I've written the next sentence

If you explained what you are trying to achieve, I would recommend a kind of workaround.

and it has raised doubts about the tense I should have used in the highlighted phrase.

The options I see:

1. you are trying (my conversational partner is now trying)
2. you were trying (to adhere to the initial tense in "If you explained")

Which one is correct? Can both of them be used?

Thank you in advance.