The Rift is 124 miles across southern Iceland on black volcanic sand, sharp lava rock, and loose highland roads — a durability and handling day far more than a climbing one. The weather can turn cold and wet with little warning, the lava chews tires from mile 25 on, and near mile 100 you ride through glacial river crossings.
This is a twelve-week plan for a long day on rough, tire-eating surfaces in cold and exposed conditions, built around the hours you have to train. Most of the work is time in the saddle and handling rough ground while tired — what carries you across 124 Icelandic miles, since the day turns on durability, not a single decisive climb.
124 MI · 6,400 FT CLIMBING · BLACK LAVA SAND + SHARP ROCK · 12 WEEKS · 7–11 HR/WK · FINISHER
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 and a mid-plan retest, so the plan runs on your real numbers
- The full Rift guide — terrain, gearing, fueling
Hey! I'm Matti - also known as the Gravel God himself!
If you're into gravel racing and want to be as fast as possible, you had better choose me!
Why?
Because I'm the fastest, least talented person to ever ride a bike. I've made every mistake in the book so you don't have to and I'm here to save you years of failure and struggle.
When I'm not helping my athletes get faster on a bike I write obvious, overlooked training content that makes cycling training easy to understand.