Daily training deficits

Support
1

I’ve got a very basic question that I still don’t have the answer to after pouring over material online. Should I be worried about wiping out the deficit every day (or week) to keep improving?

I’m in the post even phase (so presumably xert will recommend workouts to keep building my fitness) and set my improvement rate to slow and the decay to small (it was decaying quite quickly on optimal despite doing a XATA recommended workout daily plus additional outdoor riding when the weather was nice). Currently the daily recommended XSS is high enough that I feel like I have to train every day if I want to wipe out the deficit each day.

Also, I’ve noticed that XATA often recommends workouts that won’t eliminate my deficit. For example, I have a deficit of 68 XSS and it is currently recommending a recovery workout that will generate 27 XSS. Does XATA expect that I will be doing another ride after to wipe out the remaining deficit? Or is it expecting me to carry the deficit forward to the next day (or days) until I’m fresh enough do enough riding to break even again.

I read a reply on a similar thread that said most users carry daily deficit, but there wasn’t enough explanation provided to convince me I understand how to use deficit surplus or the red grey and blue bars on the pacer to manage my training load.

When I was just doing the recommended workouts, plus one or two weekly rest days (when it was recommending a recovery workout), plus additional outdoor riding from time to time, my signature seemed to decay pretty quickly, this in spite of consistently being able to knock it back up and even improve it with breakthrough rides.

Thanks for the help

2

You are trying to keep the pacer needle pointing up between 11am-1pm to stay “on target” whether that’s a phased progression, or you want to maintain a level you have reached, or slowly improve as you have presently configured…
The needle is a flexible target that can bend in either direction depending on your schedule and what decisions you make versus XATA’s suggested guidelines.
Any deficit (or surplus) is absorbed into XATA’s rolling seven day cycle so no need to worry about carrying it forward.
Think about your weekly allocation. You may decide to go short and hard one day, rest another, and long and easy on a weekend with a mixture in between. End result is you hit your hours and XSS target within range. Doesn’t have to be exact.
If you establish a weekly pattern XATA will remind you what you did last week on the same day but you decide whether to repeat a similar effort or do something different.

Lots of tips in this thread if you haven’t seen it already –
Beginner questions - Support - Xert Community Forum (xertonline.com)