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Hello,
Does anyone else use Sufferfest without the ant + kit etc on a very basic turbo using RPE as a guide to effort. They seem to say it’s a way to use their videos..
I appreciate it would be better with the better kit but my commitment is weak, just wondered if anyone else found it any good!
Cheers
Yep, done it a few times when I've had issues with the other turbo technology. It works fine, but be prepared to spend a few sessions calibrating your effort levels - it's VERY easy to go too hard and ruin the whole session.
It’s all I’ve ever done on sufferfest. And yes, it takes a bit of ‘calibration’/honesty.
And yes, I’ve blown up/failed a few times.
You need to be prepared to push yourself, but it works better than just mashing away on the turbo.
Revolver gives you a Pavlovian sprint-response by the end of it I swear.
Worth investing in a rear wheel speed sensor?
You still need to experiment and callibrate your efforts but it gives you numbers to work with, makes progression easier too?
Works fine - if you've had a pm before you can judge effort pretty easily - remember that 7.5 is ftp for them.
Actually I reckon if you just put down a target power and tried to hit it guessing you could be pretty close. I know what 500w feels like and how sustainable it is.
Get a speed sensor, ant dongle and an extension cable off ebay, best £30 you can spend on a turbo.
Cadence sensor helps, HR less so.
Its REALLY easy to under estimate effort at the start of a session. And a lot of sessions are based on repeating something to failure.
e.g. 5x 6minute intervals. If you go hard in #1, then by #5 youre not getting any bemefit at all because youre no longer exercising those systems.
Or warming up, to me doing 90rpm at 80% FTP feels like unsustaimable torture mid way through the warm up. A few sprints and a rest later and thats my cadence for doing a 20minute FTP test.
Being able to see the data (even if its only relatively accurate not absolutely) makes it a lot easier/harder and more effective.
I did Sufferfest to RPE back when it was just MP4 video files.
I did quickly get myself a speed/cadence sensor but with no sensors it was an entertaining way of sitting on the turbo for an hour.
Judging RPE is a skill itself, aiming for numbers sometimes takes a bit of thought out of the "is this really an aerobic/threshold/VO2 [or whatever] effort"
A bit of admittedly sadistic entertainment to be had without sensors for sure I would say!
I think RPE is probably better than HR to be honest. Too much lag and variability to be really useful
As a slight side track -
Ive dug out my old turbo due to lockdown, and dare I say it, have been enjoying it!
It’s a 14yr old tacx flow with power/hr etc
I realise the power may not be accurate, but it does seem to be reproducible.
If I am happy reading power off THe head unit (as it won’t link to a computer), would it be possible to use easily with sufferfest?
Now I can’t just buy one video to try, I’d like real world opinion before signing up...
It would be easier than staring at the garage wall
You can still get a 30 day trial of Sufferfest, plenty of time to make your mind up
If I am happy reading power off THe head unit (as it won’t link to a computer), would it be possible to use easily with sufferfest?
Fairly sure that would work, but if you want to follow a number on the screen you'll have to do an FTP test of some sort so it's scaled to your effort.