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 working with about 5–7¾ hours in each non-race week against a hundred-mile day. Most of the work goes toward riding well over the long distance and handling the repeated climbing, because those are the demands that decide how the back half of the Hungry Bear goes.
100 MI · ~5,000 FT CLIMBING · GRAVEL ROADS THROUGH NORTHERN WISCONSIN CHEQUAMEGON AREA · 12 WEEKS · 5–7¾ HR/TRAINING 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 and a mid-plan retest, so the plan runs on your real numbers
- The full Hungry Bear 100 guide — terrain, gearing, fueling
Hey, I'm Matti. I spent 11 years at TrainingPeaks, where they trusted me to teach coaches how to coach at TrainingPeaks University. I raced Amateur Elite with Rio Grande Cycling Team and podiumed my age group at Unbound 200 in 2026. I have a degree in biology and exercise physiology from St. Olaf. I'm also a middle-aged dad of three, so I know training doesn't happen in a vacuum. I help gravel riders get stupidly fast without becoming the person who brings a food scale to a party