Uwharrie Forest Gravel Grinder is 55 miles on National Forest dirt and gravel doubletrack, with about 4,300 feet of climbing that comes as short, steep, repeating hills rather than long climbs — the Uwharries’ kicks at miles 15 and 45, and a technical Jeep Climb near mile 27. Late February in central North Carolina runs 30s to 50s, with real mud risk after winter rain.
This is an eight-week plan for Uwharrie, built around four to six hours a week, and it assumes a base is already there. With limited hours over eight weeks, most sessions are repeatable-effort work — sharpening, not building from scratch.
55 MI · 4,292 FT CLIMBING · MOSTLY UWHARRIE NATIONAL FOREST DIRT/GRAVEL DOUBLETRACK · 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 Uwharrie Forest Gravel Grinder 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.