Just signed up for trainerroad and have been doing sufferfest videos. For those of you who use these in the offseason, how many do you do in a week during the offseason (I was thinking 3 or 4 times a week); which ones do you do; do you mix in endurance rides; and do you ride them at 100% (which is extremely hard, but I guess that’s the point). I’d like to really torture myself this offseason on the bike. Thanks.
thats a good start number if you plan to do other disciplines as well. As far a percentage of effort, they do list them in the videos. Do you use a powermeter or heart rate monitor? I know for sure that theres a conversion chart on a spread sheet that factors in your FTP and comes up with corresponding power numbers for the indicated RPE on the videos, will kick your ass man!! If done right, you should be close to completely wasted at the end of the videos and feeling the endorphins before the final cool down ends!! Love those videos!
I’ll be using them this winter and shooting for 4 a week. if you space them out you should be able to do all at 100%, i tried to do 5 days in a row at 100% once and imploded on the last day half way through.
my personal favorites are:
Revolver
The Hunted
A Very Dark Place
Hell Hath No Fury
Blender is nice for a longer workout, haven’t tried the new 2 hour one yet though. honestly id rather just go outside mid day on the weekend and ride for 4 hours for endurance than sit on my trainer.
Perhaps I’m a sissy but 4 Sufferfests a week at TrainerRoad’s 100% would leave me with no legs for running (either between or after depending on how you scheduled those)… Maybe my FTP is estimated too high!
Each is pretty close to or higher than 100 TSS… Kind of a personal deal, work your avg daily / weekly TSS up and see where you start to feel burnt out I guess? A 90-100 TSS per day average seems reasonable to high to me, if I recall.
I think I could likely hit each video at 100% every other day if the off days were seriously recovery focused… And I’d likely need an extra day at the end of the week to get ready to do it again! When would I get any quality running in?
That’s just me personally, YMMV
I personally wouldn’t do 4 a week unless you are a very experienced rider. 2 plus some more steady rides would be good for most. Also depends on your goals. Do you want to focus the winter on bike workouts, and cut back on swim/run?
Whatever people tell you, subtract two. This will adjust for ego bias in answers.
We have 4 CompuTrainers in the basement and run two sessions on Tuesday and Thursday evenings in the winter. That’s two, and often three Sufferfest videos because someone might not show up and it’s a good chance to go again. All done at 100% of FTP. Then on Saturday, we ride a Real Course Video or other course-type workout for 90 minutes.
Two of our younger (studly) athletes started the fall training session at 160 watts and ended this spring at 240 watts. They’re thinking they can go to 280 or 300 watts FTP by next spring.
I am new to using sufferfest (only did one ride, ‘Blender’, thought it was awesome) and am wondering if there are any easier rides or if they are all tough ‘sufferfests’. It’s mainly to try to mix things up in the winter, kinda like you can do with spinervals.
I am new to using sufferfest (only did one ride, ‘Blender’, thought it was awesome) and am wondering if there are any easier rides or if they are all tough ‘sufferfests’. It’s mainly to try to mix things up in the winter, kinda like you can do with spinervals.
None of them are easy. They are intended to make you hurt. Most arent as long as Blender though. Revolver is 45min, HHNF is 1:15, but the rest are right around 1:00.
At some point they’ll probably get around to producing a Sufferfest Recovery Ride video. I can see it now, all the shame, ridicule and prodding put to the task of making you go slow and easy. But, so far, its all work and no play. From my sampling (I have 5 videos so far) they are all hard, but hard in different ways. I find the ones that favor my strengths to be easier but the intensity is still high.
In the winter, I do 3 or 4 Sufferfests a week. If I hit the trainer more than that, its just spinning away watching TV. I do mine at 100% but I think my FTP number is a little low so its not a legit 100%.
Last season I followed Trainer Roads Base 1, Base 2, Build 1, Build 2 training plans … and substituted out one session per week for a Sufferfest video. Worked quite well for me. Raised my FTP nearly 40W. Plan to get your pain on in late January though when they start up the Tour of Sufferlandria 2014 … That’s where the real fun starts.
I personally wouldn’t do 4 a week unless you are a very experienced rider. 2 plus some more steady rides would be good for most. Also depends on your goals. Do you want to focus the winter on bike workouts, and cut back on swim/run?
Same. I’d try two and then a couple of tempo type rides. If I did 4/wk at 100% I’d be destroyed and probably couldn’t actually execute them without DNFing a couple or scaling down mid-workout. I’ve tried to do it a couple times while getting some running in and even though I had some ok bike fitness I was destroyed. This isn’t to say that I don’t try to do them anyway because I like to suffer but don’t be surprised if you can’t execute them at that level. If you aren’t running than you MIGHT be able to depending on the workouts you choose but most of them are hard.
Well - I think those who said 3-4 times a week is way too much are probably right. I did 3-4 times a week for about 3 weeks and almost burnt myself out. These workouts are extremely intense - almost like the stuff I do to peak for a race. I’ve decided to flip over to some of the other slightly less intense workouts on trainer road for the off-season. The sufferfest workouts are just too damn hard, take more mental stamina and focus that I’m willing to give, and completely blow up any running and/or swimming I want to do. Maybe throw in 1 a week tops.
If you’re doing them with Trainerroad so you really can’t cheat on the power without falling off the power curve, you’ll find them too hard to do more than 1-2x/week. Heck, they’re so hard with Trainerroad that I’m lucky to do one a month, and I’m no pansy when it comes to training.
I used to do them more before powermeter+TR since you can slack off more without seeing that graph fall sharply but since TR, I get too depressed seeing how many intervals I’ve missed!
I’m with the others - I’d do about 1 or maybe 2 per week if you are doing them at 100% with a power meter. If you are just going by RPE (which will then just change when tired), I suppose you could manage 3-4, but why?
I love the vids to break things up or if I don’t have a lot of time, but they are NOT typical base building workouts for sure.
Looking forward to the tour of sufferlandria again this year…it will kill me again
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If youre running as well as swimming in the offseason 3-4 is a lot. Olif a bike focus i thunk that range is fune with no need to pepper in longer miles. I did them about 3xs a week this past winter with a PM on my emition rollers. I also did the first 60 of the 100 day run challenge during this. No swim. I managed well. Bike was solid in spring. Went from 16.x mph in my first IM to 19.x in my second. The intensity of these workouts really do work. I just put distance on top of this work in spring/summer. Huge fan of them!! Get lots of fans