Tour of Sufferlandria 2014

charliew87

Considering committing to it this year.
Prize list is very enticing and I could do with 10 days of solid training prior to sportive season starting.

BUT

It's not a freebie...
I already own 3 of the 'fest videos and have access to a couple more via Strava, but will still need to spend about £60 on new videos.
Also have to spend £10 on charity donation (fine) and then £30 on getting a USB ANT+ stick as apparently I cant use my Garmin 500 with TrainerRoad, which is annoying.

Anyone else committing?

NeXXus

charliew87 wrote:

Considering committing to it this year.
It's not a freebie...

Nothing in life is free

I already own 3 of the 'fest videos and have access to a couple more via Strava, but will still need to spend about £60 on new videos.

In truth you could do pretty much any ride watching Sesame Street, Home & Away or Countdown. They have no way of telling who has rode what.

Also have to spend £10 on charity donation (fine)

Eh. The donation enters you into the prize draw. You could donate 50$ and go ride outside and still have the same chance of winning.

{quote]and then £30 on getting a USB ANT+ stick as apparently I cant use my Garmin 500 with TrainerRoad, which is annoying.{/quote]
Well no. TR works in real time on a computer screen. All a garmin can do is receive data back from your PC to record power for garmin connect/strava purposes, or provide you with a second cad/hr reading and a speed reading

Anyone else committing?

Yep.

Garryboy

I've signed up.
Whilst it would be a bit boring, you don't need to have the videos to run the suffer feast workouts in trainer road. You can just follow the workout profile.

Skinner2k3

I am going to give it a go, have none of the vids so will just be using the workout profile.

Not sure if I will make it through, but worth a go. Got to resist going silly on 'Rubber Glove' as that's an FTP assessment isn't it? Don't want to up my FTP and make the tour even harder!

NeXXus

Skinner2k3 wrote:

I am going to give it a go, have none of the vids so will just be using the workout profile.

Not sure if I will make it through, but worth a go. Got to resist going silly on 'Rubber Glove' as that's an FTP assessment isn't it? Don't want to up my FTP and make the tour even harder!

Yes it is

dread_i1

I'm in.

Not got many vids but usually all my effort goes into keeping the power up so I find music is plenty good enough for me

Kevo27

In also, I have trainer road so I will see how that goes and may purchase the vids after the first few sessions, looking forward to it to be honest.......

kingstonian

I'm just getting back on a bike after many years and a knee op 10 mths ago. Am going to do their novice road plan to get some fitness in my legs - fully expect to be blowing out of my arse a lot over the next 10 weeks.....

dw300

Only 471 riders in worldwide so far .. http://www.trainerroad.com/tour-of-sufferlandria

I'm in. Not got any videos apart from the ones you get via Strava Premium.

How is everyone working this in with their training? 9 day and 11 intense workouts .. I'm guessing some hard interval training leading up to it would be best with a very easy week before it?

Foam roller at the ready!

NeXXus

dw300 wrote:

Only 471 riders in worldwide so far .. http://www.trainerroad.com/tour-of-sufferlandria

I'm in. Not got any videos apart from the ones you get via Strava Premium.

How is everyone working this in with their training? 9 day and 11 intense workouts .. I'm guessing some hard interval training leading up to it would be best with a very easy week before it?

Foam roller at the ready!

And a bucket

NUFCrichard

Is anyone going to try it at 100%??? I am thinking 95% might be doable, though the 2 workout day still seems nasty.
I am pretty sure that sufferfests are made to be impossible if your FTP is accurate, so trying it everyday at 100% would be 'interesting'!

dw300

NUFCrichard wrote:

Is anyone going to try it at 100%??? I am thinking 95% might be doable, though the 2 workout day still seems nasty.
I am pretty sure that sufferfests are made to be impossible if your FTP is accurate, so trying it everyday at 100% would be 'interesting'!

This has been on my mind as well.

What I was wondering is whether you hit a level of fatigue after 3-5 days that you feel never really gets any worse, ie. it's purely a mental challenge after that and if you ignore your legs you can get the workouts done.

Does anyone know if this will actually be effective from a training point of view. Will the over-reaching provoke a significant recuperation and gain in strength or stamina?

NUFCrichard

I think I have decided on my strategy. All stages of about and hour or less at 95%. Longer stages at 90%. I hope that doesn't count as chickening out, I guess it will still be tough as long as I do rubber glove properly...

markp80

Well, I'm in as well.

I did most of the 2013 rides at 90% and I found it tough going. I doubt I'll be doing any of the rides at a higher level than that, not with the schedule as it is.

I have about a quarter of the videos and that's fine. I'm happy just following the TR profiles for the rest. I had hoped there might be a bit of a sale on for the videos with the tour coming up, as I might have bought a few more, but I haven't seen anything.

Cheers,
MarkP

dw300

That's probably sensible, but wouldn't you like to do it at 100% for as long as possible before you drop it down?

