The Sufferfest: Angels 2015

             Angels 2015 is an updated version of one of The Sufferfest’s most popular downloads. According to The Sufferfest, the ride is exactly the same and just the footage and music have been updated. (I’ve only done the original Angels once and I didn’t read my original review before doing the updated version or writing this review. I did read my review before posting this, however, so I would be able to make a fair comparison. You can read my original review here.)

            Angels is all about the climbs.

Length: 55 minutes (My review for the original Angels lists the time as 65 minutes.)

Format: after a warmup, there’s a set of over/under’s. You do one minute just over your threshold (so working at an RPE of 8/10) and then one minute just under your threshold (an RPE of 7/10). You do five sets of these for a total of ten minutes. The meat of the workout is the climbs: three climbs, eight minutes each, with a four-minute recovery in between each climb.

Music: I loved the music in Angels. It’s a fun mix of funk, dance, techno and alt-rock. I particularly enjoyed the music during the final climb—the driving beat helped me push on. 

Footage: the race footage comes from various French cycling races (ie., Liege Bastogne and Paris-Nice). The new footage is fantastically immersive and really makes you feel like one of the cyclists (more on this under Other Random Thoughts). Like Nine Hammers, my favourite footage was the gorgeous mountain shots during the recovery stages.

Difficulty: 8/10. For me, the toughest part of Angels is the over/unders. I found that the climbs each went by pretty quickly, most likely due to the ever-changing footage. There was never time to be bored, which kept my mind off all the suffering. (I also gave the original Angels an 8/10 for difficulty.)

Other Random Thoughts: I really enjoyed Angels 2015. I only have two criticisms. The first is that I would prefer to stand more during the climbs. So when I do this one the next time, I’ll probably choose to stand for the majority of the climbs. My second criticism is that there isn’t much of a storyline. You’re pitted against the great climbers but I didn’t find that there was much story continuity between the three climbs.

There comes a point when the minions seem to forget that they're there to torture you and seem to be on the verge of mushiness and kindness: 

But they quickly revert to kind.

They do throw out encouraging nuggets of wisdom from time to time: 

In reading my original review, I realized that The Sufferfest made a big change to the final climb. In the original Angels, the third climb has you ascending the gorgeous Alpe d’Huez. In the 2015 version, you climb the Angliru, said to be the most difficult climb in Europe. I’d have to concur with that assessment—check out the grade:

A 21% incline. You’re pitted against one of the great climbers, Nibali, and even he’s only managing a speed of 11 km/h. (Speaking of riders, the original Angels pits you against Contador, who sadly seems to be MIA in the updated version.)

It may be the toughest climb in Europe but the minions insist that you look on the bright side: 

One of the things I love most about The Sufferfest is the immersive experience it gives you—you really feel like one of the riders. This is particularly true during the final climb, when you see and feel the cheering crowd closing in on you: 

On the one hand, the cheering crowds really help push you on. On the other hand, if I was riding through this throng in real life, you can bet I’d be packing my cattle prod.

Overall I loved the updated version of Angels. Despite the lack of a strong storyline, there's enough here to make me want to do this one again soon. 8.5/10. (I gave the original Angels an 8/10.) 

The Sufferfest: Nine Hammers

Christmas came early last week with the release of two new Sufferfest rides! One is a newly updated Angels (which I hope to review later this week). The other is Nine Hammers, which tries to break you with nine VO2 and Threshold intervals. The ride opens with a classic Sufferlandrian adage: “choosing a way to Suffer is like choosing which hammer to hit yourself with.” (The only acceptable reply to this, of course, is: “why choose? Can’t I just hit myself with ALL the hammers?”) The Nine Hammers is a Sufferlandrian rite of passage (although, according to the minions, the UN has labeled it quite inhumane). 

Length: 60 minutes

Format: nine VO2 and Threshold intervals, each one ranging in time from 3:00-4:30, with generally about 90 seconds recovery in between. Here’s a breakdown of the hammers:

Music: unlike the music in most Sufferfests, none of the songs really stood out or made an impression on me. Not bad music, just not as in-you-face or as motivating as in most Sufferfests.

Footage: the race footage is from the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse. My favourite footage was during the recovery stages, courtesy of the Col Collective and filmed in the mountains of Italy and France.

Difficulty: 8/10. You push hard during the hammers but you get a lot of recovery time in between.

Other Random Thoughts: this won’t be one of my favourite Sufferfest rides. I’ve already mentioned the “meh” music and the race footage wasn’t as exciting or as exhilarating as in other Sufferfests. The whole ride felt a bit monotonous: push/recover/repeat. There wasn’t very much to distinguish one hammer from the next. My favourite Sufferfests have strong storyline and I missed that in Nine Hammers. Not a bad ride by any stretch—I just have much better Sufferfest workouts in my collection to see myself reaching for this one very often. 7/10.

