2015 Tour of Sufferlandria

I’ve decided to take part in the Tour of Sufferlandria. It’s a 9 day virtual event riding to Sufferfest videos. I will take a break from my base training then resume it once the ToS is finished.

I expect to find it quite difficult as it will almost double my current training load, not to mention that it is a lot more intense than the base training I have been doing. I will use trainerroad for the ToS. which displays the target power for each part of the video.

Stage One was two videos, Elements of Style and The Long Scream. Elements of Style is 38 minutes long and is a video aimed at improving pedalling technique and posture. A great place to start. It’s an easy video and is not designed to be difficult. I’ve done it a few times before and enjoy it. The voiceover from eurosport commentator Carlton Kirby makes it even more enjoyable.

The Long Scream is 36 minutes long and is mainly at threshold. I haven’t done this workout before and found it difficult. I felt pain building in my quads during the workout and really struggled to hit the power targets in the last few minutes, especially the 400W 20 second burst at the end. A worrying sign of things to come for the next 8 days…… Despite the fact that I was riding outside on the balcony with a temperature just below freezing I still managed to end up dripping with sweat. On the plus side I got a great endorphin rush a couple of minutes afterwards to reward me for the hard efforts.

Sometimes a tough workout seems to fry my brain. This is definitely one of those times.