I’m in week 14 of the 24 week big mountain training plan. I started “Pre-Training” about 6 weeks before the technical start of the program in December to get my thresholds dialed and start building a base. Up until about 6 weeks ago, I was ramping at about 10 pts per month. This was with a weekly TSS averaging 400-500 in the beginning. I re-tested AnT in January per the plan. I only bumped it up one point to 156 BPM. My estimate was very close. So the volume and intensity has been increasing and I’m averaging about 600 TSS per week now, but my ramp rate has been stalling out. I’m only at 4 in the past month, but my training load is increasing. WTF? My threshold didn’t really change and I believe all other settings and zones are correct. My monthly TSS total has gone up from about 1800 to 2200 for the past 2 months or so. It doesn’t make sense to me.

I try to tell myself that it’s just a number and not to stress out about it, but it’s starting to annoy me. I have only missed one workout in 14 weeks and that was a strength session. I train hard just about every session and follow the plan. I have become really good at understanding when my body is tired and rearranging workouts to accommodate this. Overall, I am feeling strong. My running pace increased significantly with same HR, I’m moving uphill fast and feeling good. At this point I pretty much have to add weight to all hikes to get my HR up and move fast. I know I am making gains, but the computer program is making me mad. Here are some particulars about me below. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Male
40 years old
Max HR: 174
AnT: 156
AeT: 145
Resting HR: 42