Zee takes on Xert

 Let's see what this AI training tool can do.

At first it is telling me to try my six minute max to top 296. That sounds hard. I have a new workout to try (if it loads to Zwift as promised). 

I've noticed that the daily recommended ride can be strange, often not working toward my goals. I did manage to find a good workout or two, but you must schedule when to do that ride. If you look for it the next day, it will have disappeared and you will have to search for it, then reschedule that for that day. In other words, a pain in the tushie.

Some workouts seem too easy (way too low) and some seem way too hard (too many repetitions at a high level). Either it thinks I am super human with instant recovery or it is , like others, suggesting rides that healthy young men can do.

I did have a great ride on a short climb and took second place. 275 for 12 minutes is pretty good for me.

I still have a few more weeks, but I don't think I would pay for an Ai library of workouts. Just upload and review your best ride of every month. That should do it.

Another day...and the wrong workout was there. I scheduled a workout but it never appeared, even though the app said it was ready and there on Zwift. So, I did my own version of it mentally, without Xert. It was more of my own that their workout. Now, I'm taking this work into the Galibier. (but Zwift has the South road when the North road is where all of the excitement is. On Rouvy, I grabbed second place behind of course, Illi Gardner. To me, that's a big victory. (there is a very limited amount of people on Rouvy) But, I will be ready for this. Then, I plan to attempt an all out six minute climb because Xert says I am one of the best in this field. (What would I have to do in a minute to impress them? I'm still a great minute rider and can pretty much win this as an event. (Except the holy trinity of McCarthy, Fuhrer, and Guerra)

Yesterday I had a great ride and Xert said so, but didn't say why? Was it my sprint or my 20 minute effort to finish the Galibier with a Qom? Doesn't say. But, I averaged 260 for 24 minutes. I could have done a bit more if I had more power boosts or red zones. It was mostly orange with just a few short yellow and blue sections. I have ridden most of the climbs. However, I rode some at threshold just to race the down climb. (Crazy, I know). Partly, the reason is if I race to the top, then race to the bottom, a flag for going too fast on the downhill will also flag your entire ride. (Supposedly, you can cut the ride in half and resubmit the climb only part, but that sounds a bit too much. The one time, I just resolved to wait a week and redo that climb.

Now, looking over my climb history, I have a lot of hills to ride at full effort. I have three short climbs, 5 middle climbs and 5 big climbs. I'll never get done. I won't hit my million meters this year because I spent 3 months on Rouvy. Otherwise I would be well over my goal this year. I think I did close to 50K on Rouvy climbing all of the Vuelta climbs.

My final vote on Xert? Needs to be a whole lot better. AI can not do what a real life coach can do. The designers have not polished their product before release and have added nothing to warant a huge price increase. Sorry. This isn't half as good as Training Plans was. Training Plans seemed to die because they refused to lower their price which could have grown their customer base ten fold. They were stuck on this, "We need to make this much profit from the number of current subscribers." Well, now you know.