11 weeks till double century - Build or Specialty?

Hi everyone. I just joined Trainer Road a week ago and so far I’m loving it. I’ve been making my first forays into racing this year, particularly shorter “ultras”. Trying to get serious about training for the first time. My target for the season is a 200-mile race in October, about 11 weeks away. Wondering whether the SPB or Century Specialization plan is better for me between now and the race, since I only have time to do one. I feel like based on what I’ve been doing up till this point, what I most need is to work on my FTP, and I’ve seen some on here suggesting that build is more effective for raising FTP than specialty. Maybe either is fine at this point, with such a short time to prepare, but I’m curious to get some other thoughts on the topic.

Assuming you have a reasonable base, skip Sweet Spot Base 1.

  1. Sweet Spot Base 2 (6 weeks)
  2. Sustained Power Build (8 weeks)

You will need drop 3 weeks. Maybe drop weeks 3 and 4 for SSB 2, and drop week 7 from SPB, then do a taper week from Century Specialty instead of week 8 of SPB.

You will likely gain more by doing these than the Century Specialty.

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