[Omega]

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

Topic

[Omega]

Omega on March 26, 2023 at 9:35 am #76631

Sorry, that should read CTL ramp rate, not TSS. I can’t figure out how to edit my post. LOL.

[Cory from Wisconsin]

Cory from Wisconsin on March 29, 2023 at 4:34 pm #76714

If I’m understanding your post correctly, your CTL was advancing 10 per month and has dropped to advancing 4 per month. The key being that you are still progressing. Others with more knowledge of the CTL calculation can chime in, but my understanding is the formula looks at a 42 day rolling window and applies a weighted average based on TSS that provides higher weighting based on how recent the workout was. That’s why you can see a big pop after super hard days in the mountains.

To keep growing the CTL you need to progressively increase the difficulty of your workouts (e.g. TSS) or add more volume (e.g increase total TSS) or you will eventually plateau.

I wouldn’t focus too much on the number as long as you are continuing to train consistently, you are progressively challenging your self (slowly increasing volume and/or intensity), and you are taking appropriate recovery weeks to combat fatigue and help lock in the gains.

I seem to recall feeling pretty darn good the first time I hit the third block on the 24 week plan. Hang in there and trust the process.

[Omega]

Omega on March 30, 2023 at 3:21 pm #76756

Thanks for the reply Cory. I believe you are correct. I actually set up a Zoom call with Coach Chantelle to go over my progress and talk about some of my concerns. She described a similar scenario that you did. I think my fitness has outpaced the scripted plan and I need to add a bit more in to get more progression. I have never trained this much in my life, so the load seems insane, but my body is accepting it and recovering so I’ll keep adding incrementally. I’m going to mix in some more Zone 3 work as well.