Garmin – Xert Breakthrough Training

Why is my Garmin workout player freezing during my workout?

Scott — Wed, 05 May 2021 21:19:33 +0000

This is often caused by another (non-Xert) ConnectIQ data field trying to access background services, which causes the display on our App to freeze. Note that the data recording is unaffected – only the screen is frozen.
To resolve this, you can try a couple of options:
- Create a new Garmin Profile that doesn’t have any ConnectIQ data fields installed. Switch to this blank/empty profile before launching the Xert Workout Player.
- Alternatively, you can remove any non-Xert ConnectIQ data fields from your Garmin device. After removing non-Xert ConnectIQ data fields, try rebooting the device and then launching the Xert Workout Player

Can I access Garmin Data Fields & Map while using the Xert Workout Player?

Scott — Wed, 05 May 2021 21:16:03 +0000

Unfortunately not. The Garmin ConnectIQ system does not allow you to run a ConnectIQ app, like the Xert Workout Player, while simultaneously recording an activity.
If you need navigation during an outdoor ride, we recommend using the Xert ConnectIQ data fields to monitor your Xert data while taking full advantage of routing & other data fields.
- You can download the Xert data fields for your compatible Garmin devices from the ConnectIQ store here.
Alternatively, you can export the recommended training directly to Garmin Connect & use the native Garmin interface. For more information on that, check out our support article, here.

How do I get Breakthrough and Workout Reports to show on Strava?

Armando Mastracci — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 14:25:09 +0000

Xert provides a unique way to analyze your workouts and track your training progress. If you want to share your workout and training report summaries – like the ones shown below – with your followers on Strava, this guide will show you how to enable this feature, whether you’re using Garmin, Wahoo, or Hammerhead devices, or even if you’re riding virtually on Zwift.

Important note: In order to get these reports posted automatically to your Strava account, you need to verify that your activity goes from the recording source (Garmin, Wahoo, Zwift, etc.) to Xert first, and then let Xert push the activity to Strava with the report & training summary.

If your activities are pushed to Strava from another platform before Xert, you won’t be able to get the Training Report Image and Text Summary posted automatically. You may need to disable the automatic sync to Strava from other apps for this feature to work effectively.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Enable Report Syncing in Xert

Before your workout data can be sent to Strava, ensure that you have enabled the necessary settings in Xert.

From the Xert homepage, navigate to Sync > Strava and make sure the option to ‘Show Reports and Training Summary Data on Strava‘ is enabled, like seen below.

You will also need to verify that the option to ‘Sync New Xert Activities to Strava‘ is also enabled:

2. Recording your Activity

When you record your workouts using your training device, ensure the following:

Garmin Devices: First, you should link your Xert account to Garmin via the Sync > Garmin Connect page. Activities recorded using your Garmin devices will then be automatically pushed to Xert for post-ride or post-run analysis.
Wahoo Devices: Once you’ve linked your Xert account to your Wahoo account, activities recorded from your Wahoo devices will be pushed automatically to Xert for analysis.
Hammerhead Devices: You can link your Hammerhead account to Xert from the dashboard, under the Connected Accounts section. Activities recorded using the EBC app on Karoo devices will be uploaded directly to Xert for analysis. Activities recorded using Karoo’s native interface will be uploaded to Hammerhead and automatically synced to Xert.
Zwift: Once you’ve linked your Zwift account and Xert from the Sync > Zwift page, your completed rides in Zwift will be automatically synced to Xert.

Note: Zwift will only sync activities that are at least 2km in length

3. How Reports Appear in Strava

Once the above steps are completed and your activity is uploaded to Xert, Xert will generate a workout report and training summary. When Xert pushes your activity to Strava, the training summary and Forecast AI Report will automatically appear in your activity’s notes & media!

• The Training Summary will display key metrics from your workout or activity: XSS, Difficulty Score, estimated Fat & Carb utilization, etc.

• The Forecast AI Report will display information about your training plan, the Low, High, & Peak XSS achieved (versus the targets), as well as the difficulty score and your estimated time for red or yellow status. The report will also provide an MPA chart for the activity with HR overlaid.

Important Notes

Syncing Limitations: The automatic syncing process will only send new activities from Xert to Strava. However, you can force Xert to re-sync an activity to Strava by downloading the activity file, deleting it from Xert, & re-uploading the activity file.
Editing Activity Names: You can rename your activity in Xert and the title will be automatically updated in Strava. However, renaming your activity on Strava may not sync back to the activity in Xert.

