Day 4's assignment was to do "The Wretched," TheSufferfest.com's newest installment in the Suffer Catalog. Neither of us had done this video before.
Webb: How bad can 49 minutes be after Day 3's grueling hour and 45 minutes? It'll be over before it starts. What is that? The actual work is only like 35:00? Piece. Of. Cake. Cue it up and let's start rolling.
For the love of everything that is good and clean in Sufferlandria and on this Earth! This workout is about perseverance. It is about climbing and descending with speed. It is about fast flats. It is about keeping your pedals moving and responding to attacks. Think of a concentrated version of "Fight Club" and "Extra Shot:20."
The warm-up is just grand. It features a music video, "Box Hill" by the band (of apparent cyclist(s)) Redados. You remember Box Hill from the London Olympics, right? I loved the tempo and the video's story line of a cyclist, perhaps a weekend warrior or triathlete age-grouper, taking a shot at the Hill.
My workout was marred by some technical difficulties, both electronic and mechanical. For some reason, iTunes froze up a few times for a minute or more each time. I kept working at the same effort level because while the video was frozen, the audio kept moving along. All of a sudden the video would speed up until it caught up with the audio track. I could see that I missed a few cues here and there.
Then my chain dropped. I'm growing tired of this. In the year that I have owned this Cervelo S2 I have dropped my chain more than possibly all my cumulative years cycling. I am not exaggerating. It has been to my LBS too many times for adjustments. My initial reaction was that I should have paid extra for Shimano Ultegra rather than go with the stock SRAM Rival. I had one mechanic tell me that Cervelo's internal cable routing could be the problem. I'm not convinced. Elle has the same bike and gruppo. She too drops her chain a lot. I need to figure this out if we are going to do more cycling races in 2013.
And then my Garmin 500's speed and distance took a nap on me. It is probably time for a new battery.
I'm tired and we are not quite half-way through SufferFestukah.
Elle: I decided to sit this one out. After every workout I ice my knee because I was determined to make it to the end of SufferFestukah. After Sunday's long workout I decided the best way not to break Rules #2 and #3 was to skip "The Wretched." Besides, since we have not done this workout I really wanted to give it my all the first time. Even though I knew I was being smart, and not making my knee injury worse, I still felt guilty watching and listening to Webb. I could hear him laughing in the beginning while he was spinning along with his headphones on. Every now and then he would tell me to look at the screen. I didn't want to because I wanted to watch it fresh the first time. I can't wait for my knee to be fully recovered...
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