Sorry if this has been asked/answered before. I am new to Xert. I used to race and was coached, and then was using TR, but I am trying out Xert. Since I am not racing (other than Zwift racing which I do about once per week), I am permanently set in the post-event mode. My question is that the palnner seems to just perpetually select a 2.5 star endurance workout if I follow it. Do I need to take a total rest day for my freshness to return from being listed as tired status? OR will that happen over time?
Taking a day off will affect status color but if you really aren’t tired day to day you should move the freshness slider under Goals to the right, click update, and tweak until you’ve found a more appropriate setting.
Mine is currently set to 10 but this setting will vary depending on phase, general fitness, age, experience, type of rider, and how hard you ride and how quickly you recover.
Xert will learn your weekly pattern over time. While you could ride everyday, including a rest day per week is a good idea.
Post Event is basically a float stage. You aren’t going to see much variation in suggested workouts. However, you can pick and choose whatever you feel like doing outside of suggestions. For example, start the hardness tests at your current level and move up the ladder week to week and see how high you can go.
Your Zwift races should keep your signature in line, but you should try a BT workout occasionally to make sure.
The normal phased steps are Base to Build to Peak to Taper to Event to Post Event. Base can be monotonous while Build and Peak have more variety/intensity. Otherwise you should feel comfortable to pick and choose as you see fit (pun intended).
Xert is a combination of AI (XATA recommendations) and self-coaching. You decide how much time to invest (IR) and when to go off-script. No more canned cookie-cutter plans to follow. 
If you use the Planner I don’t suggest populating more than a week at a time. Otherwise simply pick from the daily suggested list or challenge yourself with something completely different whenever you want. You can also change athlete type to mix up suggested workouts, but you can also do that by using filters when selecting today’s workout.
thanks! that is all really helpful. One more question - would you suggest that even if I am not racing other than regular zwift races I should put in an arbitrary event date just to have it move through phased steps, or is it ok to leave in post event and just be flexible with it?
That’s how I learned how Xert works. Initially I followed suggestions to a T for 120 days because I was used to doing that on other platforms. Then I realized Xert is WAY MORE flexible, so if your needs change or if you get sick or can’t do the hours from one week to the next, Xert adapts. You can also scale up to make things harder or edit the TED (target event date) to force a phase especially if your TED is an arbitrary event.
I haven’t raced in decades but I like to get fit in season so I typically set two TEDs in a year and roughly follow suggested workouts depending how I feel day to day.
Currently I’m just floating, mostly riding indoors, and will taper down in a few months as winter approaches. Then around New Year I’ll set my first TED for late April and start over again. YMMV.
I think you need a TED because otherwise you end up just doing base work AFAIK.
I also like setting a TED as I like seeing how the forecasted power on that date matches to reality