The Hungry Bear 100 is 100 miles of gravel roads through northern Wisconsin’s Chequamegon, rolling to hilly with roughly 5,000 feet of climbing. It runs in early May, when the day can start with a cold, raw rollout and warm through the afternoon, with rain in play.

This is a twelve-week plan for riders over fifty, built with more recovery between the hard days because the body recovers slower than it used to. Most of the work is the repeated climbing and the long gravel miles the distance asks for, spaced with more recovery around the hard days, since arriving fit and uninjured is the harder half after fifty.

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 Hungry Bear 100 guide — terrain, gearing, fueling