The First Month of UNBOUND Gravel Training
The results of the 2027 UNBOUND Gravel lottery drop on November 21st, but I’m not waiting around! I got a qualifier coin at Big Sugar Gravel, so I’m already training for the 200-mile race. That gives me over 200 days (seven months) to prepare for the biggest gravel event in the world, and I plan to use every one of them. Here’s a look at what my coach has planned for my first month of UNBOUND Gravel training.
The Winter Training Plan
My motivation is through the roof right now. I genuinely think I’m fitter than I’ve ever been, and maybe a little smarter too. Now it’s time to build on that. We kicked things off with a call with my coach, Ricky Arnopol, where we looked back at what worked this year and what we want to change.
Ricky’s biggest takeaway was simple: this year, we threw everything at the wall. Next year, we’re going to be more intentional. That means working harder at certain points, and also resting harder at others. The good news is that this season proved I can handle a big workload and recover well.
How many hours per week?
I averaged 12 hours per week this year, and about 13 hours per week in the 2-3 months leading up to UNBOUND. That's already a lot! Especially since I have a full-time job and a family. So how do we build on that?
We’re going to push volume earlier to try and progress faster and enter May/June with a higher training load (CTL) than this year. Ricky floated the idea of fitting a few big 20-hour weeks into crucial training blocks. That could look like one weekend a month with back-to-back six-hour days, which gets me to 12 hours, while spreading another eight hours across the other four-to-five days. These big weeks can be a great catalyst for jumping aerobic fitness year over year.
Ultimately, though, consistency is king. Even adding 15 to 30 minutes per ride on average stacks up to an extra 90 minutes to two hours per week. That moves the needle.
Resetting my FTP
Ricky decided to lower my FTP by 20 watts to 275 watts for now. This is to prevent me from going too hard too early and burning out. I've struggled with this in the past, so Ricky is putting a limiter on so we can ease into the harder work to come. At the end of this block, I’ll do an FTP test to reset my training zones properly.
Workouts in the First Four-Week Training Block
The first block isn’t too hard, but it isn’t easy either. Here’s what’s on the calendar:
- Muscle tension workouts: This is what Ricky calls low-cadence training, which has become extremely popular among pros, elites, and fast amateurs over the last few years. I'm doing two per week over the next four weeks. I’ll be doing intervals at tempo or threshold power at a very low cadence, around 50 to 60 RPM.
- Zone 2 endurance rides: This is going to be the bulk of what I do this winter. Plenty of easy miles to build my aerobic base.
- Sprint sessions: Just to keep things interesting and to keep my neuromuscular system firing through the winter, we'll have a few easy endurance rides with five-second sprints scattered throughout.
- Weightlifting: A couple of sessions per week, starting with three lightweight “adaptation sessions” to get my muscles ready without getting too sore. (No DOMS. We don’t want DOMS.)
I’m Finally Lifting Weights
I’ve never been good about lifting weights. To me, it always felt like doing multiplication tables, or those cursive worksheets from the ’90s where you write the same letter a million times. I’d rather be outside, riding my bike.
But this year, I got smoked over and over again in fast finishes. I'm realizing that, while I’m fit, I lack true strength. We're going to be pairing gym work with muscle tension workouts this winter to try and fix that!
Mini Training Camps
One thing I’m excited about this winter and spring is the possibility of doing a few mini training camps. I’ve always wanted to, but it was hard when my son was younger. Now that he’s in grade school and a little more independent, I think I can pull it off.
This fall, I raced the Salida Bike Fest double and proved to myself that I can handle two hard days in a row. A few multi-day camps could be exactly what I need to boost my fitness before UNBOUND.
My Goals for UNBOUND 2027
It’s early, but I already know what I want. Obviously, I want to have the best UNBOUND I’ve ever had. That’s tricky, because so much depends on conditions, and as we saw this year, conditions can totally screw you. So I’ll also judge my performance by metrics. Setting a new normalized power record for the full race is my biggest goal.
But my biggest dream goal is an age group podium. I currently race in the men’s 30 to 39 category, which might be the most competitive amateur age group in gravel. I probably won't achieve this goal next year. There's a very good chance I'll NEVER achieve it. But big hairy audacious goals like this are the whole reason I'm training. I need a dream, no matter how unreachable, to keep me motivated.
Follow Along!
This is the first episode of an ongoing UNBOUND Gravel training series. Over the next seven months, I’ll share it all: the cool stuff, the miserable stuff, and hopefully, some useful stuff too. Make sure to subscribe on YouTube so you don’t miss the next one!