Extra base or specialty?

Hi all,

The speciality phase of my plan will finish around 4 weeks before my A rave/ event. Would it be recommended to insert an extra 4 weeks of build or specialty or a bit of both?

Thanks for your thoughts

Have you tried using the plan builder?

Plan builder Wasn’t available when I started the plan. Would rather stick to what I’m doing as a few months in and halfway through build now. Plan to add in a few extra weeks to finish off just before A race
but want to make sure it’s the right workouts im adding as not sure additional recovery weeks (as an example) would be advisable.

My options would be:

  1. Back-date plan Builder to the start of your training season and follow what it says (even if that means changing what you’re doing now).

  2. Repeat either weeks 1-4 or 5-8 of build (depending on your fatigue and motivation levels) once you finish build then move into Speciality to finish at your A event. If you can’t stomach another 4 weeks of build then put weeks 1-3 and 6 of SSB2 in prior to starting Speciality.

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also, what are you doing in that time? Just training? or are there other races you want to do first before the A race?

Great advice thanks. Think I’ll go with option 2!! Will decide if I can handle more build in a couple of weeks !

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Not races but have some sportives/ grand fondos booked in.

Are you going to be “racing” these sportives? Going real hard?

:smiley:

Not trying to be obtuse but if you have long, hard, “race-like” rides between the end of your plan and your A event, you might not really need much of a plan at all. If you have hard rides on the weekends, between recovery (after events) and rest / sharpening before events, you probably only need two or so high-quality workouts in the middle of each week.

Caveat, running hte plan builder (back-dated to the start of your training) can be useful to see how it advises you to taper. Although tapering is very personal, this can be a starting point.

Good catch, I hadn’t thought about additional events pre-race

Just a note of caution, 12wk of build may leave you quite tired (I’ve extended Build before). But if you can handle it!

Other Than that, you can always try out what plan builder suggests without adding the actual plan to your calendar

go speciality, but just do event specific workouts, meaning physiological demands that will occur in the upcoming race.

then taper 2 weeks into it to shed all fatigue but stay sharp.

send us a podium pic afterwards!
Brendan