Oh, DAYT was *hard* after the previous stages. Not close to chundering into my bucket - today - but I have no idea what Saturday will bring. I've never done AVDP, but 9H is pretty hard. I don't want to imagine 9H after AVDP, though. But all Sufferlandrians must harden up for the last two stages this weekend...

Did stage 8 today. The last 3 vo2 hammers were absolute punishment. First time this ToS that I've had to decrease the intensity slightly near the end. Ouch

Just finished stage 8 also. I was definitely cracking on the last few vo2 hammers but nowhere near the implosion that happened on stage 2.

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All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. ~Gandalf

I like 9 hammers, AVDP and blender (which I don't hear too often). That said, instead of training my strengths I should do Half is easy/revolver more often. I may like DAYT - it seemed like a more realistic workout (for me) than revolver. Will see how I feel when I try it not in the middle of the ToS.

Bit of a disclaimer - I'm just a roadie now. If I was still racing tri's I doubt I'd care much about sprint/AC type workouts.

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All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. ~Gandalf

Just finished AVDP and 9hammers. I asked "why" I was doing this during the first and wanted to cry during the second but had no H2O to spare for tears. I kept on looking at the hammers and telling myself that some didn't look too bad...they all sucked, especially hammer 9.5. The day started off bad...with those two hard efforts in AVDP 9 and 12 minutes in, I was never able to shake that achy quad feeling for the rest of the rides. If I don't gain biking strength from this week, I don't want to know what it would take.

Chin up. The final stage is a lot easier than stage 8. You'll be happy and proud to have completed the gongshow known as the ToS! Not sure about how much training value there is though from hammering for 9 days straight :p

Oh, I just finished stage 8, too. Pretty horrible. I wasn't really recovered for AVDP as I rode DAYT late afternoon yesterday. I had not done AVDP and thought that it was pretty tough - and then, 9H (which I have done before - probably a mistake to know what was coming). So hard for many of the hammers, but #8, well, I could NOT figure out what to do. Shift up. Shift down. Stand. Sit. A real mess, but done. Hammer #9 was hard, but the end was in sight, so it turned out fine. My legs are already aching. Stage 9 tomorrow!

Stage 9 was quite a bit easier. I found power station a bit boring. Also I don't have the indoor setup to hit the low cadence numbers and also hit the target power.

Also I don't really know how to do the 5s/5s intervals at the end of violator; it just turns into a painful blur of shifting.

Overall the tour was ok, not nearly as fun without the TR dropped rider count though.

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All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. ~Gandalf

I managed the stage 8 workouts back to back without too much difficulty......which is really just to say that I didn't lower he resistance. I found the first three stages really hard, but since then not too bad.
Anyone else find that this year is a bit easier than last year?

Somebody on the ToS facebook group pulled the data from the Trainerroad 2016 ToS group, it can be found at http://rpubs.com/arfenarf/151898.
It has a lot of interesting stats

I previously said earlier in this thread that double-Revolver was probably the most horrible thing I have ever done on a bike. But AVDP+9H I think dethroned it only 7 days later. That was truly awful. The suffering was glorious. I cracked a bit of Hammer 6, made it though Hammer 7. Cracked a bit again on 8 but then rallied and hit 9 really well. My friend was over doing his own ride next to me and was trying to talk to me in the aftermath, but all I could do was grunt and bury my face in my towel draped over my aerobars. I pretty much said nothing at all until the cooldown ended because I didn't have the ability to talk anymore.

I stopped pedaling and looked around. Realized I was somewhat unable to get off the bike. I eventually did and only said "uhh, what...just happened here?"

In years past, there were a number of individuals that did FTP tests before and after and the results were very impressive. ToS level of suffering may not be required to get those gains but you will definitely see improvements.

I am not finding this year easier than last year:( I just came out of a cold last Thursday which seems to make everything a bit harder. Yesterday didn't help...because of scheduling with a work conference this week I wasn't able to do stage 6 this Thursday, it got pushed back to Friday morning. My plan was to "catch up" on Friday night and do stage 7, but that didn't work out either. So I ended up doing stage 7 and 8 yesterday, ouch. I am going to wait until later this afternoon to finish up. It helps that it is 15 below here and there is nothing else to do!

rich

I wasn't aware of the TR ToS 2016 team - I just joined a moment ago (late, I know). I still have Stage 9 to go, programmed for late afternoon USA CT on Sunday (about 6 hours after this post).

Finished, showered and had something to eat. Thanks everyone for the virtual cycling training camp, it was a little less painful having others to share this with. My plan is to let my legs recover for 5-6 days and do an FTP test. I did TOS usring 280....I"m hoping for 294 which is my all time high.

Cheers

If I can get 14 watts in two weeks from this I'll do it over and over.

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All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. ~Gandalf

Me too, done! The worst part of the last stages for me was the last 5 minute set of intervals in violator, those hurt. A fitting ending I guess. :)

Now back to normal training.......as in, need to start running again... :(

Uffda -- that was rough but certainly a sense of accomplishment getting to the end today.

If you haven't already, please head over to the thread linked here and ID yourself so we know how many ST'ers we had complete the T of Suf this year!

Link: http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...%20of%20suf;#5854826

Now, time for a Duvel or two!

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Lars Finanger
Odyssey SwimRun

No doubt. Kudo's to anyone that can nail those 5sec on/5sec off intervals. Maybe it was just my video, but I found the video and the TrainerRoad intervals were like 1.5s off. I never got out of the small chain ring and maybe my 12 or 13 on the back. pedal hard, back off and repeat. I could not hit the targets. Pretty much nailed all the other ones though, just not those 5/5 ones.

Also, I still don't get why TR shows a 1.06 IF for Violator. I basically hit all but those 5's and only had a .85 IF for that ride.

Glad to be done the tour. Congrats to all finishers!!

I nailed Power Station really well but then cracked on the last "section" of Violator when there was no real rest. Really happy with my effort in the tour this year. I actually have an FTP test scheduled for next sunday so I am looking forward to seeing what I gained.

I'm done, too. Power Station was easier than I thought, but despite my size (130 lbs), I'm kind of a diesel. Violator *looked* horrible. The first two 'sets' were fine. The high power 5s intervals, for me, were the worst. The middle 10s intervals were better. The lowest power 15s intervals were fine. But, my goodness, the last set...pure suffering. The 1st 5s intervals of the 3rd set were a complete mess - I just hammered through the 'rest' - but ugh. The 'middle' intervals of the last set were still pretty trashy. The last two - totally fine. I've never been so happy to finish a trainer ride. But the ToS was great!

I'm a ToS finisher too, my third. Did the first few stages under 100% but starting with day 4 I managed them all at 100%. Well except that last jumble of Violator sprints, what a mess!

I know the FTP is up. Good challenge for the winter!

Finished last night (working a 24hour shift today). First time!

Great winter training. And there was no way I was going to make all of those intervals at 100% after around day 4. But there's always next year....

what was the total TSS this year? couldn't find if it was listed.

Won't that vary for each individual based on their effort?
I did all the workouts on trainer road, and adding up my daily TSS scores, I got 949.