First Week of Specialty is a cracker

I’ve just completed the first 3 workouts of specialty phase and im a looking fearful of the progression. On Tuesday it had me complete Mount Foraker +2 which is a IF .88 followed by a thursday of Mt Hale +1 @ IF .90 and saturday is supposed to be Keith @ IF .90.

Having three workouts in one week that are IF .88-.90 seems crazy to me. Someone please put my mind at ease and let me know everything is going to be OK! :joy:

1 Like

After a rest week and a ramp test week (I’ll probably use AI FTP D) I’ve a 0.95 IF workout. The plan does step down after that 0.88 and 0.85; perhaps AT knows I’m going to be destroyed :joy:

Are you using Adaptive Training, if so, what are your current Progression Levels?

  • The workouts you list are high ones, but may be appropriate depending on your PL’s and recent FTP history.

What has been your previous experience with the Build phase and any related FTP changes around your training plan?

Yes, im using adaptive training. The picture below indicates my PLs:

My FTP recently bumped from 324w to 330w. I’ve been using plans on TR for the past 3 or so years and I don’t ever recall getting such intense workouts 3x in 1 week.

1 Like

Much of that depends on the actual Specialty in use. Without getting a ton more info, I’d suggest that you email support@trainerroad.com for their review. They can quickly access all that I would question and far more than we can even access from the outside.

Will do. Thanks, Chad.

1 Like

Also, if your calendar is public, you could share the link for the forum to review your training history and upcoming workouts.

1 Like

How do I make it public?

Open your Account Profile on the TR site, then check/change the Account Privacy setting:

Done. Eat your hearts out!

1 Like

Quick link for anyone to view:

My experience of speciality has been similarly tough!! Normally I start riding outside when I finish build but I started base a bit earlier than normal this time around so thought I would give Century a go.

I have been following the medium volume plan (with adaptive training) and the only workout I failed during base and build was the final threshold session of build which was Smith (threshold 6.2).

After the rest week I allowed my FTP to be calculated and saw an increase from 293 to 296 which felt about right.

In the first two weeks of speciality I ‘failed’ 3 work outs,
Stomolo (4.8 Threshold)
Fang Moutain (4.8 Threshold) and
Sonora 7.6 (V02 Max)

Towards the end of build I passed MT Goode (5.8 Threshold) with my 293 FTP so I was surprised with my struggles but it could just be accumulated fatigue (I’m 53 years old).

Since the first couple of weeks of speciality AI has been giving me much more appropriate threshold sessions around the 3.9 to 4.1 level and as I go into the specialty rest week at the half way stage I am feeling much more confident that I’m again getting tough but achievable workouts.

Interestingly enough, you’ve described my situation almost to a T. I failed 1 workout from base through build on mid volume and failed the 2 of 3 interval sessions the first week of specialty. This week seems to be a bit more reasonable after I stated the training intensity was too high.

1 Like