Belgian Waffle Ride San Diego is 131 miles with about 12,000 feet of climbing and roughly 40% off-road across 23 sectors, on rocky single-track, sandy washes, and loose gravel sharp enough to be notorious for flats. The technical terrain starts early at Lake Hodges around mile 35, the climbing toward Palomar’s base comes at mile 85, and the final dirt at mile 120 arrives when you’re already tired.

This is an eight-week plan built for four to six hours a week, for riders fitting this race around a job and everything else. The limited hours go toward the demands this course actually places on you — the repeated climbing and the handling that rocky, sandy sectors ask for — because there isn’t room to train around the edges of a race like this.

WHAT'S INSIDE

• Structured workouts on your calendar, with real power and heart-rate graphs


• Strength work built in, with video walkthroughs


• Weekly notes from me, plus the Gravel Grit mental program


• A testing week, so the plan runs on your real numbers


• The full Belgian Waffle Ride San Diego guide — terrain, gearing, fueling