BWR Arizona is 104 miles with about 6,600 feet of climbing across the Phoenix desert, most of it on gravel, sand washes, and rough service roads, with technical singletrack sectors and loose rocky ramps mixed throughout. Late February brings low-40s starts warming into the 70s by mid-day, open sun, and common wind.
This is an eight-week plan for riders with four to six hours a week, built around handling the sand, loose rock, and technical sectors rather than logging bulk miles. Most of the limited hours go toward repeated efforts on rough terrain and the power application that sandy, unroad ground demands, because on this course bike handling and time on your feet in the technical sectors matter as much as fitness.
104 MI · 6,600 FT CLIMBING · ~60-70% GRAVEL/DIRT ROADS AND DOUBLE-TRACK, ~15-20% TECHNICAL · 8 WEEKS · 4–6 HR/WK · TIME-CRUNCHED
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 BWR Arizona 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.