I have a 3 day event coming up in March. Not a race just a planned group ride with 50 other Tandems. Total distance will be around 125-150 miles total. Rolling terrain are the route types. As we all know it is not a race but finishing up front does feel better. lol. I started my plan 9/1/25 (Rolling Road Race) and have been very diligent with my workouts (5 workouts a week). So far I have seen 32 watt improvement in my FTP (TR AI detection). My question is, should I or could I skip the specialty phase since it is not a race and just start a new plan over and repeat the base and build phase again to keep building my FTP and mark the 3 day event as A event for the taper? We have another Tandem event in June and August that I will need to be fit for too. Any advice or help will be appreciated on how to keep my fitness going.
Congrats on the gains.
Not really answering your question, but whatever keeps you riding is the correct answer. If you think specialty will burn you out and put you behind in the long term, skip it. If you are craving variety, keep it. Try not to over think it, the objective difference in changing one mesocycle to a different intensity can probably be measured on one hand.
Consistency above all else.
I say keep it or at least give it a go.
The change in workouts for Specialty Phase will keep things interesting and now instead of push your FTP from the bottom, it will pull it from the top so to say.
If you’re not feeling it then switch back to Base/ Build.
Thank you.
I never even thought about pulling the FTP from the top before. I know I have heard it and probably read it before in here but totally was not on my radar.
@Highflying I agree with keeping the Specialty phase as well. It’s really the cherry on top of all your training before an event.
What type of terrain is the ride on?
Rolling hills
What you’ve got in place is probably really solid for prepping your for those hills. 
I assume you’ll be pedaling pretty hard to get over them. 
5 MPH all day long at anything above 8%.