Whitney Allison: Unbound 200 Training

Whitney Allison is a seasoned professional cyclist with two Belgian Waffle Ride wins, a podium at SBT GRVL, and two top five finishes in the Unbound 200 Elite Women’s race to her name. Today, she’s sharing her training insights and expertise with us to help you conquer whatever that big red “X” is that’s looming large on your event calendar for 2025, be it Unbound or something else.

First off, thanks for taking the time to share your Unbound insights with us Whitney! 

Q: How early do you start to tailor your training for Unbound 200, and what do those specific nuances look like? 

Transcordilleras (a self-supported 1,000km backpacking race in Colombia) marks the end of my “base” period. I’ve found that I’m not going to be able to gain much more than that and stay consistently healthy. Last year, after doing the same race, I did not get quite enough recovery, and although I felt good for a while after, I missed my peak by a couple weeks. During the buildup to Unbound, I prioritize intensity over volume during the week, with longer rides reserved for the weekends. Unbound will be my fifth race of the 2025 season, so those other race days are additional opportunities for results, as well as a great way to build fitness for Unbound through race-specific intensity. We also have some fun “race rides” around town in Fort Collins, which are excellent tools for intensity and group dynamics, and should not be underrated. 

Additionally, I have taken up lifting year-round during the past two seasons. When the season runs from February to October, you really can’t afford not to lift, both for overall strength now, and bone density in the long run. Finally, I will have a few longer “shakeout rides” as we head toward that weekend, and I always try to do this route as the last one—it’s pretty long, but also very busy and enjoyable. A low-key tradition.

Q: Unbound is known for its challenging terrain of endless punchy hills filled with tire-shredding rock, schizophrenic weather, navigational challenges, and, of course, its stratospheric length. How do you prepare for those challenges from a mental standpoint, and does it differ from other events in that respect? 

The stoic wisdom that you can only control your controllables is so essential here. I had fantastic fitness in 2023, but had to withdraw after 12 mechanicals in the mud. In 2024, I missed my peak and had catastrophic luck with flats. My fourth place in 2022 was more about having a 100% clean race than it was about having much better fitness than the following years. What these results taught me is that you can choose the best tires, ride the best equipment, and do all the physical, mental, and emotional prep, but ultimately there is a degree of uncertainty to Unbound.  With the duration and randomness of it, it can feel extra sucky—and it is! You have you go into it with belief in yourself and your equipment, and if one of those uncontrollable things happens, you just deal with it in real time. 

It also means that even though many athletes, myself included, throw a ton of weight behind Unbound, it’s not the only race of the season. No season is doomed because of a bad race at Unbound. It’s disappointing to have something bad happen, and very normal to have a little cry over it, but it’s not the end of the world. If you are feeling extra bummed out, get off the socials, stop talking about it, and connect with some people there in Emporia about their day. You could even, heaven forbid, talk about something else!

Q: How has your choice in equipment evolved much over the years, and do you have contingencies where equipment selection is concerned to accommodate last-minute changes in weather? 

The tire side of things has been wild over the past few years, and it really shows that it’s still the pioneer days of that space; what size and tread make the most sense is still very much up for debate. We do know that with competition increasing, it’s much less likely now to be able to have a significant mechanical and make it back to win or podium. For that reason, I’ve increased tire size each year, but it hasn’t correlated to a reduced number of tire-based mechanicals at Unbound. We do see evidence of it being faster and more comfortable, though. I might have one other choice with me heading into Unbound, but I’m honestly pretty set going in. I don’t know that the 1-2mm difference between this or that tire makes or breaks a race as much as just not flatting. Flatting is always slower.

Q: Do you have a pre-determined tactical strategy that you stick to, or do you operate more on feel?

If you don’t count the “mud year,” and I don’t, last year was the first real year of the women’s-only start. There just wasn’t a ton of data on what that would mean for how the race was ridden. With the men, the strategy was simply to be as far up as possible and hold on for dear life.

Coming from road, I know it’s essential to make the splits at the key points. Some of those points can reliably be found at major MMRs, particular turns, and aid stations. But others might happen in more random places as a result of a crash or an attack. The race is 200 MILES, so there are endless opportunities to make a difference. Additionally, with gravel being more individual, how much to contribute to the group dynamic at any point in the race is always a consideration. 

Q: Nutrition is always critical for longer events, but Unbound takes it to another level. What's your fueling strategy during training and the race itself? Do you drill down on a specific strategy of carbs per hour, etc?

