*Tour of Sufferlandria* - Get on those turbos!

jotko

Cracked out Fight Club this morning, sticking with 95% - Christ on a, err, bike my legs are feeling it now.

Will do extra shot this evening when my jelly legs have recovered, cant say I am looking forward to that.

t5nel

I got up late and so did extra shot before walking the dog and fighting to get 3 kids to school......

Needless to say I did not put the real reason they were late in the school record book.

Wondering if it is possible to complete stage 3 and do stage 4 tonight as I want to be 'ahead' of schedule again.

Interestingly the maths on the TR page seems to be a bit squiffy as 773 people have done the stage 2 ride but only 584 are still in the tour. I don't know if this is due to over simplified model (anyone doing the ride regardless of being on tour) or because people have had issues uploading workouts or missed the cut off etc.

Anyway still in it for now.

Just for fun what is your best guesstimate of the number of ppl who will complete? I think about 130...

jotko

t5nel wrote:

Wondering if it is possible to complete stage 3 and do stage 4 tonight as I want to be 'ahead' of schedule again.

It is certainly possible according to the rules, whether it is possible to actually do it will depend on your legs!

I really need to do 2 tomorrow so I can have Wed off - I play 5 a-side Wed evening and I am not sure I can double that up with an hour of suffering. Then again, the thought of 30 minutes later is fairly harrowing, Fight Club kicked my ass this morning.

richa

t5nel wrote:

Interestingly the maths on the TR page seems to be a bit squiffy as 773 people have done the stage 2 ride but only 584 are still in the tour. I don't know if this is due to over simplified model (anyone doing the ride regardless of being on tour) or because people have had issues uploading workouts or missed the cut off etc.

I think the 'rides' stat is anyone who entered the tour i.e. not limited to just completers - you are still eligible for the daily prizes on the days you do even if you do not complete every stage.

jotko wrote:

I really need to do 2 tomorrow so I can have Wed off - I play 5 a-side Wed evening and I am not sure I can double that up with an hour of suffering. Then again, the thought of 30 minutes later is fairly harrowing, Fight Club kicked my ass this morning.

Extra shot is 'only' 21mins. Probably better to do Extra Shot (0:21) + AVDP (0:54), than have to double up AVDP (0:54)with Angels (1:05) tomorrow.

t5nel

RichA wrote:

I think the 'rides' stat is anyone who entered the tour i.e. not limited to just completers - you are still eligible for the daily prizes on the days you do even if you do not complete every stage.

Ahh that would make sense. I did not consider that as I had understood the bit about daily eligibility differently.

bobinski

Trainerroad got me up and running again with some beta software. Mind you, i had to get up at 6am this morning to get the Hunted out of the way before work. Legs are err, sore. More to do tonight now but glad to still be in the hunt!

jgsi

Stage 4 , I got out of the way this morning as soon as it went live.
If anyone remembers my beetroot thread viewtopic.php?f=40011&t=12704658&hilit=beetroot , I am now on the juice for this week

t5nel

bobinski wrote:

Trainerroad got me up and running again with some beta software. Mind you, i had to get up at 6am this morning to get the Hunted out of the way before work. Legs are err, sore. More to do tonight now but glad to still be in the hunt!

I have to say that their support/help in my experience is great! Glad you were able to get on it and respect for doing the Hunted this morning

bobinski

Ta t5nel,

Problem reoccurred clearly pc related. I browse to the files but TR doesnt seem to hook the. So, completed next 2 tonight slightly out of sync and harder as a result...say I!
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/181723
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/182833
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/182752

legs are gonna hurt tomorrow

springtide9

Well didn't take me long to get 'dropped'! :roll:
.
Excuses, excuses...
Did the first Stage on Saturday (after being interrupted on Friday 20 mins in, by a work call!). Made it outside on Sunday and thought I'd manage to make the cutoff today for Stage 2... but conference calls overrun arhh! work!

But back on track today, completing both Stage 3's. Feel the need to get ahead this week to give a bit of breathing space in case of another 'did not start'.

Anyway ...

