Tour of Sufferlandria 2014: Day 3

For Day 3 of the Tour (January 27)  the scheduled ride was Revolver. It's only 45 minutes so I was really looking forward to a short, easy ride after Day 2's two hour trek through the mountains. Well, I should have known better since this is The Sufferfest. I think the previous two days of riding caught up with me--my legs were actually tiring during the warm-up. So I was in a bit of a panic for a few minutes. But eventually I got into the zone and had a good ride :)

Length: 45 minutes

Format: a warm-up of about 7 minutes is followed by 1 minute sprints, each one followed by one minute of recovery. 15 times. Well, 16 actually. The minions lie. Just when you've collapsed in a grateful pile of sweat, they throw one more at you. Oh, minions, you've sledge-hammered my already-tenuous faith in you. Once you're really done, there's a short cool-down. Oh, and a dino chases you just in case you're tempted to slack off :p

Music: not as great as in some other Sufferfest workouts. It was mostly rock but I just didn't find the beats to be as motivating or driving as in other Sufferfests.

Footage: a real mixed bag--the UCI World Road Championship, the UCI World Cup Cyclocross (really cool!) and the UCI World Track Championship (not so cool....it gets tedious watching the racers go round and round on an indoor track).

Difficulty: 8.5/10, for now. I might have to revisit this one when my legs aren't so tired. But I think the shorter length and the fact that the sprints are only 60 seconds keeps this one from being ridiculously tough. As the old fitness adage goes, "you can do anything for 1 minute."

Other Random Thoughts: I'm giving Revolver an overall score of 7.5/10. It's a good workout but not my favourite Sufferfest ride. The lack of rockin' music and exciting footage hurts this one. But I loved the length, the dino, the motivating quotes about suffering and the cooldown, during which plays vintage footage of people (c. the 1920's maybe??) riding around on their old-fashioned bikes, looking like they're heading to a box social. (I really just wanted to work the words "box social" into a Sufferfest review).

The Tour of Sufferlandria 2014: Day 2

Day 2 of the Tour (January 26) called for It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time. (I love the titles that The Sufferfest comes up with but seriously, did a two hour bike ride ever seem like a good idea to anyone??)

ISLAGIATT is a two hour ride. Through the mountains. And a blizzard. And...lava??!! Yup, Sufferlandria is a special kind of hell where fire and ice meet in an orgy of pain, agony and suffering.

Length: 2 hours (well, ok, just under two hours at 116 minutes), But 2 hours sounds more bada**.

Format: the warm-up alone is 15 minutes, which should be a hint of what you're in for. The ride consists of four climbs--one is 15 minutes, two are 20 minutes each and the final one is 8 minutes. (There's a short recovery/descent after each climb.) Then there's a 7 minute sprint (over flats) to the finish line and a 5 minute cool-down.

Music: the music in this one is awesome! It's mostly dance/electronica, which I don't normally listen to but the driving beats are really motivating and really do help you push harder.

Footage: the Giro d'Italia

Difficulty: 8.5/10. It's tough because it's soooo long but the pacing really keeps you from killing yourself. There are some intervals where you're working at a 10/10 RPE (rate of perceived exertion) but usually you're around a 6-8/10.

Other random thoughts:  believe it or not, ISLAGIATT didn't feel nearly as long as it is. It has a fun "story line" where you're a member of the National Sufferlandrian Team competing in the race. Your opponents all have wussy nicknames like Bluebell and Gloworm and you keep pace with them throughout the race. Sometimes they take the offensive and attack, sometimes you do. Your goal is to win the "Agressive Rider" award. You get an update and see where you fall in the standings after each stage. (Do you win?? I'm not telling...that would be a spoiler!) This story line, the music and the humour really do make the ride fly by. (Well, as much as a two hour ride can fly by.) I mentioned that I found the humour lacking a bit in Rubber Glove but it was back in spades for ISLAGIATT. I also complained yesterday about the over-abundance of omelette-chick. There was a similar cut-away in ISLAGIATT but I liked this one much better. Occasionally it would cut away from the race footage to show "you" as a young, carefree Sufferlandrian, riding her bike through the beautiful foothills of Mt. Sufferlandria, back before you knew what suffering was. As it shows this vintage footage, euphoric music plays in the backgound. But this only lasts for about 10-15 seconds at a time, so I enjoyed it. (Unlike the minutes-long omelette footage of yesterday. I really have to let that go.)

Overall: 9/10. I really love ISLAGIATT. The only reason it didn't get a 10 is because of its impractical length. I don't see myself doing the ride in its entirety very often (ok, probably never, ever again) but I will definitely use it in 30/45/60 minute segments.

On a personal note, this may be my proudest fitness achievement ever :) A lot of you know that I could barely even move this time last year due to my back injury. So to be able to do a two hour "ride" through the mountains makes my very happy :)

The Journey Begins: Tour of Sufferlandria 2014 Day 1

This was my first year attempting the Tour of Sufferlandria--9 days of intense spinning and suffering. It's been about three weeks since I completed the Tour and I'm still on a high from accomplishing it :)

In these posts, I'll break down each ride according to length, format, music, footage, difficulty, other random thoughts and an overall score. 

