Sometimes you may open an activity and see lots of yellow dots or the Difficulty Score is off the chart. You may see the left axis start with MPA over 2000W. Whenever you see this it generally means that the system didn’t understand your data.  Xert expects your data to look like your previous data. When it’s analyzed and the results don’t align with what you had before, you can get strange looking MPA charts.

Sometimes the errors are caused by faulty power meters – they generate invalid data such as power values that are too high. This will result in errors in some if not all your data.  Sometimes you simply catch the system by surprise by producing higher numbers than you typically have shown.  In these cases, you may need to review the data manually to understand what may have happened:

1. If you suspect that an activity has invalid/very high power data values, either:
   1. Delete it and replace it with a manual activity (use the Fitness Planner to create a manual activity),
   2. Flag the activity to keep it.  This ignores the data in any Fitness Signature calculation, but keeps all the data, calculated metrics and information. To do this, click the flag next to the activity in its Details page, or using the Activities Table / Dashboard.  Note that if the data is so poor that the metrics are too far off, it is better to delete the activity.
2. If your data is good and there aren’t any errors, it may have just surprised the Xert algorithm. You can choose to flag or delete it but you’re better to try and help the system understand it. Either:
   1. Go to a previous activity and adjust the fitness signature by increasing each fitness signature parameter but a few percentage points (use the Activity Details / Advanced tab for the activity and Save/Lock the new signature).  This will update that activity and the subsequent activities, including the one with the error.  This *may* resolve the surprise activity.
   2. Use the Activity Details / Advanced tab to adjust the signature for the activity.  You can try and simply click on Extract button, which may find a new signature (you’ll see all the yellow dots disappear and a new signature shown at the bottom) or you can adjust the existing signature and click Refresh or Extract to also see if a new signature can be found.  Save/Lock the new signature when things look similar to other analyzed activities.

If you need to adjust a power file to remove a data spike or change the date & time for example, refer to the FAQ ‘Can I change or adjust the data in my power file?‘

If you are looking add more of your historical activities from Strava into Xert, simply follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to Sync > Strava  from the top left panel (from the top menu if you’re on a tablet/mobile device):

2. Use the Edit Activity Types to select (or unselect) the activity types that you would like to sync from Strava. You can use this to prevent certain activity types from being synced to your Xert account.

3. Click on the grey date range box below Connect with Strava. You can select several options, including the last 7 days, the last 30 days, etc. If you wish to sync back further, select the Custom option. You can sync data up to 3 years old from Strava.

4. Start by editing the From date (left-hand side).  Choose a year & month, or use the arrows to navigate to the month you’d like to start the sync from. Once you’ve set the month & year, select the date in the calendar. Use the same process to edit the To month/year (right-hand side). Then select the to date in the calendar.

5. Once you’ve selected a From and To date, click on Apply. Note that for custom ranges with many activities, the request to Strava may take some time – please be patient while your activities are requested! If the request times out, choose a shorter custom date range.

6. Once the activities have been requested, all activities from that date range will be displayed in the table below. Check the ‘Select All‘ box or selectively choose the activities you wish to sync. Once you’ve selected the desired activities, click on the Sync button in the bottom right. Xert will begin syncing the requested activities. Depending on how many activities are being synced, it may take some time to sync and process your activities.

1. In the past, your tests or data you used to determine TP (FTP or CP) weren’t truly your best efforts.  This could mean that your previous estimates were below what you were capable of.  If any of the following are true, previous estimates have have been too low:
   1. If you rested or went below TP, even for a few seconds during a 20 minute test.
   2. If you weren’t fully motivated to put yourself deep into fatigue.
   3. If you started the effort with a bit of fatigue.
   4. If you finished the test and still had some energy left.
2. Your signature has a low Peak Power value and your maximal efforts tend to be higher power efforts.  This can skew your TP and/or HIE higher.  Getting a good estimate for PP can be difficult because anything you do to test PP will come in below what you’re capable of.  To determine your highest PP more accurately:
   1. Sprint when you are 100% fresh.
   2. Sprint for less than 7s.
   3. Stand while sprinting.
   4. Sprint at high cadences.  The higher your peak power, the faster your cadence.  The faster you’re able to pedal,  the higher your peak power is likely to be.  If you’re powerful, don’t be surprised to see your sprint number increase simply by increasing cadence when you attempt peak power efforts.
   5. Sprint at the bottom of a trough.  This reduces acceleration which rapidly changes cadence.  It is difficult to sustain high force on the pedals when they are accelerating too quickly.  (Please test with caution.)
3. You are using a virtual trainer, uncalibrated power meter or power meter with errors.  If your power data isn’t correct, Xert may think you’re superman.  This is because Xert determines MPA that covers power data.  If you have poor precision in your data, this can lead to greater variability in the data which Xert will see as you having the ability to withstand this greater variability, i.e. it raises your numbers.  We’re looking to find ways to better handle these situations but for the time being, be wary of things like repeating power values or high cadence variability as this can mean the power data may be off and that Xert might be overestimating your parameters.
4. Your TP is supposed to be high since you have a lower HIE.  If you’ve been testing using 20 minute, or more so 8 minute, test protocols, your final TP might be underestimated using the standard 0.95 factor.  This is because you might have a lower HIE than what is typical.  Using standard tests will always underestimate your TP if this is the case.
5. Your TP should be adjusted lower since you have a higher HIE. This is the opposite of 4 where Xert incorrectly thinks your HIE is low and thus determines your TP to be higher than it’s supposed to be.  This can happen after a period of detraining where HIE has been lowered too far by Xert’s algorithm.  To address this issue, go to the activity where TP is too high and/or HIE is too low, typically one with a medal, and adjust manually.  You can do MPA Analysis to determine a good signature or simply key in what you think is appropriate into the signature field below the chart and Save and Lock to the activity.  This should update subsequent activities.

When Xert sees that you had a breakthrough, it will then determine which of your fitness signature values increased…

• If only one increased, you get a bronze medal;
• if two increased, a silver;
• and if all three increased, a gold medal.
• If you came really close but you didn’t quite surpass MPA, you’ll get a an open, or white, circle. This is referred to as a Near Breakthrough, or ‘Fakethrough’ by many Xerters.

NOTE: The size of the medal provides an indication of how much time you spent at your limit. So an activity with a lot of time near MPA will have a larger medal than an activity with less time. Large medals are better indicators of your fitness at a given time.