Interesting how they timed the subscription price increase to coincide with the Tour.

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No coasting in running and no crying in baseball

Route here. For those comparing to 2019... In 2019, the ToS was composed of 870 TSS over 626 minutes. In 2020, the ToS is 908 TSS over 679 minutes - and those numbers exclude stage 2, the details of which are yet unknown. Over 100 TSS per day for nine days. Here is the 'race village' on FB. Should be fun!

What’s price increasing to?

$14.99 /month
$129 / year

I have a 30-day trial period, maybe I'll give this a try. Last time I did the tour was when they were partnered with TrainerRoad.

Price increase brings it inline with Zwift.

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The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

Okay. Thanks. I still am grandfathered in for TR. I’ve only done trials of sufferfest. And with a coach currently it doesn’t much matter. But I’d hate to give up TR

I moved from monthly to annual pricing a few months ago. DMcQ says, on FB "Those of you who are currently on annual subscriptions -- don't worry. We have something quite nice for you when I announce it on 1 Feb." We shall see.

Although this should be it's own thread, I imagine that TR, SUF and a few others (but not Zwift - too big) are in a battle. If they price too low, fewer new features, support, etc, they lose customers in the long run. If they price too high (relative to quality/utility), they lose to others quickly. We've already seen a few of the smaller players fold. Tough spot to be in, but SUF has unique features (yoga, mental toughness, 4DP, etc.) that make it stand out a bit. But TR has different, unique features (awesome podcast / forum, next gen training calendar, etc.). I like Xert's training program. Zwift is entertaining. But I can only afford one...

Ahh, the days when Trainer Road and Sufferfest were friends and played nice, way back in 2014/15. I used to love my little ToS digital badges on TR. No more. So I cut them both off. I did enjoy that event was for the Davis Phinney Foundation. Maybe I'll sign up again just to do it and compare my numbers to back then.

I'm enjoying Tour de Zwift -- but nothing compares to the brutality of 9 straight days of Sufferfest Workouts including 2 double workout days, in solitude no less. No drafting. No power-ups. No supertuck coasting on steep descents!! No group chat! These were the days of HARD SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, NO BELLS & WHISTLES TRAINING!! It's also no wonder back then it had a 33% DNF rate of the 2800 riders. Wonder what the total riders and DNF rates are of current.... I remember I was so fatigued on day 7, Friday, I actually turned the wrong way going to the office. Crazy.

What I loved was TR would stay updated to show how many people started the tour and then how the numbers dropped at each stage. It was motivating to hang in there because it was brutal.

Tour Zwift is good especially with longer distance options. Not nearly as brutal as TOS. I wish Zwift would offer another tour where it matches the intensity.

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The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

Oh it is a very lovely route indeed! Our pick for the Queen stage is either Stage 8 (Tool Shed + 14 Vice Grips) or Stage 9 (Power Station + Angels + Thin Air). For those of you thinking of coming to give SUF a try and participate in the Tour, we have a 14-day trial so you can do the Tour and then decide whether to subscribe afterwards. PS. To help get you over to try us out, I thought I'd share with you a recent study our Sports Science team just finished. It shows why 4DP workouts are more accurate than FTP-based sessions (which can have targets which are inaccurate for up to 94% of athletes). You can find it here: https://thesufferfest.com/...raining-app-accurate

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David McQuillen
Founder & CEO of The Sufferfest

Good article. I love Sufferfest. Have once again cancelled my Zwift subscription.

The addition of the training calendar is brilliant as well.

Will there be an option to share the ride to Wahoo now you’re owned by them?

Yes, we are working on pushing workouts to Wahoo cloud as well as to their headunits. Takes a bit more time for us as we're obviously going down the 4DP route here.

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David McQuillen
Founder & CEO of The Sufferfest

Older rider here (65 years old). Have used The Sufferfest off and on for many years. Went away from it as I (mostly my wife) hated the music. With the added option to turn the music off I really started to like Sufferfest again. I did the Toir of Sufferlandria (nuclear option) last year and got my 30 yo son to do it with me.

I was using TrainerRoad but stopped due to the price increase and migrated to Sufferfest. With the price increase I'm looking for alternatives. I just downloaded Golden Cheetah and I'm trying to get it to see my Wahoo Kickr so that I can download erg files for various workouts. I've been using the Wahoo IOS app and manually change the workout erg power levels to get the desired workout. I'll most likely sign up for a month of Sufferfest so I can do the Tour, but will terminate thereafter.

I don't need training plans, yoga, strength training or a calendar ( all good things, but add significantly to development costs and end user pricing). I would just like to have the cycling option. Too bad that there is not an option to select just that for a lesser monthly price! I train with others of my age and they feel similarly.

I have a Wahoo Kickr, Tickr, and the speed and cadence sensor bundle...... Now that Wahoo owns The Sufferfest maybe the long time supporters of Wahoo might see some type of Sufferfest price adjustment. Just sayin! :>)

Thanks

In a masochistic way, that absolutely motivated me as well. I wonder if the Sufferfest still show these stats? Total participating and remaining...

I'm inclined to give Sufferfest a go again. The real challenge is trying to schedule ample Swim and Run training throughout the 9 days. I'm participating in ST100 and I'm on track for 80/100 goal. Hmmm... maybe a few double Run days in the first 2 weeks of Feb. Then alternating Swim and Run days when ToS starts, which each 3rd day completely off from S/R. And doing the ToS in the AM and the S/R in the evening.

I was also always curious about taking a 4DP test; but as a long course/ non-draft triathlon cyclist, I don't know how important the three anaerobic/maximal :05 sec, 1 min, 5' power profiles are for 56 and 112 mile 80% FTP steady state rides...

Hi—
Any plans on making the available on the Apple TV app thingy whatever that is? I can get it on an iPad and my phone. But I use Apple TV for zwift and would do sufferfest if I could do it the same way. My iPad mini is not big enough for me to see what I’m doing on it...

We're working on both Android and AppleTV at the moment. We've got more resources on Android so we'll launch that first. And, while it's not perfect, since you have an iPad/iPhone, have you tried the AirPlay function? You can screen mirror from your iPad to the AppleTV and .... viola! SUF on your TV. Instructions here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204289

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David McQuillen
Founder & CEO of The Sufferfest

Of course! I’ll do that. Thanks for the reply.

I'm surprised that there are no posts about the free* Wahoo TICKR if you join the Sufferfest on an annual subscription before the Tour of Sufferlandria starts. *although the TICKR is free the annual subscription is not. Still, a nice bonus. Existing annual subscribers also get one, a totally class move.

I used the reply button in that email but it would not work, so I ended up emailing the minions the regular way to see if that works...

rich

That ought to work, I imagine. The details are in the Tour of sufferlandria Facebook group...

  


It would have been better if they had actually told us about it. Ive been a subscriber for over a year, received no information about this, and am now told you needed to request one before Feb 4th. Wonderful. I hope someone puts sugar in their pain shakes.

Agree that disclosure only through the FB page is lame. I guess that I had not noticed that, having been on the FB page to prep for the ToS. That decision seems to be a liability for SF as word dribbles out to the annual user base not on FB...

How's the tour treating everyone thus far? My legs are trashed but still having fun. Who is doing the whole thing at 100%?