Hi, I used Xert last year to pretty good effect and I signed up again this year. My goals are ultra distance events. 200, 300, 400 km kinds of rides.
However this year it seems determined to grind me into dust in a way that I don’t remember it doing last year.
For example, Xert thinks my FTP is 320. To me this feels a bit high but based on figures I’ve achieved in previous years it’s not a million miles away, and intervals.icu currently thinks my FTP is 309 W. But the long slow distance workouts Xert wants me to do are things like holding 285-odd watts for 2 hours straight. For me 285 W requires a lot of concentration and would certainly require a very easy day afterwards but Xert will put three of those workouts in a row and then follow it up with a high-intensity workout. That’s like three days straight of threshold followed by VO2. This is just not sustainable at all for me.
I’ve tried manually adjusting my curve but as soon as I do a high-intensity workout it bumps my FTP up by 20 W again and I’m back where I was being ground into dust.
If it’s relevant my peak power is abysmal, the most I’ve ever done in my life is 842 W for 5 seconds and 718 W for 15 seconds, I’m definitely a long and slow rider. I’ve seen in other similar threads people mention that this can be a factor but I don’t understand it.
You sound very similar to myself, for the longer distance workouts, you might be better using your own judgement with Xert as guidance. For example, you could use Magic Buckets to make sure you are on track with your required XSS, but construct the session with more ‘zone 2’ along with some ‘tempo’ intervals. I’ve found this quite effective for my longer distance events, so a typical session might be say three hours but with maybe three intervals of twenty to thirty minutes at tempo in the middle of the ride. You can progressively build the ‘tempo’ intervals out in duration or do more of them.
Whenever I’ve felt my signature is a bit off, I try and do a few efforts that I can put into the power curve calculator, so maybe 5 seconds, 5 minutes and a longer 20+ minute effort, I then save the values that the power curve calculator gives me on a recent activity and it usually resets my signature and training to something that feels more in line with how I feel things should be.
I have also found myself at times, particularly on the XFAI type program, surprised at how many high intensity days it advises, but I take it as just that, advice, if I’m not feeling it I just ride easy for longer or reduce my ramp rate and have a few easy days instead.
LTP = TP-2,5×HiE.
320-2,5x15= 283 (just guessed your HiE)
This is quite tough indeed. I have to compliment you that the advice for “low intensity training” is too hard for trained aerobic athletes. Its between 75% and 100% LTP, so probably 210-283. Most training literature would put that into “tempo”. It is possible in a race, but it is not “low intensity” at all.
There should be a “xss/hour” slider for “low intensity rides” for those who want to go lower than 88% LTP on their low intensity rides. Training literature suggests that the stronger the athlete is, the lower % of FTP his “low intensity long rides” are.
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