I watched all the videos, and from what I understand I should be able to do training during an unstructured ride by targeting xss using the power shown to me. However I don’t have a power number but I do have 3 numbers next to my xss, without any explanation
How do I make sense of all this?
If you have a Garmin head unit you can install XSS Buckets and/or the Xert Dashboard to free ride and fill the buckets to meet your recommended low/high/peak XSS and target Focus for the day (Rouleur = 6 minute power in your example).
Or regardless of head unit type you can free ride irregular intervals at or above your Focus Power target. For example, if your 6-minute power is X watts, ride intervals at or above that value with appropriate RIBs (rest-in-between) until you reach the recommend total XSS for the day (169).
An easy way to visualize this is to run Autogen which generates a simple workout that can be downloaded to a head unit. Or just note the watt targets for work and rest intervals and use that to guide your free ride. For example, 9 intervals of X seconds/minutes, at or above X watts, with X minutes easy rest-in-between.
For LIT days you want to spend the majority of your ride around LTP and avoid surges above TP which would raise Focus Type above Endurance and accumulate high/peak XSS.
For HIT days the contribution to low/high/peak strain from your intervals primarily follows this graph –
(Courtesy of Dave Brillhart on the FB users group.)
Other newbie tips posted here –
Onboarding steps for Xert trial users and newbies - General - Xert Community Forum
Before we had the buckets feature for Garmin, if I planned to do an unstructured workout, I would have the training tab autogenerate a workout. I would then see what the target power and length were of the intervals, delete it, and then go out and ride with that target power and time in mind for my intervals. It mostly worked.
Since I have a Garmin bike computer I now use buckets and the dashboard which works great.
I’m still trying to get my head around this.
I do run the Garmin data fields, the full dashboard and the one with the buckets, but I still don’t fully get it.
To summarise what I do understand:
but I still don’t understand how I know how to target the bucket in the middle?
For context: this is the main reason I want to use Xert. I did indoor structured training for 6 months some time ago, but I’m fed up with it. I just want to ride my bike outside. For me the appeal is to get training impulses by filling those 3 buckets while riding. I just don’t know how to target the middle one effectively, and it seems the documentation is out of date on this.
How do I read this graph? What does the X axis stand for?
Left bucket is low XSS. It will always be filled.
The mid bucket is high XSS. Everything above TP.
The right bucket is peak XSS. It is filled more the closer you are to your max power.
Below TP is all Low straiin, blue bucket territory.
Above TP there is a mixture of Low, High, and Peak strain in proportions shown on the graph.
For example, if your TP is 250 watts anything below 250 watts contributes points to the Low strain bucket.
If you are putting in an effort at 200% TP that means power is at 500 watts. During that effort approx 50% of the XSS you generate contributes to the Low bucket, 33% goes into the High bucket, and 17% into the Peak bucket.
In practice you’ll likely stay in blue on the rainbow gauge (around LTP) for Z2 level LIT rides.
If you happen to be time-crunched (and like to train tempo/SS) you could spend time in the green band on the rainbow gauge which is watts between LTP and TP. That’s still Low bucket strain.
If the day’s advice includes HIT you’ll want to fill the High and Peak buckets as well. That’s tied to the Focus Power target for the day. For example, if a Rouleur is the target that’s your 6-minute power. The irregular intervals you perform on the ride should be approximately at that wattage or a bit higher. The Dashboard app displays a Focus Power target circle for this purpose.
Of course the numbers aren’t that exact since you can’t hold watts consistently outdoors but that doesn’t matter.
This all becomes intutive after you’ve ridden a few outdoor rides this way. 
You’ll see the Low bucket filling as you ride easy while a portion of XSS contributes to all three buckets when you ride above TP.
It’s a matter of how many interval efforts you decide to squeeze in at the Focus Power target while filling the three buckets to reach your XSS goal for the day.
It’s definitely a fun way to train outdoors without any need to load a workout to your head unit.
