Pony Express 120 is 120 miles of rolling farmland gravel out of Marysville, Kansas — about 4,000 feet of climbing, spread across the whole day instead of stacked into one climb.
No single hill decides it; the distance does, ridden on open gravel where Kansas wind works on you all day and September heat is common. This is a twelve-week plan for racing it, built around the higher weekly hours that racing 120 miles takes, not just finishing. A result over a day this long comes from holding pace through the last miles of wind, when the riders around you are fading.
120 MI · 4,000 FT CLIMBING · ROLLING FARM GRAVEL, WIND + HEAT · 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 Pony Express 120 guide — pacing a 120-mile day, fueling, heat, and Kansas wind
WHAT YOU'LL GET
Still holding race pace in the final hours — a result that reflects the training.
For the rider chasing a placing, not a finish. · plans@gravelgodcoaching.com
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