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 High level runs around 15 to 16 hours a week, and the race-simulation weeks push higher. On top of everything in the Medium plan, you add a second endurance ride and stretch the weekends into back-to-back big days, including double "Long Haul" weekends and six-hour Saturdays. That back-to-back load is the exact fatigue resistance long gravel events like Unbound demand. This is a serious training block. Come in with a strong build behind you and 15 to 18 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!