Tour of Sufferlandria - 24 Jan to 1 Feb 2015

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Tour of Sufferlandria - 24 Jan to 1 Feb 2015

Postby Bopomofo » 16 Dec 2014 14:39

The 2015 Tour of Sufferlandria starts on Saturday 24th Jan.

The stages haven't been announced yet but it is guaranteed to be nasty, painful and to smell of wee/vomit. Last year's was brilliant: it became a total obsession to get my rides in. I was planning my days around when I could ride and even worked from home one day with two stages so I could do one at lunchtime instead of back-to-back in the eve. Total duration was around 12 hours over 9 days.

In the space of nine days my technique improved massively - for instance my max cadence went from about 120 rpm up to a massive 150rpm sprint across the finish line. It also had a very sudden and marked effect on my running. During the ToS I got Power PBs for 5s, 10s, 20s, 30s, 1min, 2min, 5min, 10min, 15min, 20min, 30min, 90min... I got PBs several times during the tour for some durations. Nice.

Oh, I don't have all the 'fest videos required, so some days I just stuck the radio on and watched the graphs on the screen. You don't need to spend a fortune on vids to be able to do this. You DO need to be a TrainerRoad member, which is about £6 a month but you can stop and restart your membership on a month by month basis.

Highly recommended as a motivator to give your winter training a lift.

For your enjoyment, my Endo comments for each workout:

Saturday: Rubber Glove - 1h
FTP test. Reset FTP from 227W to 200W before-hand, held 230W average for 20min test so FTP now at 218W. Not bad with a half marathon in my legs from a few hours earlier. Will have to see how this goes for the rest of ToS.

Sunday: ISLAGIATT - 2h
FTP at 218W (set yesterday), 100% difficulty. Very, VERY tough. My legs are killing me.

Monday: Revolver - 50min
I hate Revolver at the best of times. Also, just sitting on the bike is hurting my arse now. However, in the spirit of the Tour I left it at 100% . Ooh, bugger.
Legs stinging in the last 30s of each interval from the halfway mark. It wasn't until rep 15 that I started dribbling and making funny noises. Still managed to smash rep 16, though. Feeling comfy at 100rpm, too. :-)

Easier than I expected. Although still fecking difficult.

Tuesday: Hell Hath No Fury - 1h12
Painful from the start, mainly due to my bruised sit-bones.
I enjoyed the workout, despite not having the video to watch. I made it up in some bits, swapping gear/cadence while maintaining power. In the fiddly bits where the power pops up and down I kept the same gear and just varied cadence. This was good training. I went for it a couple of time and was OK at 120rpm. This is good for me. Love it.

Wednesday: The Wretched - 50min
First time I've done this. I don't have the vid so just TR and the radio.
Wasn't as bad as I expected: Lots of sweet spot, tempo, endurance pace etc; some VO2 max and sprint stuff. Not total agony, just a steady burn into oblivion.

...followed by: Extra Shot - 22min
After The Wretched this felt like cruel and unusual punishment for the first few minutes. I think if TrainerRoad hadn't insisted I complete the cool down at the end of The Wretched (otherwise no ToS points) I'd have finished the last interval and jumped straight into this. Took a few minutes to get going... then I started enjoying it. Oh, the misery. Mind you, the last five minutes were a descent into hell via Satan's bowels after an ungodly vindaloo.

Thursday: A Very Dark Place. - 50min
First time I've done this little horror... forgot I had the video until it suddenly loaded up in TR. Enjoyed following the cadence notes. Very happy at the higher cadences, UNLESS I've just been doing a lower cadence set - it then seems to take my legs a little while to get back up to speed. Second interval was tough. Last interval was the worst. TR + 'fest teaches you to just suck up pain. Last set HRave was 146, breathing moderate/heavy... but fuck my old boots, my thighs felt like they were on fire.
I really enjoyed it. #weirdo

Friday (lunchtime): Angels - 1h 05min
Starting to hurt, now. Tough getting out of bed this morning. Couldn't face doing today's two back-to-back so did Angels as a lunch break - the last interval stung quite a lot.
Now I'm really not looking forwards to getting on the bloody thing again later on. The chimp is really quite insistent that I quit.

Friday (pm): The Hunted - 1h
Holy shit. Why would anybody even MAKE this workout, let alone expect people to do it? The 20min interval 2 uses your FTP as the 'rest' bits, ffs. Interval 3 was just one big, long scream. Got average power records for 10, 15, 20 and 30 mins. I got a 5min record during 'Angels' at lunchtime. A good day... glad it's over.

Saturday: Blender - 1h 45min
I knew this would hurt. And it did. Struggling to hit power targets on the sprints, mainly because I couldn't jump quick enough. Had to start anticipating the interval and winding up before the segment started. Hit 140rpm at the end of the last sprint! The 3x4min ftp efforts at the end were hard. Legs are getting very tired now, but 5, 10, 20 and 30s power PBs so I'm still smashing it. :-D

Sunday: Violator - 1h 08min
...and ACROSS THE LINE!!! :-D
ToS completed, badge earned. Nasty little workout, couldn't respond quickly enough to the jumps in the final set, but then Sufferfest is RPE-based so won't match TrainerRoad on short sprint efforts.
Couldn't resist ruining the final cool down with a glorious 500W sprint for the line: 5, 10, 20s power PBs. Glad I completed it.
I had fun once. It was awful.
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Re: Tour of Sufferlandria - 24 Jan to 1 Feb 2015

Postby IanM » 16 Dec 2014 14:45

IIRC The Wretched's a decent video (in terms of footage & storyline). Possibly worth picking it up if it's a stage again this year.
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Re: Tour of Sufferlandria - 24 Jan to 1 Feb 2015

Postby Kevy427 » 16 Dec 2014 21:20

Which workout won you the iDevice?
Pedalling between cake shops
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Re: Tour of Sufferlandria - 24 Jan to 1 Feb 2015

Postby Bopomofo » 17 Dec 2014 10:09

IanM wrote:IIRC The Wretched's a decent video (in terms of footage & storyline). Possibly worth picking it up if it's a stage again this year.


