Dead Swede Gravel is 100 miles with about 7,700 feet of climbing on ranch-country gravel roads beneath the Bighorn Mountains. Expect open terrain and high-plains conditions, where wind is a variable to plan around.
This is a twelve-week plan built around the higher weekly hours that racing this distance takes, not just covering it. The volume is higher and the hard days more specific, because a result over 100 miles of ranch-country gravel comes from holding a pace through repeated climbing and exposed wind, not just reaching the finish.
100 MI · 7,671 FT CLIMBING · GRAVEL ROADS THROUGH RANCH COUNTRY WITH BIGHORN MOUNTAINS · 12 WEEKS · 9–13 HR/WK · COMPETE
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 Dead Swede Gravel 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