Tour of Sufferlandria 2014: Day 6

Today's ride for Day 6 (January 30) was A Very Dark Place. I can't believe I only have 3 more days to go! (But tomorrow will be brutal, with 2 rides that are each 60+ minutes on tap).

Length: 50 minutes

Format: after a short warm-up and 2 x 30 second sprints, there's 5 "maximum power" intervals of 4 minutes each (with 3 minutes recovery between each one). These are the "dark places". During the MPI's you're working at an RPE of between 8-10/10. The MPI's are a mix of speed, climbs and attacks.

Music: rock and alt-rock. For some reason, I'm finding that I prefer Sufferfest workouts with more dance music, which is odd since dance isn't usually something I listen to. But I just find that the dancey beats make it easier for me to push harder.

Footage: various races (with long, hypenated names) from the Paris-Nice-Flanders area. Kind of bland and not my favourite footage--until the last "dark place", which was a climb through stunning mountains and valleys.

Difficulty: 8/10. I found that having the 3 minute recovery after each MPI made this one less challenging that it would have been with shorter recovery times.

Other Random Thoughts: I liked this workout but it won't be among my favourite Sufferfests. The just-OK music and footage keep it lower down in my rankings and I'm finding that I prefer the Sufferfests that have a bit of a "story" to follow. Plus, there was no mention of the minions in this one and I missed the mosochistic little guys. 7.5/10. So, just to make me happy, here's a non-Sufferfest minion cheering me on: