This is my 3rd week using xert after an absence of at least 2 years. I have 4 days a week to train. It originally told me that I was a TP of 194 (way low, as my ftp on trainer road was a 225). Week 1 I followed the XATA plan to the letter except for one zwift race. After that race it boosted me to a 214.
Week 2 I followed the plan to the letter again except for zwift race and an outdoor ride. Both of those had significantly more XSS than the plan, but it decreased my tp by a point.
This week, week 3, I did the race again, again with a higher xss than the XATA proposed, and it dropped my TP another point. I’m doing more volume and being more consistent. I should be improving, yes?
Oh, and it keeps telling me I’m FRESH and should consider a workout of 0 XSS. One more week to figure this out before I go back to Trainer Road. I like the workouts better here, but if I’m not improving, there’s not much point.
How many hours/week does your 4 days allow?
When you reach two status stars the Workout Library choices expand.
In the meantime you could simply ride a variety of workouts that appeal to you within the time frame you have available on your 4 days. The primary goal being to increase TL.
“0 XSS” is because you designated the day as a Rest Day.
“Unsustainable” is because at current hours per week you’re not riding enough to keep up with a Moderate-2 ramp rate you set. You can change Improvement Rate at any time.
ZRL doesn’t necessarily validate your signature changes unless your efforts include enough close-to-failure points or actual failure points. Abrupt stops at the line don’t apply either.
You need to ride a fitness test workout in Slope mode to prove or disprove your current signature numbers. Fitness tests won’t appear on recommended lists but you will see the [!] warning when your signature is stale.
If you truly are fresh ride this 30-minute workout next in Slope mode and make sure to thrash away on the sprints and ride to failure on the last long interval. Even better right before you are about to fail stand up and try to sprint again. Post the results here by selectingWorkout Report icon next to Cycling Summary.
You’ve selected Continuous ATP which is essentually Build phase in and around your selected Focus Type at the Improvement Rate you’ve set. You should change that to Moderate-1 if 2 is too high to keep the needle floating between 11am-1pm position.
Do you plan to follow a phased progression as any point in time or will your cycling hours always be restricted? If so, what is the maximum hours/week you can reasonably expect to increase to?
How does that compare with the hours/week you started with 3 weeks ago?
Too soon imo. TP is not the end all and be all. But to test if it is accurate try a Submaximal Test: Ride for 40 minutes at 85% TP. If you can’t sustain 40 minutes, lower TP by 5-10 watts depending on duration completed. This method provides a real-world validation of your FTP beyond lab testing.
Yeah that’s another thing I don’t get - am I supposed to get breakthroughs by following the plan? It doesn’t seem to be scheduling any breakthroughs than I can figure out.
Thanks - that explains a few things. Current plan is MWF is pretty intense weightlifting for one hour. TTSS are therefore the only days I can ride. TT I can only ride for 60-75 minutes. Saturdays I’ll either ride outside 3-5 hours with my club, or follow what Xert has on the schedule, which it seems to want to give me only 1.5 hours Sat and 1 hour Sun. It says it’s putting 6.7 hours on the calendar. 4 days a week is all I can really allocate to cycling, so that will stay mostly locked like that until the summer.
I’m definitely fatigued from the lack of rest days, but I’m still finishing the proscribed workouts pretty easily. I’m about to take that Friday lifting off my schedule to allow for some rest. Pretty sure riding that day would be a bad idea.
I have no clue why the needle doesn’t stay in the middle like it’s supposed to. If I’m doing the proscribed workouts (or more XSS) and not missing a single day on the bike, why am I constantly behind in XSS? If I need more XSS to hit my goals and move the needle, why isn’t it suggesting workouts that will do that? I realize that it’s set a tad high but so far these workouts have not been very taxing.
Xert does not plan breakthroughs for you. You have to ride some all outs or races or for example ride fitness test workouts in slope mode to achieve BT.
You should watch your availability each day because xert just manage availability by your imported data. I for example just put availability for every day on 4 hours just to let Xert offer any kind of workouts day by day.
There is also signature decay happening - you can change the setting for how fast that happens.
Definitely good to have a day off a week. Currently your schedule doesn’t have enough (any) rest. I think many combining weights and endurance try and do weights on the ‘hard’ cycling day then recover (but also not sure there is ‘consensus’ other than needing time to recover). If cycling is the priority do that first ( morning or lunch) then weights in the evening… or vice versa if gym is the priority…
A sure sign you should lower from Mod-2 to Mod-1.
The needle will waver if shorter hours during the week and longer on weekends plus the advice reflects any day-of-the-week pattern you establish over time.
OTOH if you have more or less time to train on any particular day use the Duration or Filter options accordingly.
