Hoping for a bit of advice regarding the Xata workout recommendations for my base phase. I seem to be getting pretty much all sweetspot style workouts recommended, having been down that route before (it didn’t end well) with another app, I’m wondering if there is something I’m missing?
This is typical of the sort of workouts I am getting recommended each day so far, am I best only choosing one of these workouts a couple of times a week and the rest of the time either riding outside, or more likely given the rubbish weather here in the UK at the moment free riding on Zwift at a lower intensity? Obviously I get that the lower the intensity the longer XSS takes to accumulate but I’m a bit fearful of falling into the sweetspot black hole of doom if I blindly follow the workout recommendations.
I work five days a week, so aim to do workouts of 60-90 minutes indoors on 3 or 4 of those days and ride outside (rubbish weather permitting) on one or both of my days off.
Any advice on how/what others do much appreciated.
To get easier workouts you can either slide the freshness feedback slider left, or filter workouts to be maximum 2 or maybe 2.5 diamonds difficulty.
Even that may not be super easy, so for very easy workouts you’re probably better off free riding (which is what I do… then once or twice a week or when blue in status, pick a harder workout, either per XATA, XATA with higher difficulty filtered, or something else depending on what I feel like focusing on…)
I am curious whether XATA recommends that intensity day in and day out at your training load, or whether other days are easier? If you add that workout to your calendar / planner, what does it recommend for the next days for example? You can automatically add workouts for the next 5 days and see how it looks… easy enough to delete…
I’ve tried playing with the planner and it does seem to recommend this sort of intensity, think Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is about the easiest workout recommended so far.
I’ll see how it develops over the next week or so, hopefully it will calm down!
Below are my first 60 days at Moderate-2 ramp rate (45 days in Base,15 in Build). I did not use the Planner at all. Mondays off.
I was mostly picking from Load More (list of twenty options) and selecting what I wanted to do in Base with occasional selections from the library or using Filter. Once into Build I selected from the top four recommendations. Plus a BT workout now and then to confirm signature status. I also joined a few group sessions when the associated workout was appropriate.
If in doubt when selecting a workout open it in Workout Designer and drag the pointer over the intervals to see what’s entailed. After a while you can tell at a glance by colors and rating if it’s something you want to do. [Make sure Advanced Charting is enabled under Account Settings.]
Of course riding outdoors below LTP is always a good option for developing a solid base. My progression was strictly indoors riding 1-2 hours. You can search the library and view details for these workouts. Note the preponderance of Time Triallist focus (Endurance) while in Base. The latter half of Build is when intensity picked up noticeably.
Date
Name
Duration
Breakthrough
Specificity
Focus
XSS
Feb 5 2021, 11:06 AM
The Time Is Now - 120
2h 00m
Yes
Polar
Puncheur
132
Feb 4 2021, 5:39 AM
SMART - Best of You
1h 50m
No
Mixed
Sprint Time-Triallist
134
Jan 31 2021, 12:54 PM
Iron Man - 120 - SMART Power
2h 06m
No
Mixed
Climber
146
Jan 30 2021, 10:49 AM
Up & Down LTP
2h 34m
No
Polar
Sprint Time-Triallist
161
Jan 29 2021, 12:14 PM
Kick it into the Middle - 90 (RC Version)
1h 35m
No
Polar
Time-Triallist
104
Jan 27 2021, 5:20 PM
