AlexS wrote:
baronbiosys wrote:
Your results are actually pretty cool. Is it ok with you if I use some of your charts to explain your results?
Knock yourself out, although I'm more interested in whether my results are useful than whether they are cool.
While I have no specific personal goal other than to start riding regularly again and gain some health and fitness benefits, I realised a few years ago that psychologically I'm not much good at exercising but rather I am usually pretty good at training. So I'm looking at analytics with a coaching eye, rather than for my own personal needs. IOW I'm asking myself the question: is this something that provides actionable intelligence beyond what I already have, know and understand?
Alex,
Here is your Progression Chart. Your Form is red because you're starting from 0 and don't have much data in the system yet. Xert found a few breakthrough activities and has very little to establish a good esimate of your fitness. I'll discuss out the ride on July 18th below.
There isn't a lot to learn about training and progression from your chart given the lack of data. There is some correlation between FTP (gold hashed line) and Training Load (black line - simlar to CTL).
Here is another progression chart where there is an intentional effort to push up threshold with lower intensity Training Load. Notice how there is little red (Form being too negative). In the end, the rebound created an FTP that significantly overshot the value expected from Training Load. Hire that coach.
This Progression Chart is quite different as there is a consistent demonstrated progression. Training load and FTP is highly correlated. Each breakthrough is a medal (gold, silver, bronze) and "near" breakthroughs (circles) are slight declines in FTP. Note that we're picking up these changes once or twice a week. For those new to Xert, imagine if you were to use "What's My FTP?" on every ride and you're riding hard group rides and races on a consistent basis. Xert's ability to track subtle improvements and declines in fitness is pretty remarkable.
On your July 18th ride, I zoomed in to your best 20 minute effort. What you'll note is that Xert establishes your FTP as 208W from this activity even though your AP for the 20 minutes is 189W. Using MMP from this ride will not provide any insight, unfortunately. Xert looks at Maximal Power Availalbe (MPA) as it rises and falls and uses it to estimate what your FTP is likely to be in order for you to have *expressed* this MPA. The 20 minute effort had a great amount of variability (our Equivalent Power which is similar to Normalized Average Power is 231W. Check out or blog on Paradigm Shift to see the difference between them).
It would be impossible for your FTP be below 200W in order to express this MPA. Now since your Training Load is so low (35 from above) you likely would not have enough fitness for a one-hour FTP test. Many athletes that aren't trained will give up with "reserve capacity" meaning MPA hasn't declined to reach power at the point of failure, i.e. it hurts too much. You'll know this has happened when the athlete gives in due to Difficulty Score being too high for their accumulated Training Load. A maximal effort - where MPA and power do not meet - is not reached. Many of our coaches are keying on Difficulty Scores as a important number to track and improve in the athlete.
Note, as is described in the glossary on Power Curve, this 20 MMP effort, starts in a fatigued state (MPA is below Peak Power), has periods where power goes below FTP (even periods of 0 power) and ends in failure above your 20 minute MMP (near 400W). If this 20 minute effort is used to establish FTP or influence an FTP regression, FTP is likely to be grossly underestimated.
Every coach using Xert would tell you to use 208W as your FTP, even with such little information to go on. It is likely the closest you'll get to a number that represents the threshold between short-term fatigue accumulation and recovery. In some ways though, your FTP isn't as important of a metric when it comes to using Xert. Xert uses a Fitness Signature (which includes a Threshold Power) and uses this to determine your fatigue quite precisely (as in the chart) and this precision is what is used in designing and prescribing workouts. Xert Smart Workouts avoid using %FTP in workout design for this reason.
Xert is quite a shift in thinking for those that are used to the older methods of analysis. Many coaches that are investing in understanding it, are able to provide their clients unique perspectives and interpretations of their fitness that have never been available before. Our self-coached athlete customers like the ability to get precise feedback on fitness improvements and the availability of highly personalized training that *knows what they can do*.
Good luck. Hope this clears up a few things. Time to get back to work!!!
Armando Mastracci, Founder of
Xert, an advanced data analytics and training platform.
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