If there’s one thing that we’ve learned in the past couple of years, it’s that gravel racing keeps growing and is here to stay. In a world where new events are popping up like dandelions, how do we as athletes choose which races are right for us? This is a commonly discussed topic with a lot of my coached athletes during the off- and pre-seasons, and together we develop a race calendar keeping these five things in mind.
1. Consider Race Terrain
研究砾石竞赛时，我要看的第一件事是课程描述和个人资料。该课程的需求最终将决定比赛将如何从战术角度展开以及您将需要竞争的技能类型。这将有助于在接下来的几个月中告知您的培训，以确保您以适当的健身和技能来完成课程。
It’s also important to consider the wow factor of the course. Does the course inspire you or spark motivation for you to train day after day? A quick YouTube search will likely turn up some footage of the course and give you a better idea of the type of riding you can expect.
2. Think Big Picture
Endurance athletes aren’t known for remarkable self-control when it comes to filling their calendar with races. While there is nothing wrong with a stacked race calendar, it’s important to look at the big picture. Gravel races are notoriously difficult from both a physical and cognitive perspective, and blindly loading the calendar with races can lead to burnout or injury. Instead, when researching races, determine your priority “A” events and build the rest of your calendar around those, with adequate time to recover and rebuild between priority races.
Another big picture item to consider is planning for the time of year the event will occur. Is it an early spring race or does it close out the season in the fall? From weather and kit choices to forecasting your peak fitness, timing is everything when developing a training plan.
说到培训计划，这是我为训vwin德赢是哪个国家的品牌练台面创建的一些我最喜欢的砾石赛车计划：
砾石Century+ Plan, 8 Weeks w/Strength & Mobility
8-Week Mid-Season Build (Gravel/CX)
3. Make Your Gravel Race an Experience
砾石种族有各种形状，尺寸和地点，从您当地城镇的35英里有趣的游乐设施到异国情调的艰苦的超耐用活动。您将花几个月的时间为这场比赛做准备，因此请确保选择令人鼓舞且可能难忘的东西。虽然砾石赛车一直是美国自行车赛车的主要学科，但摩洛哥，冰岛，哥斯达黎加和不列颠哥伦比亚省等目的地却在砾石潮流上跳上了一些惊人的事件。话虽如此，美国仍然是砾石的圣地，并且不乏专注于运动员体验的良好事件。如果菜单上不在全球范围内进行喷气式设置，我会强烈考虑诸如Robidoux Rendezvous，BWR，SBT GRVL或Tushar中的破碎机。这些活动超越了，为参与者创造了独特的体验。
4. Choose Events that Promote Growth
在研究比赛并将日历的框架汇总在一起时，我专注于促进运动增长的事件。这可能是在季节的短期增长或跨越多个季节的长期增长。不要害怕推动自己，因为比赛不仅仅是获胜或输掉。通常，您远离战术知识扩大的种族，并对当前的优势和缺点有更深入的了解。选择下一场比赛时，请问自己这场比赛将如何帮助您为将来的更大，更具挑战性的种族或目标做好准备。
5. Does the Race Align with Your Training/Life Balance?
My final and most fundamental tip for selecting your next gravel race is to carefully reflect on the previous four tips and ensure that each of them aligns with both the time you’ve set aside for training as well as your work/life balance. Remember that you started riding gravel because it was fun — don’t lose sight of that throughout the process of planning and training. I always encourage my athletes to cautiously consider the amount of time they can realistically allocate to training, and determine if that aligns with the bare minimum amount of time required to train for their priority event. This allows you to move forward confident in your ability to maintain a healthy balance of training with life responsibilities, and deliver you to the start line prepared and ready to take on your next gravel race.
