Tour of Sufferlandia: thinking about day 8

Kiddo #2 played early bird this morning. Of course, after having a big intense workout that ended at 10:30pm, I couldn't get to sleep til 1:30am. That's part of what I'm dealing with here....I have to have a late night workout to ensure I can do each day of the Tour of Sufferlandia, but then I can't get to sleep til all the adrenaline and endorphins and NATURAL HIGH type stuff wears off.

Anyway, upon getting to sleep around 1:45am, I was promptly awoke at 6:45 am by Kiddo #2 because he was "all done sleep." Nice.

Day 8 of this Tour is gonna hurt. I have all day to think about it. I just bought the videos for today, the only ones I haven't done. Well, it's kinda scary. I was thinking about doing a double-day with Saturday and Sunday so I could just finish this thing tonight, but that clearly won't happen given today's expectations.

** Day 8 – There is No Try + Revolver – 1hr 45 minutes ***
Revolver. Those who have done it, know what this day brings. Even by itself, it’s one of the most feared videos in the ‘fest collection. To have it this far into the tour, and following the increasing speed intervals of There is No Try is simply diabolical. Which means it’s a perfect fit for the pentultimate day of The Tour. The day starts out with TINT, which asks you to incrementally increase your speed as each interval progresses (these are known as Sufferlandrian Intervals), with several of the intervals finishing in sprints, you’re asked to put out some maximum power early in the day. The longest interval, which is 4×2:00, comes in the middle of the session and can crack even the strongest resolve. We hear that both Wiggins, Jens Voigt and Peter Sagen are all  targeting this day, so watch for them.

And I read TheSufferfest's version of yesterday's events. I wholeheartedly agree about just getting past the long intervals and then bringing it home on the short ones.

Focus on making it to the 5:00 recovery section between intervals. While there, you’ll probably feel quite full of fear that you can’t do the second set of intervals, but we’ve found that if you can get past the 1:30 interval in the second set, then you can finish it off. So just think of getting past that and then you’ll be fine. Sort of.

Yeah. Sumthin' like that. :)

Tour of Sufferlandia Day 7

Day 7. Wow. My legs hurt and were still tired going into this one....32 hours later. And I loaded up with about three servings of Recoverite after that last go because I knew that the 100% section on The Long Scream  was going to hurt for a bit.

I haven't done the Downward Spiral in a while. In fact, I had the names mixed up with Fight Club.  But when we started up, I remembered that the longer sections hurt...ALOT. Tonight was no different. I did these again at 90%, double-checked for accuracy(!).

I had a hard time holding the sets over 1:30 but managed. Never thought two minutes could be so long. The minute and shorter sets seemed much easier to hold on, and I pounded out high-above-FTP wattage on these. Maybe I should do short sprints instead of long cruises.

Data files below. Might double-up the rides tomorrow and finish tomorrow night. But then again...I might have trouble just getting on the bike.

Tour of Sufferlandia Day 6

This one hurt! The first 50 minutes or so went great. Wretched is a cool video but is not my favorite video, and that was the starter today. Nothing special, but I never fail to laugh when I do this video, either....which is a good thing because I'm supposed to be having fun, too,....right?

The Long Scream is one of my favorites. I don't do it alot because it hurts alot. But when I do it, I know I come out a better rider. This one hurt today..ALOT.

I've been doing these workouts set at 90%. Today was no exception, until I wondered why...half-way through The Long Scream...I was about to die with another 15 minutes to do. I had it set at 100%. OUCH. Heart rate pounding. Legs burning. No wonder why. I dialed that back and found some more motivation when the pain dropped back to about 8 of 10. With about 5 minutes left, I had to completely stop for about 10 seconds just to catch my breath. It's amazing how much just a 10 second stop can help...I tore into it after that and finished strong.

Interesting that you can see how uneven my effort level is with these graphs. My output jumps around alot from 205 to 225 to 215 and up and down like that alot, especially towards the end. I suppose that can't be very efficient and it hurts my run if I do that in a race. Just one more thing to think about, I guess.

Data files below. I did this workout at 11:30am, and I'm not doing the next one til 9pm tomorrow, so I am thankful for the longer rest period. Legs are hurting as I write this 10 hours after the workout.

 

Tour of Sufferlandia Day 5

Did the Angels workout. Felt really good, almost easy until last set nearly killed me. But the adrenaline of surviving the last set allowed me to spike to 600 watts in a heroic last ten second sprint for the VICTORY! 

Tour of Sufferlandia Day 4

Today proved that my effort levels are definitely time dependent, and Friel is absolutely correct in the Triathletes Training Bible that the time of day can have alot of affect on your results, and you should therefore try to train at the same time of day as your A race.

Anywho.... I did this workout at 90% just like the rest. I pushed beyond that a little bit in parts because I felt great at lunch hour instead of 9pm at night. In the morning, I wouldn't be able to bring myself up to 70% intensity level!

The music on the high effort levels is awesome! I don't do this video alot, but I can see that I should.

Right now, I'm thinking about adding this tour into my training calendar to take up every sixth week of training. We'll see how that works out!

Data files below. Busy day.

Tour of Sufferlandia Day 3

Wow! Somewhere deep down below all the pain I can feel mass improvements coming my way, and we're only 1/3 of the way through this tour.  Day three description is here. Data files shown below of Extra Shot and Fight Club.

Funny thing...I bought Extra Shot when it first came out, but I don't remember ever seeing it before. Nice ride. Have to remember this one.

Fight Club. I always get this one mixed up with the other early one, Downward Spiral. This one didn't crush me like I always remember it hurting. But then I  was set at 90%. And..uhh, yeah....I didn't do the attacks on the last set. So I guess I lost this one. Certainly got dropped.

Total of 24 miles in 1:25:00 time.

I'm remembering to get some Recoverite in me right after the workout.  The workout ends, I get off the bike, and within two minutes I have downed a serving or two of Recoverite. I think that immediacy is so incredibly important.

Tour of Sufferlandia Day 2

Completed "The Hunted" tonight at 90% effort level. I'm really liking the trainerroad system, especially that it lets you dial down the intensity level like that and maintain that data.

The power reading problem is gone. I turned off the wireless USB mouse. Problem solved as expected. Everything about this system is pretty easy.

Now looking at getting an ANT+ HRM so I can put the heart rate data in there, too. Kind of costly, though. Looking at the Timex Global Trainer for $150, which is a great deal.

Here's my data file for The Hunted tonight.