I did the trial of Xert, realized I’m not smart enough for it, and bailed. They can benefit from a UX designer so badly.
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It’s advising me to do 3 x high intensity workouts like this back to back after I’ve just done a heavy training block with 1200TSS in my past week there? What sort of ‘advice’ is this.
This is the Uprising workout.
I can chop and change workouts on any training platform, that’s not unique to Xert. I do it on TrainerRoad and even Zwift.
But if Xert is recommending this structure based on my recent workout history. It’s complete junk. I just did a 1200+ TSS there, a hard training HV training block with on weeks around 1000TSS. I’ve taken one rest day today and it’s now trying to throw me right back into this sort of intensity. You’re not a good enough salesman to pull this one off. TrainerRoad suggests I take an easy recovery week.
You obviously don’t understand the workings of xert. I would suggest you educate yourself on it before calling it junk.
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Feel free to explain my query above.
I believe that in the OP you stated that you set Xert to extreme progression?
Is that correct? Most folks use that to load one week or so… planing to take a rest week after - the yellow stars also shows that.
Also I don’t know your settings so difficult to say what’s happening.
Kudos to you! 4 stars is quite high.
In fairness I spent the weekend reading Xert’s forums.
That’s what put me off somewhat, too many queries end in a vague non-resolution.
I have posted there years before and they are good at responding, beyond that… it is what it is. Just a model and sometimes you can make it fit a bit, other times it’s a nonsense.
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Fair point that actually. Okay I have played now with the progression. Dropped it down to moderate… I am not kidding, look at the change, something called Ronnestad… I actually think this looks worse:
With the amount of hours you are putting down IMHO you should be looking at a coach not a generalist platform whatever the name is.
Xert can give what you want… but you need to master it.
In Armando’s own words… Xert is not to fully replace the job of a coach
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Loads of hours, I’m just experimenting actually at the moment because I have time that I never had before and am just coming back into cycling since last summer (was quit for a while as I had no time and didn’t like riding in London traffic). I’m being critical because I’m wondering what to try next after this week (taking a recovery week, well needed). Like seeing how things have progressed tech wise while I’ve been away.
Hours look like:
I’d like to do another high volume block like this (used TR for last one, their new 8 week HV POL plan, and added stacks of Z1 to it). Thought maybe I’d play with Xert for 6 weeks or so, see what it does for me. I can’t get anything convincing out fo Xert yet though. I can’t even get a few days out of it to make sense at the moment.
I am game to try it, I do love tech, but it has to make basic sense first before you can sell me the nuances.
If Xert could explain what on earth it’s doing recommending me spammed high intensity workouts then I can judge better and take it from there. But this talk of ‘go educate yourself on Xert’, or ‘you don’t get it, you’re too stupid’ stuff doesn’t do it for me. I have been looking at this for 3 days now, and I have been on Xert years before.
I feel alright, that’s the thing.
I’d have loved to have put a ride in today, but it doesn’t logically make sense. I’m at the start of a recovery week at the end of an 8 week high volume build plan.
Should I use the slider to force it to making me look fatigued even if I don’t feel fatigued, but logically know that rest is sensible?
I definitely need a recovery week. Just because I feel alright, doesn’t mean my body hasn’t had a massive kicking recently. Maybe worst it’s ever had to be honest. Somehow mentally I feel fresh and legs actually feel alright walking around.
This is where it’s tricky I guess - but I bet, logically, that if I went to do a threshold or VO2 workout now it would be weak.
But! we’re getting somewhere. That slider was set to 0. I put it down into red and it gave me two active recovery days now.
Then throws me back into the hard stuff.
4 days of this back to back:
It’s an improvement!
But still… 
Re: the coach thing. I’m just a casual dude who made a good move during lockdown and has flexible work hours and a nice place to ride for a while. I’m just messing around, seeing what’s what in the training tech scene for a bit and if I get fitter than I have been before now I can do big volume.
I thought Xert would have been the best for a guy like me… it’s flexibility and the ability for the user to input a big weekly workload.
There’s issues here for sure though. You guys are right, it’s not for me. What I want is actually quite straightforward I guess. I’d just like a little help along the way as I head into unchartered territory. The worst thing is to spend a boatload of time doing something, and come out without any benefit.
Personally I think Adaptive Training will also fail to achieve nirvana status given your exceptions.
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I’m failing to grasp why your asking all this about xert on the TR forum. Ask it on the xert forum or the xert FB group.
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I think a lot of POL Z1 for a week makes more sense at this stage, which is what TR prescribes at the moment.
I think any coach would prescribe that too. And that’s what I will do this week. Just very surprised to see Xert’s interpretation. Even my Garmin is saying chill the hell out.
So I went for a look to see how Xert is billing itself. Is it some deeply nuanced toolkit or… is it something for a relative novice to self-coach and do structured training like I wanted…
Here’s what Xert says:
I’m seeing some red flags here. I think a relative novice has to be extremely careful using Xert, even on a basic level like clicking this button on the workout planner
The output from that button needs to be strongly considered by the user and I think a warning should accompany it.
So far I’m liking the fat burn calculation though. This is cool. I wonder if TrainerRoad could implement that? Might start a suggestion thread and see if the team spot it.
!
Adaptive Training will be fresh out of the box when it lands. Like I said before here on the forum, I’m giving the TR team a good 3 years to get something together that I’d consider trustworthy. That’s a very reasonable timeframe in my view.
Sure, if TrainerRoad in a few years can’t get adaptive training to do something basic like prescribe a rest week after a heavy load then hand on heart, you guys will see me here criticising that too.
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Right, that’s what I should do on Xert. It’s me that needs to do the entire structuring there.
I’m analysing my workload, my fatigue, my progression and even creating the workouts myself.
In short, you’re saying ignore Xert and go and input a 4 hours Z1 workout in TrainingPeak’s or any other calendar. Does Xert even have long workouts, or anything suited to outdoors riding that isn’t ‘busy’.
I put the boot in there on the outdoor workout thing but honestly, after you’ve been training outdoors for a bit you don’t really need it.
I loved the TrainerRoad outdoors workout integration recently. But I stopped doing it. I’ll memorise simple workouts like 4x4 or 4x8 etc and go and smash that at my own pace using the lap button. The workout screens etc are cool but I’m on two minds about it. I think for new users, definitely a massive plus to have them. Adds an element of fun to the outdoors ride. Maybe an element of purpose?
Didn’t mean to go on that tangent, just a random thought after doing a lot of outdoors workouts recently. Still think Xert should offer an outdoors series of workouts that aren’t busy like TR is now though.
Lots of people recommending asking your questions on the Xert Facebook page. I could not disagree more. Their Facebook page is TERRIBLE. They never answer anything and the answer to every simple question is “go listen to several hours of podcasts”. The latest is “we could tell you, but to get the answer you have to join a live ride at 2pm on a workday and NO, we will not record it for people to listen in later”.
Xert DESPERATELY needs a beginners and users guide.
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I’ve read their forum for days now @Pbase !
There’s a reason I wasn’t posting there.
I actually didn’t even mean to get into this, it was just me playing around on their planner that led to this chaos
Glad I went on this journey though. Give them a few years and come back and see if they’ve gotten somewhere with it.
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