As a 61 year old endurance cyclist, I have been led to believe that a TSS (TrainingPeaks) in the 70s is the highest that I might reasonably expect to achieve at my age. Does anyone have a sense of how that TSS value might translate to training load values in Xert, and how high a guy my age might expect to be able to push it? Thanks.
That’s completely untrue. Where did you read that?
I heard that in a podcast (FasCat if I remember correctly), talking about the decreasing ability to maintain high training loads as we age, I guess due to slower recovery time. But if it’s rubbish I guess I don’t need to worry about converting an incorrect TrainingPeaks number to an incorrect Xert number.
It’s not one-on-one exactly, I believe, but XSS is basically in line with TSS - more on that here: You can't cheat training (but you can "cheat" TSS) - SERIOUSLY AMATEUR
Wow! Seeing your training load numbers is quite encouraging and motivating. I realize that in my original question I referred to a supposed peak TSS in the 70s when I actually meant a peak CTL in the 70s, but you’ve obviously proven that to be nonsense. I suppose I just need to allow my training load progression to be dictated by the available training time in my schedule and not by my age. Thanks for the responses.
Depending on your goals, but yes, time is the predominant factor. Plus intensity, but that can only be sustained (on high levels) for so long. If you have or can make more time available, you can gradually increase your TL.
Just tell Xert what you want (event date, athlete type, goal) even if it’s fake, i.e. not happening. You will need to set some goal and an improvement rate, so Xert can guide you towards your event. It will gradually increase TL anyway, so just go with the flow, although you can force a higher demand (XSS needed) by upping your improvement rate, but I’d be careful with that.
Then take a week or two off and repeat.
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You need another hobby 
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I know but sadly, I have none. Many require real human interaction and I suck at that. Only my wife tolerates me, even supports me, but probably mostly because I’m off cycling half of the time
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In short – It’s all relative. 
Coggan: “[TSS] allows any endurance athlete the ability to quantify their workouts based on their relative intensity, duration, and frequency of workouts. One single value can now represent how hard, and how long you worked out. 100 points earned by a pro is relatively the same as 100 points earned for a beginner because TSS is relative to each individual’s threshold.”
As @Cyclopaat mentions TL limit is more a factor of how much time you have to put in and your ability to recover from higher intensity strain.
I imagine most Xerters push their TL into the 100s over time, but not all of us will reach 4-5 stars status.
Your spider graph plot under Ranking will compare your current capabilities compared to others in the pool. Use the age/gender filter and hover over the dots to view stats for each focus group. The ranking is relative to how many Xert subscribers exist within each group. All it takes is one ‘elite’ outlier to skew the bell curve for the rest of us. 
At some point decline is inevitable with age. Most of us will experience that by our 60s.
Genetic predisposition, chronic disease, cancer, muscle mass loss, and the time you can spend (or want to spend) on your bike are all factors that determine your limits.
Recovery time is more important as you get older. Rest days become a critical component. Without them your progression will stagnate and your fitness can start to decline.
That’s another reason why I don’t use the Planner. It’s so much easier to select from recommended workouts day to day, or go off script, or substitute a free ride, or take days off whenever I feel like it. All while TL gradually increases over the phased progression.
You might consider a study Rocket Science.
Shouldn’t be to difficult now you have shown to be able to master Xert 
Still working on Xert - it’s not that easy and I have zero understanding of the complicated math and models that fly by. But, as I have no other hobbies and some experience, and take the time to read and research, I may on occasions be of help. I’ll settle for that 
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It’s worth taking things back to the fundamentals:
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A training load of 70 is an average of about 85 minutes of endurance paced riding (IF of 0.7) each and every day. If you have the time (10 hours per week) then there should be no problem getting up to those sorts of numbers.
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The same ride in Xert gives a training load (based on my own signature) of 93. Straight away you can see that XSS and TSS are not that close in this case and the Training Load in Xert would be higher.
FasCat is a heavy proponent of Sweetspot Training (having basically invented it along with Coggan and others):
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To get a Training Load of 70 doing sweetspot (at 90% FTP) you need to do 52 minutes each day (6 hours per week) which will be more stressful on the body and could well be the basis for his assertion.
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In Xert the same ride (once again, based on my own signature) gives you 76 XSS, much closer to the amount of TSS you would accumulate but still a little higher.
Mike
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