I’m looking to change my improvement rate from maintenance to aggressive, to start building again for the next season.
In the current setting (maintenance), I have a surplus of about 80 XSS.
When I change the IR, I suddenly have a deficit of 167 XSS and if I drag some workouts into the planner, it requires me to do A LOT more time from the get-go.
I always understood that IR stands for a weekly increase in TL, so this looks strange to me.
I suppose the XATA thinks that I also had set my IR to ‘aggressive’ in the past weeks, generating a deficit because I did the work for ‘maintenance’.
Ramp rate is relative to where you are at and where you want to go.
Watch what happens to hours per week estimate when you drag the slider in the ATP box at various IR settings.
Moving from Maintenance to Aggressive will immediately jack up the TL for the following week. That is typically used for a block of higher intensity training. If you want to slowly increase TL you would select a lower number. However, you mention “building again for next season”. When do you plan to taper off and consider an off-season break? That’s an important part of the year-to-year process.
Also note XATA is based on a rolling 7 day period and TL is a weighted moving average.
You don’t have to immediately make up a deficit or worry about a surplus as the numbers even out over the rolling 7 days. Your goal is to keep the pacer needle in the 11am-1pm zone to meet your currently selected IR setting. That may include dipping into the red on occasion then bumping it back up with a long weekend ride or hard workout.