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).