Who's done this in the past? Is it even possible to complete at 100% if your FTP is set right?

michaelede

On the Tour of Sufferlandria FB page there is the code RICHMOND2015 for 10% off.

https://www.facebook.com/events/245194695633439/?fref=ts

What I don't understand is why they charge VAT, being based in Singapore / Oz clearly that VAT isn't going to UK HMRC and I think Oz and Singapore have GST rather than VAT? Whatever the reason hate it being added to the bill at the end, prefer to see stuff like that up front.

cougie

Don't forget you can use the Timezones to your advantage. It starts on the Saturday, but you could do the first stage Friday night, and the last Sunday stage on Monday morning - so you could sneak 2 rest days in.

I might try that rather than drop the %. But I'll probably end up doing both after being crushed by Day 1. :-)

markp80

michaelede wrote:

On the Tour of Sufferlandria FB page there is the code RICHMOND2015 for 10% off.
https://www.facebook.com/events/245194695633439/?fref=ts

Excellent, thanks!

markp80

dw300 wrote:

That's probably sensible, but wouldn't you like to do it at 100% for as long as possible before you drop it down?

Who's done this in the past? Is it even possible to complete at 100% if your FTP is set right?

Well, I suppose starting at 100% and reducing if I need to would be an option. I guess my thinking is that I don't want to go too hard and fail completely half way through the tour. To be honest, I know how I struggle to do a stand-alone Sufferfest at 100%, (I suppose that's the point), so that led to my thinking that going for 90% right through was an option for me.
I certainly remember that all the way through at 100% wasn't an option last time! You can start off with the best intentions, but you start to feel it after a few days - well, that's what I find. And unfortunately I have to go to work in between rides, no soigneur to give me a daily massage I'm afraid!
Cheers,
MarkP

TakeTurns

This is a big one. Go on lads.
Respect if you're able to get it up at the end of the tour. I struggle after just one vid alone.

Dazza @>@'

The TOUR is going to be interesting for those who do shift work like metimings are: leave home-arrive home:
Stage 1:1015-2200, S2:1115-2355, S3:1315-2355, S4:1315-2355, S5:2015-0800, S6:2015-0800 S7, S8 & S9 Rest Days!
The hardest day is going to be everyday, But S7 in the mountains having done night shifts will be interesting hahaha bring it on.

Although I cannot do anything less than giving it my all. I set out with the intention say of doing a 50mi ride cane it at the begining and end on 30 ish. How the 'ell do you raign it in?

cougie

TakeTurns wrote:

This is a big one. Go on lads.
Respect if you're able to get it up at the end of the tour. I struggle after just one vid alone.

New saddle perhaps ?

TakeTurns

cougie wrote:

TakeTurns wrote:

This is a big one. Go on lads.
Respect if you're able to get it up at the end of the tour. I struggle after just one vid alone.

New saddle perhaps ?

New partner perhaps.

michaelede

It's my first time doing the tour, can't make up my mind if it is better to start low (85-90%?) and add later if it seems a bit easy or start high and back off. Start low and build seems to make the most sense as presumably the damage / lack of fitness / inability to recover will already mean your done for (especially if your backing off before half way)

Also the Rubber glove is an FTP test isn't it? Do we have to ride it as such and adjust our FTP? which surely would make the rest of the tour impossible @ 100%?

richa

charliew87 wrote:

and then £30 on getting a USB ANT+ stick

£17 at Decathlon

richa

I am (probably) in.

The spirit of sufferfest is to try do it at 100%. I did it last year and it was blimmin hard, but I'll be at 100% again this year. And the % is just what the workout is set out, you can only do what you can do. So if the sprint is at 600w and you are giving it your best and doing 500w then so be it.

The time zones give you leeway. I would recommend starting on the Friday to get ahead so that if something comes up then you can miss a day and still be on track. Day 1 (Sat) starts 10am Friday and finishes 10am Sunday. Once the Tour starts I expect their to be a countdown clock for every day telling you when each day is open and when it closes (as last year).

You don't need to own the videos. I have 3 of the videos used in the 2014 tour (and a couple not used). Plus the two on Strava Premium (I may sign up for 1 month). However, all the workouts are loaded in TR so follow them from there. The variable sprinty ones are hard to follow, the steady climbing/TT ones not so much.

amaferanga

RichA wrote:

charliew87 wrote:

and then £30 on getting a USB ANT+ stick

£17 at Decathlon

That's a speed/cadence sensor, not an ANT+ usb stick.

dw300

RichA wrote:

The spirit of sufferfest is to try do it at 100%. I did it last year and it was blimmin hard, but I'll be at 100% again this year. And the % is just what the workout is set out, you can only do what you can do. So if the sprint is at 600w and you are giving it your best and doing 500w then so be it.

+1

sloppyschleckonds

People last year were doing it at 60%. I did 7 days I think, slowly dropping 5% every day after the 4th or 5th day. The last 2 days I was completely fcuked and DNF.

It did give a boost to winter turbo training though.

michaelede

THE TOUR OF SUFFERLANDRIA 2014
25th JAN - 2nd FEB


9 DAYS OF SUFFERING IN YOUR OWN HOME

48 HOURS ONLY: USE CODE ATTACK

AND SAVE 10% ON TOS VIDEOS

foggybike

If you are buying from UK via paypal, change your country to US and then you don't get charged VAT!