Tour of Sufferlandria 2014: Day 5

Ok, a confession: I cheated a bit today. Day 5 called for a 50 minute ride and a 20 minute ride but instead of doing them back-to-back I did the 20 minute ride this morning with an upper body workout and I did the 50 minute ride after work. And I plan on doing the same thing on Friday, which calls for two 60 minute workouts :p

The longer ride for today was The Wretched.

Length: 50 minutes

Format: according to the intro, one of the minions lost the route map so, unlike most Sufferfest workouts (which clearly lay out the format for you during the introduction), The Wretched leaves you guessing. You're a member of the Sufferlandian National Team who found success years ago but then you slacked off and became--the horror--a "Couchlandrian".

So to win back your honour and glory you're racing in the Tour de France. There's a warmup and then it's a 35 minute race stage in which anything can happen: there's hills and descents, attacks and sprints as you fight off the competition to reclaim your former glory

Music: mostly rock and alt-rock. Good beats.

Footage: THE TOUR DE FRANCE, y'all!

Difficulty: 7.5/10. Even though there's some tough hills, sprints and attacks, none of them last too long. A good challenge but totally doable for a Sufferlandrian

Other Random Thoughts: I actually really liked the fact that I didn't know what was coming--it made the race stage seem very true-to-life. The 35 minute race stage literally flew by. What I love about these workouts is that no matter how tired I feel at the start, the music, humour, motivation from the minions, etc. really encourage me to push harder and soon I totally forget how tired I was feeling and just get in the zone. 8.5/10

The shorter ride Day 5 was Extra Shot. This one is meant to be an "add-on" to other Sufferfest workout...for masochists who didn't get enough suffering from doing just one workout.

Length: 20 minutes

Format: since it's meant to be an add-on, there's no warmup. Just 20 minutes of varying intensity. There's tough cobbles to get over and six "bergs" (small hills).

Music: mostly electronica. It's decent but nothing special.

Footage: the women's Tour of Flanders and World Road Championship

Difficulty: hmmm, on it's own, it's about a 6/10. But added on after another Sufferfest workout (or any tough workout), it's probably an 8/10. The length makes it doable.

Other Random Thoughts: this is the Sufferfest workout that I've done the most, due to it's length. I add it on after a lot of workouts. It's a great "get in and get it done" workout. 8/10. I think it would get an 8.5 or maybe even a 9 if I liked the music more. (And it's not that the music is bad, it's just not my personal favourite.)