Sufferfest: The Wretched Review

Zoe inspects the rig for UCI compliance.

After not being able to do the video yesterday, today is the day. I’ll be doing The Sufferfest’s latest video “The Wretched.” I fully expect to be cooked after this workout, especially as David from The Sufferfest said, there are no easy bits. Oh boy.

Starting to spin before the real warm-up.

Edit: now warming up, apparently I used to be a champ, and now I suck. I forgot how to suffer. I’m only good for my points. Silly UCI rules.

Warming up on the Olympic’s road course.

Edit 2: On Box Hill now. Getting warmed up. See you on the other side.

Edit 3: I’m done. Ouch. I think I’m going to fall off the bike now.

Cooling down. About to step onto the podium with my national flag in the background.

My suffering over, it’s time for the cooldown.

My thoughts: That was properly hard, and I can see it getting even harder the more time I do the video. There are a lot of quick changes between cadence and effort and sit or stand, so it keeps you guessing, but I did find myself trying to find my actual RPE of 8 at 80rpms while standing. Sometimes I was overcooking it, and sometimes I felt I wasn’t suffering enough.

That said, I’ve done a number of The Sufferfest videos, and this new one is definitely worthy. It packs a punch at 35 minutes of hard riding time, plus some for warm-up and cooldown.

I suggest you go check out the trailer, and brace yourself for the public release: The Wretched