I leave you with my favourite caption from Nine Hammers :) 

Final Thoughts on Virtual Active Bike Series 2

            Apologies for the long delay! I am (finally) back to wrap up my thoughts on Virtual Active’s Bike Series 2. The series includes rides through Costa Rica, Chilean Patagonia, Panama, Tierro del Fuego and Argentine Patagonia. (This post won’t include a lot of details for each ride—for more in-depth reviews, check out my review of each individual ride.)

            If you read my reviews on each individual workout, you probably already know that I felt like the rides were too similar to each other to justify releasing these as five individual DVD’s. For example, I think that shorter versions (ie. 35 minutes) of the Chilean Patagonia and Argentine Patagonia rides could have been released on one DVD simply entitled “Patagonia”.  Since all of these rides take place in Central/South America, a lot of the landscape and terrain, while beautiful, is very similar, meaning that after I had completed the series, I had a hard time differentiating one ride from the other.

          

            Here’s the order in which I enjoyed the individual workouts: 

#1—Argentine Patagonia (10/10) is my favourite of the series. A fabulous trainer (Barry Druschel), a wide variety of riding techniques and challenges, the best music in the series and a challenging ride make it the highlight of the series for me.

#2—Panama (9/10). This ride had the most varied scenery (including some urban stages, something that was lacking in this series overall) and, while not being overly challenging, provides a bit of everything.

#3— Costa Rica (8.5/10). This ride has a great trainer (Buddy Mucuha), beautiful scenery (that’s somewhat more varied than in the other rides), the perfect amount of challenge and a good variety of techniques and drills.

#4— Chilean Patagonia (7.5/10). Caroline is one of my favourite VA trainers but this one just feels too repetitive to me—not just in terms of scenery, but also in terms of the drills. Each stage seems too similar to all the others.

#5— Tierro del Fuego (7/10). The trainer in this one isn’t my favourite (she seems a bit robotic) and it’s a lot of seated climbs, which I don’t enjoy too much. But riding along the “End of the Earth” is a breathtaking experience.

           This is how I would rank them in terms of difficulty:

#1— Argentine Patagonia (8.5/10) is a “ peak performance, maximum effort” ride that has a bit of everything—tempo training, tabata training, power intervals, etc. A lot of this ride is uphill and there’s a lot of sprinting involved.

#2—Costa Rica (8.5/10) is an “advanced power ride” and has a bit of everything but the toughest part of this one for me was the two-stage sprint towards the end (8 minutes of 15 seconds on/15 seconds off).

#3—Tierro del Fuego (8/10) is a “strength ride” that is almost entirely uphill. You’re in a moderate to high gear for most of the ride and most of the climbs are seated.

#4—Chilean Patagonia (8/10) is an “endurance ride”, so you’re not working too hard but you’re not just coasting along, either. The challenge in this one comes from doing most of the ride in a moderate to high gear. One of the more challenging stages has you increasing your gear while keeping your cadence the same.

 #5—Panama (7/10) is a “foundation ride” and definitely the easiest of the series.

          So while I enjoyed Bike Series 2, I didn’t enjoy it as much as Bike Series 1. The rides in Bike Series 1 (which I’m revisiting and will review in the coming weeks) are more unique and seem much more varied from one another. The rides in Bike Series 2 are definitely worth having in your collection—I just don’t think you need all five. I think a spinning enthusiast would be best served by purchasing three of the workouts: Argentine Patagonia, Panama and Costa Rica. This would give you three fun, varied and challenging workouts.

The Sufferfest: The Rookie

     In The Sufferfest’s latest download, The Rookie, you ride for glory, honour and victory….just not necessarily your own. In The Rookie you’re suffering for the greater good--the glory of your team. You take on the role of the eponymous rookie, an amateur who shook the Ministry of Suffering to its very foundations by winning the Tour of Sufferlandria 2014. So you’re the first Sufferlandrian to win a place on a world tour team (Giant-Shimano) and it’s your job to ensure a win.

Length: 55 minutes

Format:  after a 9-minute warm-up, the race in The Rookie is divided into 3 x 10-minute stages., with about 3 minutes of  recovery between each stage. The emphasis in The Rookie is on speed and surges, with only a few climbs. You’re also challenged with “tasks” as you help out your team, such as dropping a competing rider or getting your leader back out front.

Music: with the exception of a lone polka track, I loved the music in The Rookie. It’s a mix of pop, rock and electronica and it’s fun and upbeat. (I think I especially enjoyed the music since I’ve been underwhelmed with the music in the new Virtual Actives).

