Greetings to all Xert community from Italy!
I have just started using this platform after reading a very interesting review from DC Rainmaker that I often follow for his fulfilling in depth review of about anything. I am not an athlete, I just love biking and obtaining fixed goals.
I have decided to get back on the bike after 8 months of stop. I am 47 years old and completely out of shape compared to last year.
I was using Trainerroad and obtained a pretty good fitness level.
There you do an FTP test, select base 1 and get starting.
Here it is a little more complex but I am open to learn all it is needed to learn.
Can I ask somebody to kindly advise the best athlete type profile to use (currently I set GC Specialist as an all rounder) and adequate Improvement rate (I currently set Slow) so to work myself safely into a good and effective training program?
Please do not hesitate to ask any question.
Like I said I am not an athlete so please accept my apologies if I donāt speak your language or if I am missing pieces here and there.
I am happy to be here. Thank you!!!
Hi Alessandro, you can choose athlete type according your target event(crit, fondo, profile and length of raceā¦). GC is generally good choice (I have it myself and like climbs, but want to build endurance for century rides too.) I remember Armando said in one of podcast, that he uses GC too. Your training recommendation will not be much different at the beginning of training, at base phase, but as you get into late build phase and peak phase, xata recommendation will lead you more towards your athlete type. Athlete type doesnt need to be permanent, you can change it during the year as your goals changes. There is a great podcast on this topic
(https://soundcloud.com/baronbiosys/from-time-trialist-to-sprinter-athlete-types-in-xert)
You should set up your target event date in goals too -even if fake one - to let xata to guide you though training phases (120days)
Welcome to Xert and the forum from Scotland Alessandro.
Welcome Alessandro. You may have a lot of questions and probably some difficulty adopting to the Xert way of doing things, but itās gonna be worth it. There are a lot of people here, plus an excellent support staff, that can help you, plus - as mentioned - the podcasts.
As Danny pointed out, GC and an IR of slow is fine to get started with. Once youāre up to speed and have a target event, or are ready to crank it up and āinventā a target (it doesnāt have to be a real event - you can train for a Gran Fondo without actually participating in one, if you want), Xert will guide you through the different phases.
Good luck!
Ciao Alessandro!
Welcome to the Xert family. Enjoy this wunderfull tool and as you see there is an active forum in case you have any questions. The learning curve of Xert might be a little steep in the beginning but just hang on and I am sure you will enjoy it and appreciate it more and more over time.
The podcasts as being mentioned are a great way to learn the concepts and terminology of Xert. On every workout I play an episode so it is litteraly ālearning on the jobā 
Tutto buono from The Netherlands!
Gr Johan Barelds
Hi guys, thank you all for the warm welcome and the advice. I have been reading the support page and use the helpful explanation links within the Xert interface.
My question arised from the fact that the algorithm is telling me (obviously) that I am VERY TIRED and the gauge meter is pointing out that I am going towards detraining. This is so because unfortunately my heart rate rises rapidly as I just started retraining, and suggested training sessions look very challenging. I am overweight but on a diet (zone diet with some adaptions) and feel good. I was pointing mainly at training sessions of about 30 minutes and aiming to recover a decent heart response during intervals as once HR is up in red zone there it stays and recovery time is not efficient. Also because my natural pedalling cadence is 90-95 and with my Tacx trainer in any gear with zero resistance I am never below 75-80W when required recovery intervals can drop significantly below 50W. I probably will have to change the cassette to one with lower gears.
Thank you again for spending some time to reply to me and for the warm welcome.
PS I am half Italian and half American so I speak naturally both Italian and English. I am not using Google Translatorā¦ 
Only thing to add to the responses so far is that after such a long break I guess your Training Load was very low or even zero, so am not sure the Training Advisor gives sensible advice in that caseā¦ hence telling you you are very tiredā¦ It needs a certain amount of recent data to be accurate and give good recommendations. Were your Trainer Road Plans before or after the break? If before, you will just need to build a base, and at some point do a breakthrough test to get an accurate signature (search workouts for breakthrough, and you can manually select it - only do it if youāre feeling good though - they are all-out efforts! My personal choice is breakthrough test 3, but there are a few)
Back to the original point, I typically listen more to my body than the Training Status indicator when getting back into things after a breakā¦ perhaps choose some endurance workouts (you can use the workout filter to override XATA, in case itās telling you to recover when you feel you can do an endurance workout). Wouldnāt start out with high intensity though!
Hi Wesley, I followed TR plans from May to August 2019. I had trained to improve my FTP from 120 to about 165. Then I was upgraded to more territory (I am a sales person) right after summer vacation and I lost completely any training ability. Traveling, eating, stress pushed me back into bad shape.
I agree with you, maybe I must not concentrate on any specific goal for now and stick with some daily trainings 30 - 45 minute and XSS about 40-50.
I did fix my virtual āeventā at end of December for now so I am in Pre Base phase.
Iāll do some trainings that make me fell good for a week and see what happens and how XATA reacts.
I do not find where XATA tells you what to do (train now, train later, do not trainā¦) but it is telling me I am 16 XSS deficit from my requested profile as of today. 
thank you for your advice, greatly appreciated!!!
Carrying a deficit from day to day is normal. Xert will learn your weekly pattern over time.
More important is keeping the Pacer needle pointing up within the gray area. I typically float between 11am and Noon when training consistently, drop towards red on rest days, and occasionally push past 1-2pm after a long ride on a weekend.
Hi, thank you for the explanation. I donāt know what exactly I did but now the gauge needle is 95% full right and I have a surplus of 138 XSS and XATA tells me I can rest for 5 days!!,ā¦ I donāt understand the logics behind this XSS countā¦ will study some infoā¦
Thank you George!!!