To have the consistent power output that’s required for these events in these fields, you have to consume a ton, consistently. All those longer training rides and early season races are chances to see what works best for you. I’m not a sports dietician, but it does take water to process carbs, and I know how my body feels if I’m over or under my ideal electrolyte balance.

There are also logistical challenges to fueling: where do you put Liquid Shots and how do you consume them? Do you fill both bottles with EFS-PRO or do you need one to be water? We are all similar people, but the specific strategy is still individual. What works in training may not work in a race, as weather, heat, and humidity all play a role as well.

Q: Do you eat anything out of the ordinary that you might not consume during a “shorter” race of, say, 100 miles?

If you are eating 300-400 calories of sugar an hour for 9-10 hours, I can assure you something less sweet sounds more interesting. For me, that means I’ll pack a PayDay bar, though it’s not a guarantee I’ll have the opportunity to eat it!

Q: Speaking of eating, do you alter your usual pre-race dinner or breakfast at all for Unbound in particular? 

Not really; I generally find lower-fiber, milder, simpler foods more appealing during that week. It’s definitely not the week for big, spicy kale lentil bowls every day ;-) Like many, I definitely get a lack of appetite that morning and have narrowed down my breakfast to a single packet of instant oats with peanut butter, OJ, and one of those higher-protein yogurt smoothie. I find I can drink a lot of the calories before my nerves catch up. I’ll also add a banana whenever I can. If you’ve been eating well going into the event, you are going to be fine. 

Q: What are some of the biggest mistakes you see uninitiated riders make in preparing for Unbound 200?

There is a temptation to train too much too early. Your big November/December training blocks don’t matter if you lose steam or are chronically fatigued by April. 

Especially with it being a relatively newer sport, we’re still discovering what overtraining looks like, and some of the consequences of that. Nonetheless, exercise addiction and overtraining are real things. I hate what feels like the glorification of chronic overtraining that I see online and elsewhere these days. I personally believe that some professionals currently overpromote extreme training, and certain types of social media groups pick that up and glorify it without enough context because they don’t understand it. I don’t think it’s healthy at all and it creates a misleading storyline, especially for young riders who think they need to have a 135 CTL to be successful. That type of volume simply isn’t feasible for many aspiring pros who have to hold down a 40-hour-a-week job on top of their training. 

In my 20s, eating disorders were super common in road cycling, and I feel like this is the replacement of that in the gravel scene. I’m concerned about overuse injuries, overtraining symptoms, burnout, and long-term health issues. Everyone has to be a bit neurotic to be in this space, but that is why having a good, highly educated coach is so important: to be a counterweight to your own neuroticism. If left to my own devices, I would 100% overtrain. 

Q: Outside of the physical and mental preparations necessary to meet the challenges that lie in wait for riders in the Flint Hills, are there any other Unbound gotcha’s to be aware of?

The heat and humidity can be really bad, especially if you aren’t exposed to it at home. Unbound happens at a time of year when Colorado weather is still fluctuating quite a lot. I have recently added heat training (via sauna) to my preparations. It has huge benefits to me and takes about two weeks.

My other big preparation tip is that walking through the whole experience in your mind, and walking through your aid station experience with your crew is time well spent. The visualization is good for you, and talking through your plans with your crew will ease nerves and help you all get on the same page. Talk through some crisis plans, too— what’s the plan if you have a mechanical or crash or need a bike spray down? Will you notify them ahead of time? (The answer to that is yes, by the way.) How will things be laid out at the aid station, or will they just hand off a musette bag?

Q: There always seems to be a lot of conversation among riders after Unbound surrounding how long it takes to recover from such a huge effort. In your experience, what has that process looked like? 

I liken it to an entire stage race in one day, and I personally need a week off before I start feeling right again. In the past, I’ve tried racing the weekend after, and it’s never gone well for me. It’s a great week to bask in the glory of your accomplishment, sleep loads, give your poor bike a spa day, get a massage, and connect with the friends and family you lightly abandoned as you moved towards your final prep. For me, that next weekend, I’ll be supporting the FoCo Fondo x Fort Follies Women’s Weekend with a skills clinic one day and a women’s ride the next. It’s the best way to round out that post-Unbound week.

Q: Any final advice for aspiring Unbound 200 finishers?

Bikes are tools for joy, adventure, and self-discovery. It’s easy to get lost in the weeds of all the prep, but ultimately, it’s just like riding a bike!