The Tour of Sufferlandria, a 9 day ride across the mythical land! I finished this last Sunday and was (kinda) glad it was over! It wasn’t that it was long it was that I hadn’t looked at, yet alone sat on, my bike with any real reason since Vineman last July. So it was really no surprise that by day three I was feel tender. Cardiovascular-wise I was fine, my heart rate was well within the right zones. Even more so as I had dialed back my FTP to 75% so as to not kill myself. The biggest challenge was really simply sitting on the bike! That said after Day 5 I was feeling better and by the end of the event my backside had acclimatized nicely!
The Tour started fairly easily and then ramped up as the week went on. Each day presented a new challenge; Time Trialing, Climbing, Sprints. Every day featured at least one video, several featured more! The longest day was just over 2.5 hours and the shortest just under an hour. With some creativity each stage lasted 50 hours. Each tour day is active while it's that day anywhere in the world. It starts at 12am Kiritimati time (UTC+14) and ends at 12 midnight American Samoa time (UTC-11). This makes each tour day last 50 hours and days overlap. Local time is irrelevant. It was with that format that Becca and I were able to get the first two days completed, run the Calico 50K on Sunday and then pick up on the bike where we left off.
I rode my using TrainerRoad who, as per last year, really put on an excellent show. They had created a mini website which logged your progress, and carried a daily DNF rate, this was approx. 40% by the end of the 9 days! Additionally they had secured a myriad of prizes for anyone who completed the Tour. Tour aside if you’re riding on a Trainer you should be using TR, I am lucky enough to be Brand Ambassador for them and you can read a couple of posts about the set up etc here, here and here. It really is an excellent and super easy tool that will improve your cycling with structured training and quality feedback!
The minions over at the The Sufferfest Headquarters were again raising money for the Davis Phinney Foundation and this year managed to raise over $100,000. There were a couple of new videos included in the Tour and some old favorites too. When I get a chance I will post a review or two.
Here’s The Rookie trailer, there is plenty of on-board camera action!
The Sufferfest & Team Giant-Shimano: The Rookie: Trailer from The Sufferfest on Vimeo.
Overall for the 9 days I logged just over 13 hours and 213 miles (with an extra 70 minutes and 20 miles for the FTP test) and a whopping 13’ in elevation gain!
It’s been a good kick start to my cycling for the year and while I am focused on trail-running the cross training will no doubt do me good!
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