The scheduled ride for Day 1 (January 25th) was Rubber Glove. (And yes, the analogy that you're about to get an intense, ahem, *examination* runs rampant throughout the video).

Length: 60 minutes

Format: Rubber Glove is a Functional Threshold Performance test (FTP), which basically means finding your optimal training zone. There's a short warmup and then 20 minutes of intervals where you slowly increase the intensity (but you don't get too intense during this stage). This is followed by 8 minutes of sprints (4 sprints with 1 minute recovery in between each one). You get a brief recovery before the FTP starts--the FTP is 20 minutes of all-out effort. Then a cooldown and you're done!

Music: decent but not as fun or as motivating as in other Sufferfest workouts. Mostly electronica. 

Footage: the Tour of Flanders

Difficulty: overall, I'd rate this a 7.5/10 for difficulty. The FTP portion would get a 9/10 but the rest of the workout is more around 6/10 so it averages out to about a 7.5.

Other Random Thoughts: I liked this one a lot--it's a challenging-without-killing-you workout. The length is also perfect and it seemed to go by really fast. I didn't find the humour in this one to be quite as strong as in other Sufferfest workouts--there are some Sufferfest workouts where I literally laugh out loud several times at the captions but his wasn't one of them. My biggest complaint: at one point, they pull away from the race footage to show a woman on a bike trainer making an omelette. I thought this was funny and I enjoyed this for about 15 seconds. I didn't think it was funny anymore at the 45 second mark. Or the one minute mark. Or after two minutes of omelette-making. I just wanted to get back to the race footage. They kept cutting back to this woman for each recovery interval, which made me dread the recovery. Not sure why but this just really bugged me and may prevent me from doing RG too often.

Overall: without omelette-chick, I would have given this probably an 8.5 or 9 out of 10. But pulling away from the motivating and exciting race footage to show me several minutes of a woman making an omelette left a bad taste in my mouth so it gets a 7.5/10.

The Sufferfest and Tour of Sufferlandria 2014

 
  
   So in my introductory post I mentioned how boring spinning can be. Enter The Sufferfest.

   The Sufferfest workouts are downloads that can be purchased here. Per their name, they're tough and super intense workouts that will leave you begging for mercy. They use real race footage, awesome music and humour to get you through the suffering. So much so that they actually become fun and addictive.

    To give you an idea of how hardcore the workouts are, here's The Sufferfest logo: 

   You may not actually bleed from your eyes (but it's a possibility) but you'll still suffer. It's in the title, after all. The Sufferfest motto is I Will Beat My A** Today To Kick Yours Tomorrow (IWBMATTKYT). I prefer the slightly less hardcore but more polite (I am Canadian, after all) version that several other of my fellow Sufferlandrians have suggested: IWBMATTKIAT (I Will Beat My A** Today To Kick It Again Tomorrow). 

    The man in charge in Sufferlandria is Grunter von Agony. He spouts nuggets of wisdom such as "the only way to endure the suffering is to embrace the suffering" and "move faster." He has minions in his employ. 

    No, not that kind of minion. Although that would be fun and adorable, it wouldn't be too motivating. Instead, I imagine his minions look more like this: 

   The minions "encourage" you in your pursuit of suffering. They poke you with pointy things and threaten you with boiling oil. (But they do it with love). 

  Each year The Sufferfest offers it sufferers (I mean fans) a challenge: several days of back-to-back rides to separate the Sufferlandrians from the Couchlandrians. The Tour of Sufferlandria 2014 ran from January 25-February 2. I did it for the first time this year and I'll finish it on-schedule tomorrow. The suffering has been intense but oh-so-worth it. I've kept track of my progress and I'll start posting my thoughts and reviews of each stage over the next few days. Sufferlandrians, rise!

My Story and Journey (So Far)

    Spinning has been a life-saver for me. In October 2012 I suffered a back injury that left me with a bulging disc compressing my sciatic nerve. I lost all sensation and most of the mobility in my right leg and foot. Gone was the ability to run, kickbox, do plyometrics or any of the physical activities I had loved.

    Unable to do most of the intense and high-impact activities that I wanted to do, I looked for lower-impact alternatives. After doing some research, I settled on spinning as it was high in intensity while  being low in impact. So I got an inexpensive bike and set it up in my basement. The first time I got on it I could barely do (a very slow) 2 miles before the pain forced me to stop. I slowly worked up until I could do more miles but it was boring. I tried watching TV or a movie, I tried reading, I tried playing on my iPad...nothing helped. Then I discovered Virtual Active DVD's and The Sufferfest downloads (more--lots more--about those in future posts) and I was hooked. I started spinning several times a week and it was magic--I finally felt like my regular fit and active self again. Not only has spinning helped me lose the 30 pounds I put on during my months of inactivity, but it gives me that endorphin rush that I loved and was missing from my old workouts. It keeps my mind focused and my stress at bay. It's also helped in my physical recovery--the nerve damage is still there and my leg and foot may never return to 100% but they've become so much stronger and more mobile thanks to spinning. Most importantly, it makes me feel strong and empowered--my injury has ruled my life for the past 15 months but I'm finally now able to take control back.

   So I'm keeping strong, calm and spinning on... thanks for joining me on my journey!