Troubleshooting

If you do not see your training summary and training report images appearing on Strava:

Check Your Sync Settings: Ensure that all settings are correctly configured as mentioned above.
Verify Activity Uploads: Confirm that your activity was successfully uploaded to Xert first, and then to Strava. If the activity was pushed to Strava from another platform, we aren’t able to add a training summary & workout report image.
Manually Download your Report: You can generate a Breakthrough or Workout Report image manually by opening the Activity Details page for the workout/breakthrough activity in Xert and clicking on the Breakthrough or Workout Report icon (shown below). You can then upload the image directly to your Strava activity or post on your socials, for example.
Contact Support: If issues persist, please reach out to the Xert Support Team for assistance.

Conclusion

With Xert + Strava integration, you can easily share your workout and training summaries on Strava, allowing you to showcase your training progress and achievements to your fitness followers!

How do I use the Segment Hunter for my Time Trial?

Armando Mastracci — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 15:21:08 +0000

The Xert Segment Hunter is a great pacing app that can also be used for time-trials. There are a few keys things to remember in order to properly use the app for these races:

Be sure your time-trial course has been defined as a Strava segment, and ‘star’ that segment in Strava.
Load the course using the Segments page, then edit your Target Time to be either your expected time or a tad longer. The reason to use a Target Time that’s a bit longer than your desired time is to force the algorithm to give you a negative split (a faster second-half than first-half) during the time-trial. This will likely make hitting the targets a bit easier. Remember that the app paces you based on power and adjusts during execution, it doesn’t try to pace you to perform to the Target Time directly. Changing Target Time only affects the overall split.
Choose only 1 segment – the TT race course – to sync to your Garmin.
Before your race, configure your Garmin activity profile the way you’d like to use it during the race. For many, having the Segment Hunter on its own dedicated display page will work well. Others may want to combine with cadence and other data and use the app as a field.
Ensure your phone is connected to the Internet and your Garmin is connected to your phone. Start Garmin Connect Mobile on your mobile phone.
Start an activity on your Garmin and wait for the fetching process to be completed. This can take up to 5 minutes. You should see your TT course as a segment after the fetching process is completed. You can stop the recording and discard the activity. At this point, you no longer need your phone and it can be put away, particularly if your race is a UCI sanctioned race with rules about carrying phones during races.
When you are ready to start the time-trial, start your activity recording. If you see Fetching Segments, hit the Lap button to move to Prowling mode to display your TT course. You should be in Prowling mode right before you start the time-trial.
On the start line, hit the lap button a few seconds before your race starts. You’ll see your Target Power displayed with the dark grey background, with the distance and time left.
When your race starts, try to stay in the green zone. It can be a good idea to push a bit harder in places – like short hills – in order to maintain momentum on more technical courses; this may push you into the purple or red zone. You don’t need to keep it green the entire time, but note that if your target power is increasing you may be going too easy; if it’s decreasing you may be going too hard. Pushing a bit harder up hills or into the wind is a good tactic as long as you expect to recover back down the hill/downwind. If the entire course is uphill you’ll want to stay in the green zone rather than push into purple or red.
If you’ve gone out too slowly, have a mechanical or have to slow down or stop for some reason, don’t feel like you need to push into the purple or red afterwards to make up for it. Simply stay in the green zone and it will automatically increase your target power to account for the rest you just had.
If you encounter a head wind that you didn’t expect or plan for, and expect your time to be longer than what you had set as your Target Time, there’s no need to change strategy. As the app sees that you’re going to take longer than planned it will begin to reduce your target power automatically.

Try a practice run or two and follow these steps to ensure that things run smoothly during the race. Get a feel for how the app responds to your efforts during practice. Even if you like to race by feel, the app will provide feedback on how well you’ve been able to do this. Ultimately you’ll want to pace your efforts evenly so that you’re totally spent by the finish line – i.e. have a breakthrough-on-line.