Stage 1: Hell Hath No Fury @ 85% (sorry!)
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/178397

Stage 2: Did Not Start! But a good excuse...
http://app.strava.com/activities/38859373

Stage 3a: Fight Club (remastered) @ 90%
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/182090

Stage 3b: Extra Shot @100%
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/182221

Think 90-95% is a decent pace to try and hit and keep going for the 9 days. 85% was too easy, but I needed an easy start after pretty much 2 weeks off the bike. Hopefully after the 'Tour' I'll get some of my lost fitness back!

mattshrops

Well its not getting any easier...
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/182834

Had to go for 90% again. Can't believe theres still 5 more days to go.

jotko

Gonna have to get extra shot out the way early doors tomorrow to avoid being dropped, life got in the way tonight so couldn't even manage 22 minutes. I am secretly quite glad as my legs are shot

Working from home tomorrow so should find the time to finish stage 3 and crack out stage 4 - hopefully find the legs too, sticking with 95% for now.

t5nel

So tonight back top back I banged out Fight Club and A Very Dark Place
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/182986
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/183213

I also did Extra Shot at 6am this morning so I'm feeling pretty tired - was actually painful getting of the trainer...

I have done them all at 100% so far BUT I did drop my FTP by 10% as I think I have lost some fitness...though judging by my performance so far I dont think it has dropped of THAT much so I am going to try and leave FTP alone and do them all at 100% - I guess this is probably similar to what most of you have done.

If I feel good I'll do Angels tomorrow evening but I like that fact that I have some breathing room against the dreaded over running conf call!!!

Kepp it up lads
Tim

markp80

Extra Shot and Fight Club completed for me this evening, so I'm still with you guys.
I think Fight Club on its own would be easier than stages 1 & 2, but Extra Shot straight before it adds a bit of spice!

Cheers,
MarkP

jotko

Well I hanging on the back and blowing out my arse but I have not been dropped yet

Extra shot done with 1 hour to spare, thats a good workout for 22 minutes!

mattshrops

jotko wrote:

Well I hanging on the back and blowing out my ars* but I have not been dropped yet

Extra shot done with 1 hour to spare, thats a good workout for 22 minutes!

Find a wheel quick and cling on!

jgsi

I see they are dishing out some prizes.. starting with Stage 1.
I'm going to be kicking off Stage 5Angels as soon as.

jotko

mattshrops wrote:

jotko wrote:

Well I hanging on the back and blowing out my ars* but I have not been dropped yet

Extra shot done with 1 hour to spare, thats a good workout for 22 minutes!

Find a wheel quick and cling on!

Ha ha, thats exactly how I feel, I need a tow through A Very Dark Place later on. I will set the turbo up behind the sofa and draft the Mrs while she watches come dine with me.

Good luck all those still in, I am certainly beginning to suffer.

mattshrops

I've worked out that the only chance i have of doing well on the hills is to start before everyone else. With that in mind..
Angelshttp://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/184515

At time of posting- Stage 5, rides completed 1.

#chilling in the motorhome.

jgsi

Right behind !
Hope the lead out to kill off the opposition on Int 2 helped!

springtide9

Tired today; starting to feel the impact of the last few days and not even half way though yet!

Stage 4: A Very Dark Place @ 95% (although completed @ ~98%)
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/178397

First time I've really felt sick at the end of the session, specifically after that last sprint.
I was hoping to do Angels this evening to get a bit of breathing space, but a 24 hr rest feels much more appropriate

Question: When people talk about not being dropped, is this related to the videos or missing a session?
If related to the videos - how does this work?

jotko

springtide9 wrote:

Tired today; starting to feel the impact of the last few days and not even half way though yet!
Question: When people talk about not being dropped, is this related to the videos or missing a session?
If related to the videos - how does this work?

Just talking about missing the window for doing the workout and being dropped from the tour

http://www.trainerroad.com/tour-of-sufferlandria

321 dropped riders so far.

