The Sufferfest: Hell Hath No Fury

I'm a cold weather wuss so most of my training has been of the indoor variety.

The creator of the Sufferfest training videos has once again designed a devilish workout. The newest edition to the Sufferfest library is Hell Hath No Fury (HHNF). This video’s focus is two, 20 minute efforts ridden at a perceived effort of 7 to 8 out of 10, which translates to threshold intervals. The bread to those meaty efforts is a five and a half minute warm-up and a three and a half minute time trial at the conclusion. Previous Sufferfest race footage has been of men, but this time the women get their due and are the stars of the video.

The plot of the HHNF video is a stage race and stage 1 is a short effort of 5:30 minutes. Once the blood is pumping stage 2 and 3 are the two 20 minutes efforts. Finally, stage 4 is the deciding “day” – the time trial. I don’t need to tell you that this video is hard – just reading the workout description you know the answer.

Initially when I do a review I like to ride it at an effort that just brings a light sweat so I can pay attention and make notes of the training session. But what makes these training videos my “go to” for when an indoor workout is my only option is that they are extremely motivating. Soon my head is down with my pulse rate pegged. When the message flashes on the screen to “attack” I jump! On the climbs I can almost feel the message taunting me to get out of the saddle and push harder tempered with a bit of humor. Each interval is noted either with an occasional count-down clock or a command to accelerate either your speed or cadence. If your head is down, don’t worry, you won’t miss the commands. Like the other Sufferfest videos, the cues are denoted by the sound of an engine revving (accelerating) or braking (slowing). The music is electronica with a good beat to keep the pedals ticking over and keeping you on track.

As I mentioned the HHNF uses footage of women racing – something that I have rarely seen other than in person at a bike race. In fact the only other time I’ve seen it on the screen was the past road race World Championships from a bootlegged Eurosport video feed. I’m glad to see that “Sufferlandia” has included a women’s national squad in their latest offering. At a cost of $11.99 for the individual use or $24.99 for the group use, the Sufferfest videos are a bargain. As your off season training is transitioning from time off the bike to once again throwing a leg over the top tube, incorporate a Sufferfest training session when that high energy workout needs to be part of the mix. Even after several sessions the footage or the training efforts didn’t become stale and I was motivated to push hard through each “ride.”

In the past I’ve made no secret of how much I’ve enjoyed using these videos. Now we’re happy to give away one Hell Hath No Fury training video each day during the final week of our Kickstarter campaign. These daily giveaways are an extra thank you to our supporters. To be entered in the daily giveaway, you need to be a supporter with a verified TourChats Rewards Zone Login. All Kickstarter Backers starting at the $10 level are sent an invite to the Rewards Zone.