Gravel Build, High Volume (6 weeks)
This is Part 2 of a complete gravel season. Base built your aerobic engine. Build (this plan) sharpens it, and Race Prep makes you race-specific for your event. Run all three back to back and you have a 24-week season. This block assumes you've completed a base phase, ours or your own equivalent aerobic base, before you start.

Pick your level by the time you actually have. This plan comes in three volumes, Low, Medium, and High. Same structure, same philosophy, same workouts. The only difference is how many hours you ride, so choose the one that fits your life, not your ego.

What's inside: 6 weeks, 5 rides a week plus two functional-strength sessions. One threshold (FTP) day to lift your ceiling, one sweet-spot muscular-endurance day for sustained climbing power, a gravel-torque endurance ride, and the centerpiece: a "Sweet Spot Long" that puts race-effort blocks inside a long aerobic ride, the closest thing to real gravel-race demand. A weekend long ride doubles as your fueling rehearsal. Every ride is a structured workout that syncs to Zwift, Wahoo, or your head unit.

The High level runs around 16 hours a week. On top of everything in the Medium plan, you add a second endurance ride and stretch the weekend rides so you're training back-to-back big days, the exact fatigue resistance long gravel events like Unbound demand. This is a serious training load. Come in with a strong base and 15 to 17 hours a week to give it.

PS... I'm Patrick McCrann, head coach and founder of Endurance Nation. I've been coaching endurance athletes for close to 20 years, and I've got the race resume to back it up: 30 Ironman finishes, a Big Buckle at Leadville, and a top 10 at Unbound 200. I've coached thousands of athletes through plans just like this one, and I build every block from the same methodology I use with my coached athletes. I know what gravel racing actually demands because I'm out there doing it. Enjoy the work!