec using Garmin’s native workout player.
Or free ride with XMB and the follow the guidelines to similar results.
The goal of XMB is to coax you into riding intervals that achieve the target strain goal for the day. You control the execution.
Reference – Using the Xert Magic Buckets Workout Generator – Xert
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I guess I’ll have to try out the different options and see how they suit me. I feel like the XMB-generated workouts result in a lot of short intervals that get smeared out over the whole 2 - 4 hour ride.
Last year I used JOIN and I found the intervals it suggested perfect for executing outdoors: enough variation and structure to keep it engaging, but not too complicated to execute outdoors.