Not sure what you mean about missing flexibility, please elaborate.
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haha i just mean the flipside of the coin of having the workout be loaded into your garmin.
when it’s not loaded and you execute by memory, you can do things like rest an extra 30 seconds if you get caught at a light without having to restart the step, stuff like that.
it’s all personal preference though 
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Ahhhh gotcha. I’m running a Lezyne Super GPS Pro Enhanced, which allows for “auto pause” which works perfectly when I’ve got to stop for whatever reason. The only thing that’s a little tricky is being in the right place at the right time to accommodate an effort, but it’s doable. For example, if it’s beeping at me to reach a higher heart rate zone, it really doesn’t matter if I’m doing 20 mph on level ground, or 8 mph churning up a hill against a head wind. That being said, I really need to get a power meter to make the most of it, because heart rate always lags and therefore I’m always behind the curve with any of the targets.
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I’ve just been through the manual process of replicating SUF outdoor workouts in TP for use on my Garmin head unit. I didn’t find it too difficult, but I do have a strong mathematical background. For those who don’t I can fully appreciate it could be hard work!
It would be better if you could simply export SUF workout profiles directly into TP, which I know SUF do with custom plans. So I’m surprised there isn’t an export function already available. Even better if you could sync your entire SUF training plan with TP and other similar Apps. Then with TP synced to your head unit, workouts would appear automatically at the right times.
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Hi Peteski, guilty as charged, general math in Jr. High is a far as I got and that was 40 years ago lol. One of the Wahoo folks helped me get setup with the All Purpose Road plan in Training Peaks. IT has a different name and only contains the rides, but now that it’s loaded in TP, it does two things: It marks the indoor workouts as complete when I get done and on the outdoor rides it allows export of those, so I’ve got this weekend’s rides exported and ready to upload into my Lezyne. The other thing I tweaked that I hope helps, is in Training Peaks it has a bunch of customization for zones. Since SF uses 5 heart rate zones, (as opposed to the 7,8,9 + zones offered in TP), I used a preset with just 5 zones and lowered my max heart rate. When I applied that, the zones have ranges more similar to Sufferfest.
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I don’t see if anyone mentioned it. I like using https://trainerday.com/ as a free workout builder for cycling. Then I can just schedule it into Garmin Connect or TrainingPeaks and have it in my Garmin Edge when outdoor.
One can also transfer the files directly to the headunit.
If you are luck, you may find the workout you need in their library and don’t even have to build it.
I’m glad they sorted you out with the TP Export. Yes TP has many different HR Zone models. With the 5 zone model selected you can edit each zone individually to exactly match those in Sufferfest. Just type the zone limits in the boxes and save. Sounds like you’re more or less there now though.
So… Wondering if anyone has a workaround forva weird thing going on. I’ve tried a couple of workouts that were from a training peaks plan that wahoo turned me onto. The first one was a bust, as my Lezyne head unit just displayed a lightning bolt with an exclamation point. Obviously it was looking for a power meter that I don’t have on my outside bike. It was only a Endurance+ routine in zone 1-2 got a duration, so that was easy enough and when I finished the workout, it uploaded to Strava, and Training Peaks. So today’s workout I tried to fix whatever was going on. I went into training peaks and changed it from FTP% to HR%. That helped and when I started the workout the Lezyne showed the heart rate, zone and time in the set. But… It would just keep beeping and beeping at me I’m assuming because I was over there target heart rate. For some reason in the training peaks workout when I converted it from FTP% to HR%, it shows unrealistically low heart rate zones as targets in the workout. Then, when I finished the workout, it uploaded to Strava, but not Training Peaks. The two things might be unrelated but not sure. See below:
I think when you convert from power to HR in Training Peaks it doesn’t do a great job of matching for everyone (I just tried a conversion from power to HR myself and all my HR targets looked way too low as well). So you might want to manually adjust the HR percentage targets to match your real HR zones. So if after the conversion all your HR targets are too low, just bump up the percentage values in the workout editor until the HR targets look more realistic. Also check that your HR zones are set up accurately in your profile.
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Left (<) is Less, as in my wattage is less than 150 would be written “watts < 150”. Greater is the other one. Just remember the letter L…
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Don’t know whether it is best to resurrect an old post or create a fresh shiny new one, but here goes
Thought this may be of interest. Recent sunny weather here in Belgium (its gone now) and I wanted to take the session outside but with no power meter.
This was my G.O.A.T session. I starred Smeysberg Steilste Deel (on Brabantse Pijl route) on Strava and it took about 2mins to get up with some out of the saddle.
Slightly over the top, descent (not much rest there really) and go past start, turn round and repeat 8 x 12.9% hill. Strava power probably suggests I am over on power targets, but it was a Suffertastic session.
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@Coach.Suzie.S Thank you coach. Sadly I tried Half is easy two days later and only managed half of half is easy!! Think I might have been going full full gas!! And in between the two sessions I had 1hr 40 at 30.8kph with efforts up the hills and tempo on the flat. The Thursday “Half is easy” was perhaps a session too far!!
I have had a busy couple of months so I just saw this thread. I looked through your posts and may still have some useful advice for outdoor workouts.
For the first workout you mention - 3x8 sub threshold with surges - you only need to know your heart rate threshold from your full frontal test(s) in order to follow the workout properly - if you don’t have a power meter.
First, don’t worry about the warmup length. When riding outdoors, the warmup is just however long to takes to get to a safe stretch of road to ride uninterrupted by traffic, stoplights, and stop signs. For me that is always around 15 - 20 minutes. Somewhere in that part of your ride steadily ramp up your speed and do a brief sprint that pushes your HR up to threshold, that way you know what gear you need to get your HR (and power) up high enough.
Without a power meter, a sub threshold interval is one that requires you to ride just below your threshold heart rate for the duration of the interval, and the surges are 20-30 seconds of effort above threshold. You might call them over/under intervals, but those are usually a bit different. The basic idea is to teach your body to operate right around threshold without blowing up.
If you look at the No-Vid sub threshold workout you can see that the 4x12 version shows a 12 minute interval with a 20 second surge to start the interval and then 3 more surges, spread out evenly over the time. So after the firstsurge, ride just below threshold, surge again at 3 minutes, 6 minutes, and 9 minutes, holding the sub threshold pace between surges until 12 minutes are up.
Since my threshold HR is 168-170, I start the interval by picking a gear that I can turn over but can’t hold for long and sprint for 20 seconds,standing then seated, and settle in to a slightly easier gear, working to push my heart rate up to 162-164, which is just below my threshold. Every 3 minutes I sprint for 20 seconds, which brings my HR up to and probably above 170. As I settle down my HR drops back to 164 and I hold it there until the next surge.
For your 8 minute interval, you would surge every two or three minutes until done.
The rest between your 8 minute intervals can be anywhere from 2-8 minutes long, as long as your HR drops back to zone 2 or low in zone 3 before you do another. If I’m ambitious, I shrink the rest between intervals down. If I’m tired I stretch it out.
There is no need to program anything since Strava will keep track of your numbers. All you have to remember is your threshold HR, and three 8 minute intervals with a few surges/jumps/sprints spaced evenly through the intervals.
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