10 weeks till my A-Race (Winter Fat Bike). Build or Specialty?

Finished entire program earlier in the summer and restarted Sweet Spot Base. Just finished SSBII and realized I only have 10 weeks left till my race. Should I just go for Sustained Power Build or go right to Speciality? I completed Cross Country Marathon specialty last July.

Which plan would be better going into the race? Build or Specialty? Thanks!

Ten weeks is long enough to get some solid fitness gains, and you’re probably not carrying a ton of fatigue from SSB, so you could do a Build-heavy mishmash: do Build, then the last two weeks of Specialty as a long taper. If you’re feeling wiped out, you could do Specialty, and then repeat the last two weeks until your event. Or even do the first block of Build, and if you’re feeling dead after the first recovery week, sub in the last six weeks of Specialty.

Obligatory TR support article:

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If you skip Build you’d be leaving some fitness gains on the table. Specialty is not designed to raise your fitness, but rather fine tune race demands. I’d recommend a full Build then a 2 week taper into your A race.

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+1
The type of build should be aligned to type of fatbike course. It takes very little to make a winter fatbike race turn into a VO2max funfest more suited to the short or general power build. Good luck on your A Race!

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Thanks everyone for the advice. Always good to feel like you’re using the time best. ExpertOrBust - You are exactly right. The course isn’t too hilly, but the beginning is an up hill mass start and the end is a mile long hill. Plus, the conditions can change over night from packed snow to several inches of fresh snow. I’m going to take everyone’s advice and go through the build phase. I don’t have time for anything but the low volume unfortunately, but on my off days I’m going to do 30 minute on-bike VO2 max work. My FTP gains are slow, but I think I can add another 10-15 watts before January.

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Thank you for that article, I forgot to look for those.

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