I started using xert in November and my threshold power has since dropped by 10 watts as a result of taking rest weeks every 4th week or so. I know that my fitness is improving, even though my threshold power generated by Xert doesn’t reflect that. My concern is that I am not getting the prescribed wattage in my workouts needed for improvement.
Should I just be going harder, or is there a way to manually increase my TP?
-Jason
If it doesn’t disturb training too much you should go for a breakthrough rather than manually changing the signature (which is still possible in account settings or in the advanced MPA tab of a workout). There are a few posts with suggestions on getting a good breakthrough, and that should be more accurate than manual adjustments.
Other than that, if you are in the base phase you should change your signature decay method to ‘no decay - training load matched’ in your profile (and change it back again when riding harder)
Hi Jason, welcome to the Xert community.
What sort of workouts are you doing, are you following XTA advice on workout type, using Xert to run self-chosen Xert workouts or just using Xert to monitor your fitness while doing workouts from other apps/outdoors etc? And what is driving you to rest 25% of the time?
Simon
Thanks Wes, I will try for some breakthroughs and see what happens.
Thanks Simon, I am currently using xert for all of my indoor training, which is 100% of my riding at the moment. I am in the build phase, with a breakaway specialist profile. I use choose my workouts from the list that xert recommends.
When I started using this platform I noticed that there were never any significant light days or rest weeks prescribed, so I deferred to my training history by doing a week with a significantly lower training load every 4th week or so, if it felt like by body needed the rest.
With Xert you are in charge of how you allocate your week.
If you decide on specific easy, hard, and rest days, Xert learns that pattern and will suggest similar workouts the next week on those days. Same with a long group ride on Sundays.
Or you can float and XXS load will be more or less steady over the week, but you should still take a rest day.
You can also dial down IR to take a recovery week then dial back up.
In either case you don’t have to worry about erasing an XSS deficit since XATA is based on a rolling seven days. Just keep the pacer needle between 11am-1pm and you are doing fine. 
Thanks @ridgerider2 makes sense. I have never thought about lowering the IR, but if that helps to acknowledge the rest week I will try it.
OK, understand. In my limited experience the Training Status is pretty close to how I feel and if tired or very tired etc - it flexes the recommended workout xss, difficulty and duration informed by my status. Occasionally it will suggest I consider a recovery week or adjust down my Improvement Rate.Does your Training Status change after workouts eg to tired or very tired?
It does change, but it is not always accurate with how I actually feel. I am open to pushing beyond the point where I would normally take a rest week to see what xert recommends.
Sounds worth a try. I would add that I find the training status and recommended workouts change quite quickly in the hours after a workout. I tend to see the red/very tired a lot simply because I review my workout soon afterwards but I pass through the yellow phase quickly (rarely see it) then back to blue.