I have only used the video for HHNF, just used trainerroad workouts for the others. I the have the videos for Angels, Long Scream, and Downward spiral for later in the week (if I make it)

springtide9

jotko wrote:

Just talking about missing the window for doing the workout and being dropped from the tour

http://www.trainerroad.com/tour-of-sufferlandria

I have only used the video for HHNF, just used trainerroad workouts for the others. I the have the videos have Angels, Long Scream, and Downward spiral for later in the week (if I make it)

Thanks for the reply. I'm glad I'm not missing too much by not having the videos...

I have been watching Top Gear on Netflix as a distraction, but can't for the life of me remember what they were about... I obviously choose TG as it's one of those programs that doesn't exactly need a lot of concentration to follow!

mattshrops

Stages of the tour on you tube are pretty good as well. you can pick one roughly corresponding in length to the workout you're doing, then hopefully as you're doing the hard bit at the end then so are they

Incidentally people are talkng of turning their ftp figure down, there is NO WAY i'm doing that i worked my ass off for those numbers. Quite happy to turn the intensity of the workout down though if thats what it takes to survive.still at 90% atm.

Not sure but i didn't feel quite as tired today, hmm. Wait and see i think.

springtide9

mattshrops wrote:

Stages of the tour on you tube are pretty good as well. you can pick one roughly corresponding in length to the workout you're doing, then hopefully as you're doing the hard bit at the end then so are they

Incidentally people are talkng of turning their ftp figure down, there is NO WAY i'm doing that i worked my ass off for those numbers. Quite happy to turn the intensity of the workout down though if thats what it takes to survive.still at 90% atm.

Not sure but i didn't feel quite as tired today, hmm. Wait and see i think.

For what it's worth, I turned my FTP down as I'd lost a lot of fitness and I was kidding myself it was still the same as it was in September (I've had a few rest periods, such as over Xmas, weather & family and the dreaded 'work commitments'!)
Although this sounds daunting, I figured that admitting that my FTP has dropped is better than continually missing the targets, training in the wrong zones, etc.
I'm hoping that after the tour, I'll have regained some of my lost fitness and an FTP retest will be in order. I started last week on 85% with ~7% reduction in FTP and it was a killer. I feel a lot more tired now, but seem to have been able to turn up the intensity to more like 95%.
Obviously if I find 100% is possible, I'll just tweak my FTP to being me back in check As for my current weight, I'll not be touching that value until my jeans are a little looser around my middle.
A lesson to the kids.... even moderate quantities of alcohol, consumed regularly, over a sustained period, is not great for your fitness! [although I have to say, I really enjoyed Xmas and the break from 'training'!]

jotko

Is there any difference between

1) Reducing FTP by 5%
2) Setting intensity to 95%

I have left my FTP as per my 8 min test, but have scaled back intensity to 95%.

Gonna have a crack at stage 4 in an hour or so, I feel weak, need to MTFU

jgsi

jotko wrote:

Is there any difference between

1) Reducing FTP by 5%
2) Setting intensity to 95%

I have left my FTP as per my 8 min test, but have scaled back intensity to 95%.

Gonna have a crack at stage 4 in an hour or so, I feel weak, need to MTFU

Personally, leave the FTP alone and just adjust the workout %. it shows the commissaires that you havent been messing with your biological passport.

mattshrops

For me adjusting your ftp is admitting you are not as fit as before. Which is fine if that is the case(as springtide has done-no point training in the wrong zones)
Also if you adjust your ftp unnessacarily then your data is skewed (time in power zone,TSS, IF etc)

Change the workout to suit your physical capabilities on the day. So if you've gone easier your stats reflect that.

Although this whole tour thing is a bit of fun the training effect and hopefully adaptation that it brings are for me a serious issue come the season start.(Can't wait)

jotko

A very dark place bagged at 95%, I actually felt stronger than doing extra shot this morning, I think because you get a nice rest every 4 minutes, lol

Had to tell the Mrs to politely bugger off half way through the middle interval, she was trying to engage me in conversation but my brain function was entirely given over to sweating and I couldnt deal with it.

Nearly half way now though....

bobinski

One more out the way...
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/185078

Slight incident when i dropped my headphones to remove my top and wires became tangled in my right crank :oops: but apart from that deceptively and relatively speaking the easiest so far, But then theres tomorrow and i really am not looking forward to thursday.