No power or speed data on Strava after a completing a workout using the Xert Player for Garmin

Armando Mastracci — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 13:57:26 +0000

The Xert Player for Garmin ConnectIQ requires that you configure the trainer as part of the app. You need to select it in the app in order to get Trainer Control. Unfortunately, due to the restrictions within the Garmin ConnectIQ environment, the power and speed data collected from the trainer cannot be stored as regular data in the activity generated. Instead it is stored in developer fields which is a feature available to ConnectIQ apps. The field is tagged as a power/speed data field and so Strava and other apps are able to see it as power data but it is up to them to interpret and parse out this information. All data coming from the trainer is treated this way. Power data coming from a power meter is not affected.

We are looking to address this issue in upcoming releases of the Xert Player.

How do I install, configure, & update the Xert Garmin ConnectIQ Apps?

Scott — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 14:27:38 +0000

Download the Xert Data Fields & App from the ConnectIQ Store

Xert has several data fields & one app available on the ConnectIQ store that you can download and install onto your Garmin ConnectIQ compatible head unit. Note that all of Xert’s apps require that you have a power meter installed on your bike. The Bioshift Cadence Optimizer also requires a cadence sensor.

You can use either the Garmin Express desktop software or the Garmin Mobile Apps – Garmin Connect Mobile or Garmin ConnectIQ. You will need these to configure the apps.

To install and configure any one of our apps, open your browser and navigate to the page with our apps on the ConnectIQ app store. Click the app you wish to install and click the ↓ DOWNLOAD button:

The Garmin app store will prompt you to login if you have not already logged in. Once logged in, you’ll be prompted to sign into your Garmin Connect account and select the device that you’d like to add the Data Field or App to. Follow the instructions on screen & you should see the following screen:

The ConnectIQ data fields & app can be synced to your compatible ConnectIQ device the next time it is synced with either Garmin Express desktop software or with the Garmin Connect Mobile/ConnectIQ mobile apps.

If you’re using Garmin Express, plug your Garmin Edge device into your PC or Mac. Garmin will automatically sync the downloaded data field(s) and/or app. You will receive a notification when the sync is completed:

If you’re using Garmin Connect Mobile or Garmin ConnectIQ apps, navigate to the Garmin devices menu and sync your device. You can check the status of the installed data fields & apps by heading to Activities & App Management. The settings for each individual app can be accessed from that menu.

Don’t worry about placing the data fields onto any of your Garmin profiles yet – first we need to sign into the data fields (continue reading below).

Signing into the Xert Data Fields

Downloading the apps is only the first step in the process. Once the apps are initially downloaded, they need to be connected to your Xert account so that your unique fitness signature is used for the real-time calculations. When not connected to an Xert account, the dots in the corner of the data fields will stay amber.

To sign into your Xert account, you’ll need to do the following on all downloaded Xert ConnectIQ data fields:

Using Garmin Express or Garmin Connect Mobile, you need to update each of the Data Fields with your Xert Username and password. For each data field, select ‘Settings’ to find the Username and password entry fields.
Now you can add each of your preferred Xert data fields back into your Activity Profile data screens.
After adding them to your desired Garmin profile(s), we recommend restarting your Garmin device.
Finally, start recording a new activity on your Garmin device and wait a few minutes. The data fields should update with your new Fitness Signature, confirmed by a pop-up on each of your Xert Data Fields saying “Updated”. You should also see the orange dot on the left side of each data field will update to green. Note that this can take up to 5 minutes.

Once the signature is updated, that signature is stored locally on the device. This can be helpful if you’re riding without a network connection.

Configuring your ConnectIQ Data Fields:

Many of the Xert ConnectIQ can be customized to display the data you find most important. Check out the table below for a summary of each data field’s options.

