4-week Winter BADLANDS gravel training plan (Zwift compatible)

If you’re an intermediate cyclist targeting the Badlands Gravel Race, this 4-week winter training plan is designed to help you use the winter months wisely, maintain momentum, and build the foundations needed for one of the toughest gravel events on the planet. It’s the ideal bridge between winter consistency and the extreme demands of southern Spain’s high desert.

Who’s it for?
This training plan is aimed at intermediate cyclists with a solid fitness base who want structure and direction through the winter. Whether you’re coming off a busy season, taking a short reset, or simply want a clear focus leading into next year, this plan helps you maintain fitness while laying the groundwork for Badlands-specific preparation.

Importantly, this plan is written by a Badlands finisher, so it's shaped by real race experience and an understanding of what the course demands; physically, mentally, and logistically.

Is it for you?
This plan assumes you’re comfortable riding both indoors (e.g. Zwift) and outdoors, and happy mixing structured quality sessions with longer endurance rides. It’s ideal if you want to stay consistent without burning out, keep variety in your training, and gradually rebuild aerobic fitness, strength, and durability, all essential for the long, remote gravel sectors, relentless climbing, and self-supported nature of Badlands.

What’s involved?
The plan builds progressively over 4 weeks, balancing structure with flexibility. Each week you’ll work across the key training zones, combining indoor sessions for efficiency and control with outdoor rides to develop endurance, resilience, and real-world gravel skills. There’s a strong emphasis on aerobic conditioning, sustained tempo and sweet spot work, fatigue resistance, and heat-resilient efficiency, crucial for the endless climbs, rough tracks, and exposed terrain around Granada, Gorafe Desert, the Sierra Nevada foothills, and the Tabernas-style badlands that define the race.

The goal isn’t to peak now; it’s to come out of winter fit, motivated, and well prepared to progress into more race-specific training as Badlands approaches, ready for big days, big heat, and very long miles in some of the most brutal gravel terrain in Europe.