C’mon!!! You can’t leave it there. Gawd!!!
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Better to leave you wanting more than talk too much! 
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Hahaha love it Sir Evan. Do we wait anther month for part 2, like a serial story? (Does anyone know what those are anymore?)
I screenshotted the list. It was my second favorite part. First was the amazing avoidance of catching family illness.
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Many thanks for the backstory (if partial for now) - b/c the backstory is more often than not the real story. Also appreciate the hanging cliff approach.
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Funnily enough… guess what arrived in the mail the day after I posted my intro.
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Best.Mail.Ever.
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[…continued 2/?]
It’s time for your Monday evening serial! Of course it’s a Monday. 
Picking My Playlist Part 2
…I looked back at my good 'ol KOS Planning spreadsheet which shows not only the playlists from all my previous KOS quests, but also has a preliminary list for my planned attempt for Nov 2024 that never happened (thanks for nothing, COVID). I hoped to be able to use that prelimiarly list as a good jumping-off point, but after just a quick glance it, and a mental comparison to the list of remasters, and I knew I would be starting from scratch.
Well, not really from scratch. I only had 13 to work from, so that would definitely make the decision much easier. So, next up was a mental playback of my previous KOS attempts to decide which of the 13 elligible videos to keep and which 3 to drop.
When creating a KOS playlist I like to build from within a framework. I ask myself these questions over and over again as I build it out:
- What ride to I want to start with?
- What ride to I want to end with?
- What are my favorite videos?
- Which videos have my favorite music?
- Which videos have my favorite moments?
- Which videos will I be proud to have on my playlist?
- Which videos have given me the most problems in the past?
- Which videos should any self-respecting KOS want to include?
- How will these videos feel when I’m tired?
- Which videos will energize me when I’m tired? Or will they destroy me?
- What kind of shenannigans can I add into my KOS to make it interesting/different?
- What videos will motivate me?
- Will these videos feel better at the beginning or end of the playlist?
One of the worst things that can happen to a KOS playlist is to only really plan out videos 1, 7, and 10. Then you start out on a high note but end up with a bunch of random filler in the middle which you are mindlessly trying to muddle thru in order to get to your favorites and 7 and 10. The best playlists include videos that keep you focused and energized and motivated even when you’re on video 4, 5, 6 or 8. Fortunately, most of the 13 video options were some of my favorites or nemesis workouts that I have enjoyed both on their own and also as part of KOS quests and other shenannigans. So then it was just a matter of figuring out which to keep and in what order.
I ended up basing my playlist on a mixture of favorites, workout names, screenshots, putting endurance workouts and NM workouts early, putting good workouts in the middle and the end, and then going out with a flourish. That helped me settle on the final 10 pretty quickly. Using my spreadsheet I then moved them around until I decided on a good list and some semblance of an order. And finally, while posting my announcement at the beginning of this thread, and adding screenshots to the list, I finally settled on the full order of all the videos. Placing Revolver (which has a screenshot that says “only five to go”) at number 6, and Nine Hammers at number 9 were my final modifications.
The hardest decision was the final video. My previous favorite of Defender no longer exists as a SUF workout, and I had already done it 3 times. I didn’t like the remaster of Thin Air. I had previously also wanted to do Violator, but that was a remaster so was also out. I thought about Revolver, but I had done that before as the 12th ride in my 3rd KOS. I had done Blender as my 10th ride in my 2nd KOS, but had actually finished with Cobbler as my 11th video of that quest, so that was a possibility, but being so long I wasn’t initally sure. I had wanted to do Blender as part of this quest, but originally scheduled it as one of the first 3 since the long videos are usually best done early. I also thought about finishing with Nine Hammers, but I kind of wanted that as my ninth video. The Shovel had been another idea, but I liked the idea of doing it earlier - tho it is an option as a good ending video in the future.
Finally, it felt too perfect to end with Blender. It’s a classic Sufferfest video and is nearly as long as two regular length videos. It had also been my 10th out of 11 in my second quest, and I knew just how destroyed I felt then, so I knew if I could make it that far it would be the perfect, epic ending. Or maybe a really bad idea. Either way I would say that it seemed like a good idea at the time.
So, I put HHNF (one of my previous shennigan videos) at 2 and The Shovel (one of my oldest nemesis videos) at 3 since they were the 2nd and 3rd longest videos from my playlist, and HHNF was the only endurance ride. That would get the other biggest obstacles out of the way early, before turning around and going against the standard recommendation by doing Blender last. Oh what an ending it was going to be. That is, if I made it that far, which as I mentioned before was one of the biggest questions (if not THE biggest) going into this quest.
Re-Review
Back in January I had laid out my 2025 healthy and exercise goals. Usually I have running and/or cycling mileage goals I wanted to meet or exceed and a bunch of other race times and other workout metrics and goals each year that I plan to strive for. Thanks to long COVID, 2025 had been different. I wasn’t sure I was going to even be able to workout with any regularity, much less with any intensity. So, this KOS quest was never a sure thing, and it wasn’t until the end of October that I fully made up my mind to go for it. I still wasn’t sure I could make it to the end. I was going to go down fighting, but I was never going to know for sure if unexpected fatigue was going to pop up at any point. I was just going to need to rely on my training and my experience to get me through - but also to know when it would be prudent throw in the towel.
