Hi guys,
My training plan was built around an A event (sportive) towards the end of March. Due to covid that’s been moved to August. I wanted my training plan to reflect this, so I went into plan builder and deleted the plan and made a new one.
For my ammended plan I have moved the A event to August, made the March ride a B event (I’ll just ride somewhere myself, my own personal sportive) and put another B even in for May (a smaller sportive which is booked).
Before making changes the week we are currently in was a rest/ low TSS week after doing the build phase, next week I was due to start the speciality plan. However in the new plan it has be going back to base training next week.
I’m sure the TR software is smart enough to know what I’ve been doing and what I should do, but this seems like a real big change from the speciality plan that I was due to start, is this all just due to the change in my March event from an A to a B? Should I have just changed the date of my events, or is there no difference between the two?
Thanks in advance, and apologies for a likely basic question, I’m still getting to know TR.
If I understand right, you’ve been moved out of specialty to “rebuild” before the new date for your A event. Do you still complete a specialty phase? I.e. it’s there, but now on the schedule immediately before your new A event?
It’s been my experience that Plan Builder always tries to ensure that you have a specialty phase and taper into your A event. All things being equal, it will fill the remaining time with the base and build phase to get you there.
A couple of possible solutions. Your self-run sportive and the A event are far enough apart that PB should be able to set them both as A events. Try changing your original date to an A event and see if it recalculated to give you specialty as your next block.
Having said that, I don’t think there is anything at all wrong with going from build back into Base/Build/Specialty again. All it means is you should come into the rescheduled A event with even more fitness. And, depending on your other event goals, you can actually perform really well on a B event even during the base phase. I would be wary of doing a B event race in build, as it’s a lot more TSS to carry.
It is my understanding as well, that specialty phase is supposed to be only done close to the A event(s).
Even before plan builder, they often recommended on the podcast to do back-to-back base-build blocks if your A-event is far out enough. Since these improve your overall fitness more than specialty phase. Specialty focusses on the specific requirements for your event to squeeze out a bit more performance where it matters most. (“Sharpen the blade” as the TR folks would put it).