SMART - My Own Worst Enemy
1h 32m
No
Mixed
Time-Triallist
102
Jan 26 2021, 6:02 AM
Me Dazza
1h 40m
No
Polar
Time-Triallist
122
Jan 24 2021, 11:54 AM
SMART - Takin’ Care of Business - 120
2h 02m
No
Polar
Time-Triallist
135
Jan 23 2021, 11:44 AM
SMART - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - 120
2h 01m
No
Pure
Time-Triallist
125
Jan 22 2021, 6:39 AM
SMART Xert Zwift Surplus Seeker 75min
1h 20m
No
Polar
Time-Triallist
79
Jan 21 2021, 12:30 PM
Threshold Builder 6
1h 16m
No
Pure
Time-Triallist
83
Jan 20 2021, 11:58 AM
SMART - Takin’ Care of Business - 90
1h 33m
No
Polar
Time-Triallist
106
Jan 19 2021, 5:32 AM
SMART - Save Yourself - 120
2h 10m
No
Pure
Time-Triallist
128
Jan 17 2021, 11:26 AM
SMART - Takin’ Care of Business - 120
2h 10m
No
Polar
Time-Triallist
142
Jan 16 2021, 3:37 PM
Kick it into the Middle 100 (RC further extended Version)
1h 40m
No
Polar
Time-Triallist
110
Jan 15 2021, 6:31 AM
SMART Xert Zwift Surplus Seeker 75min
1h 20m
No
Polar
Time-Triallist
78
Jan 14 2021, 6:41 AM
SMART - Save Yourself - 90
1h 35m
No
Pure
Time-Triallist
90
Jan 12 2021, 12:25 PM
Kick it into the Middle - 90 (RC Version)
1h 33m
No
Polar
Time-Triallist
103
Jan 10 2021, 11:15 AM
SMART - Song 2
2h 00m
No
Mixed
Time-Triallist
141
Jan 9 2021, 10:25 AM
Learning to Survive - 120
1h 53m
No
Pure
Time-Triallist
125
Jan 8 2021, 6:08 AM
Xert Fitness Test for Breakthroughs - Under Pressure (revised)
1h 15m
Yes
Mixed
Breakaway Specialist
96
Jan 6 2021, 1:27 PM
SMART - Taxman
1h 15m
No
Polar
GC Specialist
89
Jan 5 2021, 5:53 AM
SMART - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - 120
2h 01m
No
Pure
Time-Triallist
121
Jan 3 2021, 7:15 AM
SMART - Song 2
2h 00m
No
Mixed
Time-Triallist
140
Jan 2 2021, 11:16 AM
SMART - Save Yourself - 120
2h 03m
No
Pure
Time-Triallist
118
Jan 1 2021, 12:29 PM
SMART - Feeling This - 60
1h 00m
No
Pure
Time-Triallist
57
Dec 31 2020, 6:30 AM
Zwift 2.0-2.5 W/kg Ride Leader Workout
1h 38m
No
Pure
Time-Triallist
95
Dec 29 2020, 6:43 AM
SMART - Save Yourself - 90
1h 31m
No
Pure
Time-Triallist
89
Dec 27 2020, 1:17 PM
SMART - Comfortably Numb
2h 00m
No
Polar
Time-Triallist
132
Dec 26 2020, 11:38 AM
SMART - No Time To Cry - Extended Mix
1h 41m
No
Polar
Time-Triallist
115
Dec 25 2020, 12:01 PM
SMART - Opener 5
0h 58m
No
Mixed
Time-Triallist
58
Dec 24 2020, 6:13 AM
SMART - Feeling This - 90
1h 32m
No
Pure
Time-Triallist
90
Dec 22 2020, 12:59 PM
SMART - No Time To Cry - Extended Mix
1h 42m
No
Polar
Time-Triallist
115
Dec 20 2020, 7:09 AM
Kick it into the Middle 100 (RC further extended Version)
1h 42m
No
Polar
Time-Triallist
111
Dec 19 2020, 10:42 AM
SMART - No Time To Cry - Extended Mix
1h 45m
No
Polar
Time-Triallist
116
Dec 17 2020, 6:06 AM
Walk This Way - 90
1h 30m
No
Pure
Time-Triallist
79
Dec 15 2020, 6:35 AM
Learning to Survive - 120
1h 56m
No
Pure
Time-Triallist
127
Dec 13 2020, 11:38 AM
Xert Fitness Test for Breakthroughs - Under Pressure (revised)
Thanks, I’m used to a base plan that has a couple of sweetspot workouts per week and then mainly old skool zone 2. I’ll take your advice about the load more option.
One caveat to @ridgerider2’s earlier post is that he started at a lower training load than you, so will have been recommended less difficult workouts. As I mentioned, you may find you need to use the filter to limit difficulty still.
Also think the intervals.icu time in zones is based on current TP, not TP at time of workout (?) which will skew the zone intensity distribution given the big increase in TP over time. Even easy Xert workouts will be top of zone 2 and into zone 3 (which is not bad, but depends how you use those workouts)
However, Xert is nothing like SSB plans from TR and others if that is what you are worried about. 
