I know its a case of what you get out is what you put in, but having a turbo for 3 years i’ve hardly used it, due to boredom on it, no real excitement.

Anyway, its cats and dogs outside so hooked my turbo up, stuck on ‘fight club’ sufferfest video, read the riot act on intensity and off i went.

So pootling along at 3/10, nice warm up, nothing drastic, it evens warns you that you will die later on. ‘Hell i wont i thought, if i’m suffering i’ll just ease off’.

So onto first part, sitting at 5/10’s, start warming up nicely then bam. onto 7/10 road racing. Intensity goes up, i’m doing what i (imaginary) can to stay with the field before – SHAZAM, a bloody attack. Upto 10/10’s now, head down spinning like a mutha, before back down to 7/10’s. This carries on before we hit time trail section.

Off i go, chasing Wiggins, 7/10’s keeping it fast,spinning well, intensity good, sweat dripping all over kitchen floor then – jeez – another attack, 10/10’s, head down chase the git down, back down to 7/10’s. This goes on for 4 mins , attacking, time trialling before we hit the climb, 2:30 mins of pain at 8/10’s.
By now i’m sweating everywhere, tops off, bibs undone, hands covered in sweat, grips soaking but i’m sticking in there, not giving in. Teeth clenched then – another attack, upto 10/10’s again.

This repeats all over again for 40 mins.

Its amazing how you want to stick in there and what a workout. Best hour ever on a turbo and looking forward to ‘Angels’ tonight.

Anyone else been there , done that. For those not, wow is all i can say

yep. Sufferfests are indeed ace/painful.

You think Fight Club is hard? Give Revolver a go 😉

keep the reviews coming, I was contemplating a purchase

one of my reviews here http://40psi.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/sufferfest-a-very-dark-place/

I believe it was that review terrahawk, that piqued my interest originally.

heheh, just started back on the turbo with sufferfest myself, have yet to make myself throw up again 😛

Think I may invest in some of the newer ones too

I’ve got revolver, yet to finish a complete session! 😳

I’ve a couple of vids on the laptop at home, but I’m going to wait until I get a quieter turbo as the GF says the current one sounds like I’ve a jet in the spare room, and I’ve not given it full beans yet 😆

Yes know what you mean.’Angels’ is even better or worse depending on your view on suffering. Enjoy!

I thought I’d give Sufferfest a go and downloaded The Hunted last night, wow it was tough but fun, a couple of instances of feeling sick but that showed I was pushing myself.

Angels next.

The GF doesn’t understand how I can push myself until I’m sick? come to think of it neither do i! But it’s still a lot of fun 😉

One of the very first ones is the hardest – before they became commercial things. Breakaway climb and sprint i think…

Sounds a bit like the Hunted.

sounds brilant… :

On a similar theme, if you think Revolver is hard, try Downward Spiral…

Who’d have thought 15 secs could hurt…

I still rate the Tabata Protocol as the most vomit inducing turbo session, Sufferfest is far more fun though.

I don’t understand. Is your turbo linked up in a Wii stylee to the video or something? How does it tell if you’ve been dropped or are managing to keep up? Or is the 7/10ths bit just some arbitrary value in your head that you thinks about right?

Yup they are fantastic training aids, saw me through the 3 months of snow last winter. Haven’t tried any of the new ones yet, but can recommend, Local Hero, Angels, The Hunted, and Downward Spiral. Each is different and they can be combined nicely twice a week or so to maintain a good fitness level.

I’ve got the Downward Spiral, great stuff!

The values are based on PE, (Perceived Effort), although you can convert these to HR Zones or Power Levels if you wanted.

No connection to the laptop, purely a film with Pro cycling clips that are appropriate to the training you’re meant to be doing.

I don’t understand. Is your turbo linked up in a Wii stylee to the video or something? How does it tell if you’ve been dropped or are managing to keep up? Or is the 7/10ths bit just some arbitrary value in your head that you thinks about right?

The footage is for motivation (especially the climbing), but it does engross you in what you are doing, you get screen prompts for cadence and effort level the efforts levels are from 1 to 10, 10 being so hard you will likely get an aneurysm.

Ideally you will have turbo trained before with an HRM to get some idea of your personal effort levels.

Ive downloaded local hero, watched the first 5 mins just to see the format but not done it yet. probably wednesday but maybe tomorrow 🙂

Where do you get these from? Free download or do you buy them?

I am reluctant to google “sufferfest” until I have a bit more to go on.

Sounds good though – up until now I have been using the iplayer to give myself something to look at while doing intervals on the turbo trainer, but it is pretty mind numbing.

Cheers Tut. Not for teh Tubro newbie then…

Here

Be warned they are BIG downloads, mine cost £9.22 GBP as of last night.

Try http://www.thesufferfest.com/

10 USD each or there abouts

Got the lot downloaded, bit scared to try them now 😯

Cheers Tut. Not for teh Tubro newbie then…

I don’t see why not a couple of bog standard Interval sessions with a HRM will give some idea where to put yourself at the perceived levels, I would recommend a reasonably good level of fitness before trying Sufferfest though.

Fight club is a good introduction to them as it’s a bit of everything.

Angels is good for leg strength. Based around hill climbing.

They’re the only two I have but need to but some more.

Like the music on Angels – think its my favourite

found this

sufferfest powermeter spreadsheet

looks very complicated to me

Nice xls there tricky, I’d say even the first setup page would give some value and then simply PostIt Note the values to your laptop for reference

Did my first one tonight, tried Angels. That bloody Contador and his breaks. And that last sprint seemed to go on for ages. Good fun though and makes the turbo a bit more interesting.

Anyone got any good ideas on an iPad mount for the bike?

Did Angels for the first time this morning, you’re right that last sprint is rather taxing, also during the out of saddle sprints I found it hard to maintain the combination of the 100 + rpm and even power output required.

what DVD /CD software you guys using to put on to DVDs? I cant seem to burn them to disk? Help needed please 🙂

PB, i just play them on my iPad. I’ve used winDVD in the past and that’s always worked well.

Kingtut, you’re right about those efforts. Takes a bit of fannying around to find the right gear to keep the power the same but up the cadence. Gave up in the end and just went up one sprocket and got the cadence right.