Toppling Goliath Gravel Grinder races Saturday, October 10, 2026 from Toppling Goliath Brewing Company in Decorah, Iowa. The Iowa Gravel Series championship covers about 62 miles with roughly 3,500 feet of climbing and starts at 7:30 AM.
This eight-week Finisher plan assumes an existing riding base and concentrates the runway on 62 miles and about 3,500 feet of repeated Driftless climbing. Purposeful long rides prove sub-threshold pacing, steady fueling, open-road awareness, and an October layer system while protecting enough recovery to absorb the work.
62 MI · 3,500 FT CLIMBING · DRIFTLESS AREA GRAVEL ROADS WITH REPEATED HILLS · 8 WEEKS · 7–11 HR/WK · FINISHER
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 Toppling Goliath Gravel Grinder 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