Any fat bikers out there - how to categorize an A race

Any advice for how to categorize a 3h fat bike race? I currently have it set as an MTB race and the Athletica training plan reflects that. This is an off season race, it’s A mostly because it’s the only significant race in the winter months.

The majority of my off-season training program (nov-feb) is colored by this MTB race type

The event I’m targeting is the Fat Bike Birkie in WI. It’s 3h of rolling cross country ski trails. Snow conditions on the track can make it technical in spots, but it also plays like a flowy gravel race for much of the course.

Thoughts on whether I should change this event from an MTB event to an all-rounder event?

The rest of my 2025 season is heavily focused on long gravelly events, ie, all-rounder.

@SimpleEnduranceCoach you may be familiar with this event?

Thx!!

Hi Dan,
That’s a good question. The mountain bike race designation will make sure you get some mountain bike days in your training. If you picked the all-rounder, you won’t get the mountain bike-specific training days.
Since you can always get on the mountain bike - or fat bike, in this instance - it doesn’t matter much which you choose. The rest of your season is definitely all-around.
The big thing with the Fat Bike Birkie are the relentless hills, so definitely work hard on the 30/30s! Also, extend the aerobic development days as long as you have time for to work on your aerobic capacity for Birkie and your 2025 gravel events, which are longer.
Hope that helps!

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Super helpful Paul. Many thanks. I’ll likely shift it to all rounder and just mix in some MTB outings – which is something I’d do anyway.

Yes, HIIT sessions are going well of late, motivated to stick with those.

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