Thanks for the tip. I'm going to wait for the announcement then treat myself to another three or four of the vids as an early birthday present. :twisted:

Kevy427 wrote:Which workout won you the iDevice?


I won the iPad from the overall finisher's competition. There were prizes awarded for each day of racing, too, regardless of whether or not you actually completed the tour.

As each cut-off passed it was nice seeing the number of people still in the race dwindling as more people were dropped from the pack.

You have to complete each stage on the correct day. They give +/- 12 hours, so you get the full day to do it regardless of where you are in the world, basically a 48 hour window for each one. For us on GMT, that means each window opens at lunchtime the day before and closes at lunchtime the day after, so you do have some wiggle room. I'd hate to play that game though: it would all end in tears, a bucket and probably casualty.
I had fun once. It was awful.
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Re: Tour of Sufferlandria - 24 Jan to 1 Feb 2015

Postby SickBoy » 17 Dec 2014 13:57

Seconded, planning on doing this again but not going in cold this time. It's a great motivator and like you say you don't need all the vids. In fact sometimes I enjoyed having music on instead for a nice change. IIRC the Sufferfest did some discounts on videos in the run up. I have the etched pint glass for finishing last year, I think the idea is a Jersey this year.

Edited for autocorrect errors and because I wasn't sure where to put the apostrophe on finishers.

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Re: Tour of Sufferlandria - 24 Jan to 1 Feb 2015

Postby Tritans » 17 Dec 2014 17:56

You old sweet talker you. You make it sound so appealing, I just might.
One who wants to do something, will find a way.
One who doesn't, will find an excuse.

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Re: Tour of Sufferlandria - 24 Jan to 1 Feb 2015

Postby Bopomofo » 18 Dec 2014 02:13

Tritans wrote:You old sweet talker you. You make it sound so appealing, I just might.


Oh, PLEASE do this, Tritanic. We'll have a BCTTT ToS Team thread... we can all share our sick-bucket stories. I would look forwards to your reports: it is a Tourettes-tastic challenge.

We have a good number of team members in the BCTTT TrainerRoad crew, so why not have a go at this as a club challenge?

Remember, you don't have to own the vids, but it helps to have a few to look forwards to. They are very good fun to watch and play along with, although sometimes I miss the action on screen because I am desperately trying to keep my power dot on the blue line... and I'm probably dribbling, having snot-strings and making noises that children probably shouldn't hear.
I had fun once. It was awful.
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Re: Tour of Sufferlandria - 24 Jan to 1 Feb 2015

Postby Bopomofo » 31 Dec 2014 10:57

The Tour route is finally revealed and, if I'm honest, I'm not sure I can do it. The final weekend looks absolutely brutal: Revolver and Violator back-to-back makes me shudder. I haven't done Half Is Easy (yet) so don't know what it is like, but like Revolver and Violator it is a lot of 160% sprint efforts.

Logistically, I'm going to be away in the Cotwolds on the Saturday evening. We'll be wanting to make a weekend of it, so my only option will be to get up at 6am and do this lot. Then do ISLAGIATT on the Sunday eve when we get home.

I can taste puke already.

Stage 1, Sat, 24 Jan: Elements of Style* + The Long Scream: 1hr 10mins

Stage 2, Sun, 25 Jan: Blender : 1hr 40mins

Stage 3: Mon, 26 Jan: Fight Club : 1hr

Stage 4: Tue, 27 Jan: Nine Hammers* : 1hr

Stage 5: Wed, 28 Jan: Angels** : 1hr

Stage 6: Thu, 29 Jan: Local Hero : 1hr 25mins

Stage 7: Fri, 30 Jan: The Rookie: 1hr

Stage 8: Sat, 31 Jan: Revolver + Violator + Half is Easy (Dame Alissa Memorial Stage) : 2hrs 25mins

Stage 9: Sun, 1 Feb: ISLAGIATT : 2hrs
I had fun once. It was awful.
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Re: Tour of Sufferlandria - 24 Jan to 1 Feb 2015

Postby SickBoy » 01 Jan 2015 03:11

The final weekend does look brutal, the rest is easy though, by comparison... and you'll be fitter by then. The hardest thing is going to be finding 4.5 hours at the weekend!

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Re: Tour of Sufferlandria - 24 Jan to 1 Feb 2015

Postby Big_Show » 01 Jan 2015 06:14

I'm going to keep an eye on this thread. At the moment I'm planning on attacking the various Sufferfests over the summer when it's too hot to do anything outside other than melt. I hate treadmills too much so these seem like the best way of keeping up the aerobic fitness.
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