This is Part 3 of a complete gravel season, the final block before your event. Base built your aerobic engine, Build sharpened it, and Race Prep (this plan) makes you race-specific. Run all three back to back and you have a 24-week season. This block assumes you've completed a build phase, ours or your own equivalent threshold work, 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: 12 weeks in three phases. First you extend the engine with sustained threshold and sweet-spot muscular endurance, roughly an hour of threshold work on the hardest days. Then you shift to race simulation: over-unders, race-pace tempo, and long rides ridden at goal effort with climb surges, exactly the sustained-power-plus-surge demand gravel actually asks for. The centerpiece is a full dress-rehearsal race simulation, around 80 percent of your race distance, where you lock in pacing, fueling, and equipment. Then you sharpen and taper into race week, holding just enough intensity to stay snappy. This is a gravel block, not a road block, so it is built on threshold and sweet spot, not short VO2 punches. Every ride is a structured workout that syncs to Zwift, Wahoo, or your head unit, and the weekend long rides double as your fueling rehearsals.

The Low level runs around 7 to 8 hours a week. It keeps every quality session and the full race-simulation logic, just with shorter long rides and a leaner weekend. This is the version for busy weeks, first-time gravel racers, or shorter events: all of the race-specific work, none of the junk miles. If you have 7 to 9 hours and want to show up genuinely prepared without upending your life, start here.

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!