I don’t think my suggestion was so off base as to need this degree of bolded response. I certainly was not trying to lead him astray, I was wondering if he was interested in looking at it.
If you you want to build ftp, do a build phase. If you want to primarily further your aerobic engine, do a base phase. If you want to prep for a specific event and have done the aforementioned to the extent that seems appropriate, do a specialty phase. My suggestion was to consider looking at the enthusiast specialty phases to see if they were interesting.
Sure, great to point out those Enthusiast plans since they often get overlooked. I was just trying to point out that I didn’t think they addressed the apparent core issue of FTP.
My A event is not until November so not sure why I am on specialty phase now, i’d rather keep trying to build ftp but will follow the plan and see how I go
If you were trying to build FTP almost indefinitely: First, staleness, stalling etc. might be a problem with too many cycles of base-build. Second, this sounds a lot like Gran Fondo training - the Century specialty phase looks and smells a lot like Sustained Power build. Key difference seems to be 2xVO2, 1xthreshold in Build and 1 VO2, 2 threshold Specialty.
I just tried a system experiment and put in a year’s plan with no event and Gran Fondo as my focus - I got two 6week SS bases, SP build, Century specialty and then back to 2x (shorter) base, build, specialty. I think this will do what you ask for with just a bit of variety (only so much variety for a sustained power athlete).