And with the final announcing of my planned KOS attempt, it wasn’t the end of a journey, not by any means. But it had definitely been a long hard road to get there. And all the questions I was still asking myself wouldn’t be answered until I was in the moment.
And so, that’s when I started my final preparations. When I had just 3 weeks to go and only two full weeks of training left. It was time to see what I really had in my legs, and also inside my head.
Nutrition
Back in February there had been a sale on Maurten which I’ve used over the last 3 years during long rides, races and KOS attempts. Back in 2024 I had bought a new box of Maurten 100/100 caffeine gels. And in Feb without any expectation of being able to use them, I had bought a box each of Maurten 160 and 320 at 50% off. Now, I was glad I had made those purchases. My nutrition plan at been set pretty solid everty since KOS 3, so I didn’t need to plan too much and mostly just had to make sure I had everything I needed. All I needed was to buy some PB M&Ms and make my final decisions on workout intensity and number of carbs per hour.
My nutrtion plan looks something like this:
- Overall goal: 90-100g of carbs per video
- Every video I will drink either a bottle of Maurten 320 or a bottle of Maurten 160. That gives me either 79g of carbs (bottle of 360) or 39g of carbs (bottle of 160). I would need to refill my bottle for every video.
- Then I will eat gels or solid food to fill the gap to either 90g or 100g of carbs.
- For electrolytes, every video I will drink half of a 750mL bottle of water mixed with a packet of LMNT. I would need to refill this bottle every-other video.
- I will also always have a 750mL bottle of plain water to drink as needed.
- I always had at least 4 750mL bottles pre-filled with water in the fridge waiting to be used so they would be cold when I needed them.
- As soon as I finshed and saved a video I would take off my cycling shoes and grab: 1) my empty Maurten bottle and a packet of 160 or 320 (usually 320), 2) every other video I would also grab my bottle of LMNT and a new packet of LMNT, 3) my bottle of water if it was empty.
- I would bring them into the kitchen and quickly rinse them out and refill them with water and put them in the fridge to get cold. I would then grab cold bottles already in the fridge and fill one with 160 or 320, and then the other with LMNT (when needed), and a replacement bottle of plain water when needed. I would then bring them all back and drop them off next to my bike while I then went to use the restroom. Then when I came back all I had to do was put my shoes on, hop on the bike, and start the next video.
And so then…
[to be continued…]
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Yay, serial number 2!
Hehee, this was my favourite part. Gave me a chuckle.
Your level of detail and actually remembering it, is amazing. I think I’m detail oriented, but I certainly don’t retain these kinds of details after I’m done. It’s like my brain flushes it out immediately after its done needing to use it. At least I hope it’s a working memory strategy 
I like how you considered the numerical references in the videos for their placement. And, I’m impressed at how carefully you chose the list despite only the 13 to pick from!
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THIS was my favourite part:
Hehe. Seriously. WHO does this SIX freakin’ times ?!?!
You can be sure I’m tuning in next Monday™ for the next instalment of Sir Evan’s Not Lost His Mind, Really, He Hasn’t (he has actually, but who’s got the heart to tell him 
)
Can’t wait to hear what he comes up with for KoS #7 the halfway point to a KoS Quest KoS Quest
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I think it was lost long before number six! That’s what makes him such a great Sufferlandrian!
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[…continued 3/?]
I guess that’s really all the important parts. That’s what really set this attempt out as different from all my previous quests. Without all the adversity it would have been JACK (Just Another Common Knighthood).
The back story:
- My dad (my biggest cycling and Sufferfest motivation) passed away in Feb 2023
- I did 2 quests in 2023:
- Memorial quest in August
- Annual quest in December
- Missed my annual quest in Nov 2024 due to COVID
- Long COVID meant I had only been training inconsistently since April
- Only fully commited to this Knighthood attempt in October
- My biggest obstacles would be a) potential fatigue and b) potential lack of endurance.
- Chosing my playlist was different from any previous quest because of the remasters
So that means I need to actually talk about how the day went.
Well, this post as been sitting in my drafts collecting dust. And this week I only just realized I hadn’t written more. Oops! So I guess I better get writing on the rest!
[to be continued…] (sorry!)
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Good grief. I keep thinking about my need to complete these and stop leaving you all hanging. But, I never have long enough to sit down and write it out. And not even enough time to write even another short serial.
Honestly, I think part of the problem is that this Knighthood - as I’ve said before - was far more about the journey than it was for the actual event. The biggest question was IF I would even be able to attempt it. But again, saying this is repeating myself again.
Anyway… I need to collect my thoughts (for real this time) and then actually write something. And write something coherent. Every time I sit down to write I have a jumbled mess of thoughts and no time to write or coalesce all those thoughts into something that’s not just a scattered mess.
So, this is my promising to do better. Not that riding Nine Hammers 31 times in 30 days is going to make me less scatterbrained. But then again, maybe it will. Suffering can really do weird things to a person. Even if that person is already a bit weird.
I better re-read what I’ve written and then get this finished! It’s harder for me to finish than a KOS, apparently… 
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