The Tour Has Begun

Two stages down. Seven remain.

There are four ways to ride the Tour of Sufferlandria. Given that I am in the middle of a training program, I have opted for the Focused option:

3. THE FOCUSED OPTION
Take this option if: You want to ride a good Tour, but don”™t want it to compromise your goals a little further down the road.
Like any pro cyclist, you have goals that might not line up with the race you”™re about to do. You need to ride the event out of a patriotic loyalty, but want to do so in a way that doesn”™t destroy you for other goals down the road or derail you from your current training plan too much. If that”™s the case, then take this option. The Focused Option has you identify the stages that suit your strengths (as determined by your 4DP profile) and ride them at 85-90% intensity, with all other stages done at 70-80% to keep you on track post-Tour.

Recovery from the Tour of Sufferlandria with the Focused option is about 5-6 days. The so-called Nuclear option, going full out at 100% for all nine stages, could take 7-10 days to recover and it can significantly increase the risk of getting sick.

The Focused option it is then.

But, I completely forgot about the intensity levels for Stage 1. I did the first hour and twenty minutes at 100% intensity and then I had no choice but to back it down to 90% to finish the last two races of that brutal opening.

The Sufferfest training app controls the resistance, not me. Gone are the days of RPE and going by feel. If the intensity isn’t set properly, the Sufferfest app will not care. Suffer away!

I was surprised at how quickly things fell apart towards the end of that first stage on Saturday. I came off the bike totally spent.

I had to bring out the foam rollers to get some relief in my legs. And then I simply flaked out for the balance of the evening.

Sunday wasn’t a whole lot better. I did the first hour of Stage 2 at 80% intensity and then the second hour of Stage 2 at 95% intensity. Just so brutal.

I will be riding Stage 3 after work today. I finished Stage 2 at around 7pm on the Sunday and there was no way I could tackle another stage at my usual 6am riding time.

I’ll go at Stage 3 at 100% intensity (I think).

And then I need to dial things back a bit. The stage I am most worried about is the last stage. It clocks in at 3 hours. The longest I usually hit a bike with indoor spinning is about 2 hours. Adding another hour to these savage workouts will be a real test of stamina regardless of intensity.