Footage: there’s some brief footage of Barcelona near the start, but the majority of The Rookie features footage from the Tour de Suisse. More than in any other Sufferfest, The Rookie really made me feel like I was weaving in and out of the peloton. Unfortunately, this comes at a cost (and I apologize that there’s really no elegant way to state this): there’s a lot of butts in your face in most of the shots. I think I really noticed this in The Rookie since I’ve mostly been spinning to Virtual Active workouts lately, in which the footage is thankfully butt-free.

Difficulty: The Rookie hits my difficulty “sweet spot”. It challenges you without destroying you.  You push hard during the 10-minute race stages but the 3-minute recoveries keep it do-able. This is how I prefer to work out on most days—on those days when I want to really challenge myself, I have lots of other Sufferfests  to turn to. The Rookie made me realize that as much as I adore Virtual Active rides, I do work harder spinning with the Sufferfest. I think it’s a combination of the music, the insults and the threats from the minions. 7.5/10 for difficulty.

Other Random Thoughts:  The Rookie has all my favourite elements of a Sufferfest ride: a great storyline, awesome music and laugh-out-loud moments. It plays like a documentary, full of interviews with people singing your praises (and the competition quivering in fear) and it held my attention and focus for the full 55 minutes. I really got a feel and appreciation for all the team strategy that goes into winning a race (or stage) and I loved being able to hear some of the riders shout out directions or instructions from time to time (which is a Sufferfest first, I believe).  Since I’ve been doing so many Virtual Active rides lately I couldn’t help but compare the two brands during The Rookie. I love them both but The Rookie really made me appreciate what The Sufferfest brings to the table (the music, the challenge, the humour) and also what I miss about Virtual Active when I do a Sufferfest (the trainers, the beautiful butt-free scenery). 8.5/10.  

                                                           *************************

      In a few days I'll post my wrap-up of Virtual Active's Bike Series 2. Then I think I'm going to re-visit Bike Series 1 so I'll post reviews of all those rides over the coming weeks. 

Virtual Active: Argentine Patagonia

   Argentine Patagonia was the final ride for me in Virtual Active’s Bike Series 2. It was a great one for me to finish with as it’s a highlight of the series.  It’s led by another new trainer, Barry Druschel. Barry has a bit of a nasally voice and at first I was worried that it was going to bother me and be an issue. But I didn’t even notice it after the initial few minutes and I think Barry might be my favourite of the new trainers in this series as he’s designed an absolutely fantastic ride.

Length: 55 minutes

Format: Argentine Patagonia is a “peak performance, maximum effort cycling workout” that Barry says will “test your endurance, strength and power as a cyclist”. He’s not kidding—this is definitely the toughest ride in the series. The 11 x 5-minute stages contain a variety of drills—you’ll do tempo training, Tabata training, off-road riding with high resistance, power intervals, standing accelerations, etc. As you can see from the profile below, there’s a lot uphill terrain and the final stage consists of three hill sprints (more on that under “Difficulty”):

Music: I haven’t been overly impressed with most of the music in this series but I did really enjoy the music in Argentine Patagonia. It was motivating and mostly upbeat, except for two tracks near the end which were almost trance-like (in a good way). Barry makes good use of the music, often telling you to pedal to the beat (or even faster than the beat).

Footage: one of my complaints about this series has been that a lot of the footage is very similar. (And this isn’t the fault of Virtual Active—a lot of the terrain in one part of South America just happens to look awfully similar to other parts of South America).  But this didn’t bother me with Argentine Patagonia for some reason—I think because the production team did a great job finding as much variety with the terrain as they could. Or maybe because Barry makes each stage seem so different with the various drills he chose. Yes, there’s still a lot of riding alongside a lake with mountains in the distance, but there’s also gorgeous shots like this:

And this:

     Glaciar Perito Moreno is one of only three glaciers in Patagonia that are growing. The history/geography/trivia dork in me loves these little tidbits of knowledge (which is one reason I prefer doing the guided rides to the unguided).

Difficulty: as stated above, this is a “maximum effort” ride and probably the toughest in the series. The tempo and tabata training are difficult but I think the final stage is the toughest, especially as it comes at the end of an already-tough ride. The final stage has three hill sprints that have you in a high gear doing a standing run for 15 seconds, keeping the same gear and sitting for 15 seconds and then recovering. If you’re in a high enough gear, this is extremely challenging. Although this is a challenging ride, Barry does a fantastic job of pacing the ride so that you feel challenged rather than defeated. 8.5/10 for difficulty.

Other Random Thoughts: I honestly can’t think of any negatives with Argentine Patagonia. It has a variety of drills and skills, fun music, a great level of challenge, gorgeous footage and an awesome trainer. It’s as close to perfect as a spin workout can get. I was going to give it a 9.5 but I really can’t think of a valid reasonnot to give it a perfect score. So 10/10 it is!