ConnectIQ Data Field	Customizable Settings
MPA & Power	Power Averaging Time – allows you to customize the averaging (e.g. a value of 3 would display 3s avg power)
Focus & Strain	Show Difficulty in Place of Strain – allows you to display the difficulty score in place of Strain Reset on Lap – resets the values for each lap of the activity
XSS & XEP	Show Difficulty Score in place of XEP – allows you to display the difficulty score in place of XEP Reset on Lap – resets the values for each lap of the activity
Fat & Carbs	Display Fat & Carb rate in Watts – when selected, shows how many watts are being contributed from Carb & Fat sources
TTE & TTR	Time-to-Exhaustion Watts – the wattage that the app will use to calculate exhaustion. For example, if ‘500’ is entered in this field, it will calculate the exact time you can hold 500W before reaching exhaustion. By default, Time-to-Exhaustion Watts is the same as the Target MPA watts unless the toggle Use Custom Target MPA? is enabled. Value needs to be above your Threshold Power, ideally above your 20 minute power. Use Custom Target MPA? – When this is enabled, rather than showing the amount of time for MPA to reach your Time-to-Exhaustion watts, Xert will use the value in the ‘Target MPA” field as the final MPA value. (The configuration screens aren’t intuitive on this but we hope to improve them when Garmin provides more options on how data is entered). Target MPA – This value must be greater than Time-to-Exhaustion Watts. This is the Target MPA value Xert will use when the ‘Use Custom Target MPA’ toggle is enabled. For example, if your Time-to-Exhaustion Watts is 500, and Custom Target MPA is checked, and value is set to 700W, the timer will display how much long you can hold 500W before your MPA reaches 700W. Time-to-Recovery Watts – the power the app will use to calculate the time needed for you to recover. For example, if ‘150’ is entered here, the app will calculate the amount of time it will take for you to recover while sustaining 150W. Value must be below your Threshold Power. Use Custom Target MPA? – When this is enabled, rather than showing the amount of time needed for MPA to reach full recovery, Xert will use the value in the ‘Target Recovery MPA’ field as the final MPA value. Target Recovery MPA – the Target MPA value Xert will use when the ‘Use Custom Target MPA’ toggle is enabled. For example, if your Time-to-Recovery Watts is set to 150, and ‘Use Custom Target MPA’ toggle is enabled, and this is 1000W, the timer will show how much time it will take for MPA to recover to 1000W at a power of 150W.
What’s My FTP?	Show FTP in W/kg – displays rider’s FTP in Watts/kg rather than the default (Watts). Reset on Lap – Allows you to reset FTP back to the starting value (100W) when a lap notification is received. Note that many units have auto-lap enabled by default, which will reset the FTP if this setting is enabled. Reset to Defaults – can be used to reset the data field to the factory installed settings.

Updating your ConnectIQ Data Fields:

When updates are available to the Xert ConnectIQ data fields, follow these steps to ensure smooth update.

Remove all Xert data fields on your Garmin device. You can replace them with other data fields as a temporary place holder for, or simply remove them and rebuild the ‘data screens’ on your device later. Make sure you remove them from all you Activity Profiles (e.g. “Train”, “Race”, etc.). If you don’t wish to remove them using your device, you can also use Garmin Express.
Once all the data fields have been removed, and if you’re connected through Garmin Express (using a desktop or laptop computer), ‘safely eject’ your Garmin device from the computer. Perform a power cycle of the device by turning it off and restarting it. Now the Xert data fields should no longer be on your device.
If using Garmin Express plug your Garmin unit back in. Or, if using Garmin Connect Mobile on your smartphone, restart the app.
Download the updated apps to your Garmin device.
- If using Garmin Connect Mobile select your device, select ‘Activities & App Management’, then ‘Data Fields’ and select your desired Data Field. Press ‘View in Store’ and download the Data Field.
- If using Garmin Express, connect your device and select ‘Connect IQ/Apps’ and update or download the latest Data Fields from the Connect IQ Store.
Finally, sign into the ConnectIQ data fields with your Xert account using the steps outlined earlier in the FAQ article.

Additional Troubleshooting

Red dots on left won’t change to green, or Fitness Signature won’t update.

If you’re seeing a red dot, it means that either the login information (username/password) has been entered incorrectly or the Garmin isn’t reading the settings.

One way to force the data field to read the settings is to switch to another activity profile on the Garmin, update the settings with Garmin Express or Garmin Connect Mobile, then move back to the Activity Profile containing the apps. The apps get unloaded when you move to an Activity Profile that isn’t using them. A device reboot should also do this. If neither of these work, try changing your Xert account password from XertOnline.com and updating the password in Garmin Exress/Garmin Connect Mobile.

Amber dots on left won’t change to green.

If you’re not getting a connection to your phone, the data field will stay amber in color. You can try start your Garmin unit, start Garmin Connect Mobile, wait for the Phone to be connected, and then start your activity by pressing the ‘Start’ button on your Garmin unit. Clicking start has the apps query for their signature via Garmin Connect Mobile. This can take up to 5 minutes so you may need to be patient. Note that if you don’t see a green dot, your settings that were obtained the previous time will be used. If you then see a red dot, it most likely means that your username/password have not been correctly entered (see above).

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