It’s the second time I do this workout and I don’t understand it.
My max 5s sprint (NM) is 1200W and mind you, this is me going all-in like Jonathan Milan.
Now I’m asked to do 1000W for 10-12 seconds seated??? WTF ??? Or even at a cadence of 80rpm…. And repeat it every minute???
Is it just me or is there something off about this workout? I use ERG mode and it’s pretty much impossible. Is it meant to be done on level mode?
Actually, these easy buttons exist. At least they do, if you run SYSTM on a computer with a keyboard. The numbers 0-9 will switch the trainer to level mode in the particular level. The erg-mode switch may be a bit harder to find. On a German layout keyboard, it’s the ö -button. I suppose with English layout it’s the ; -button.
It would seem that it has to be done in level mode, most trainers cannot respond that fast.
As for the possibility of doing the workout, my Xert analysis of this workout confirms your intuition. Each sprint is a maximal sprint, and by the fifth sprint of the first set, there is not enough recovery for the next sprints. The second set of sprints are barely doable, and the two final sprints also suffer from a lack of recovery.
I have found their estimates (at least for me) are pretty good. They can predict pretty well my FF and HM performance.
Typically 10 second NM ‘sprints’ on 50 seconds recovery is an ATP-PC (phosphocreatine) ‘failure’ workout done in level mode. I don’t expect to be able to do all of the sprints at 100% (especially at the cadences they are using).
Coupling this with Cash Register makes me question their programming based on the science (unless they want people to get hurt) as most will try to hit the watt target. I did it as a cadence target in level mode and shifted (Kickr Bike) to keep the watts up. Still I was no where near the watt target of the workout…
Which is one of the reasons I did Cash Register today, and will only do Burgberg tomorrow. I wanted to make sure I got a least a day’s worth of rest/recovery.
Seems you are all far more cleverer than me splitting these two rides up.
I did them both back to back, plus another 80 mins zone 2 riding. 2 hours later and my legs are still burning. Need to do some stretching and foam rolling today else will need to skip tomorrow.
But totally agree about this workout, hated it the first time I did it and hate it more now - the recoveries are too short for me and the 80rpm sprints impossible. Maybe the answer is more practice, but not convinced 
According to the workout notes, Burgberg should be done in level mode:
I haven’t done the workout yet but (after reading here, too) I suspect it will be a bit like Violator where there may be targets but it’s more like a maximum effort each effort, and you do what you can.
I’d also expect that if you can actually reach all targets, you’d need an FF in your near future!
They recommend level mode for all the videos with high and short sprint intervals.
My home trainer can handle Violator on ERG without any problem and I can hit all the targets on Violator if I’m on a good day.
My home trainer can handle Bavaria too on ERG without any problem, it’s just that the target levels and the rest in between doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. It’s literally the only workout in the entire library where the targets don’t make any sense.
Totally agree
@Ovenpunch I’m with you. Modern smart trainers are amazing . It’s the workout that is the problem.
I just did it today as a lighter drill session before Cash register. Span a really light gear for the 1st and 3rd sets and smoothly accelerated in a big gear for the 2nd but nowhere near all out.
This one ended up kinda odd for me.
The workout has a TSS of 22 listed.
I set everything to 85% to just survive the week.
The rest targets ended up ridiculously low - like 54 watts is some spots. Most of those I was at about 90-100. And, I often stop pedalling for a few seconds in them as well.
My sprint targets went up to 543 watts. On my dumb trainer it takes about half of a 10 seconds interval to get near target; and many of them I never quite reached the full target. Some I did achieve and even go over for a little bit.
In all of this I didn’t think I would be near the total TSS target. Instead, I doubled it. Ended up with a TSS of 45.
Just seems odd to me.
Where did you get 22 from? It states TSS 64 in the app.
On my Android app it (still) says TSS of 22 and IF of .66. I haven’t downloaded it there.
Maybe those were placeholders?
Now that I see the real numbers of 68 and 1.06 I feel much better about my results.
The max NM sprints in Violator are shorter (5 vs 10), the 10 sec sprints in Violator decrease in magnitude as you go. The TSS comparison (for me) is 60 for Violator.
For the equivalent time for the start in Burgberg which was also 60, but I had trouble meeting the middle set of sprints in Burgberg (the low cadence).
So it would seem that Burgberg is harder than the first section of Violator.
Hopefully the minions take all the feedback about this video and make some changes.
It’s been done before. I know people may complain that it softens “the suffering” but in this case it’s needed to complete the workout as intended.
If this was part of the NM Progression series it would sit somewhere after the seventh session (there are five). So, do a structured build over several weeks - or jump right in On Location …
On the same scale, Violator would be at number - who am I kidding? No one in Sufferlandria can count that high!
I don’t think there’s a workout in the entire library with as many recovery intervals than there is in Violator. 
Sooooo many recovery intervals.
Fortunately, a lot of them are short and barely noticeable.
A poet might say “Recovery is in the eyes of the beholder”.
So I have to wonder about the TSS and IF scores for this workout… For me, it shows TSS 52 and IF 0.93 in my SYSTM app (on PC.)
So there seem to be quite a variety of numbers that have been mentioned. Do these TSS and IF numbers vary with every individual? Are they based on our personal 4DP in some way? (I wouldn’t have thought so.)
Or is this workout getting changed from time to time?
In any case, I did it tonight. The biggest challenge for me was LEARNING HOW to hit the targets, and second to that was actually being ABLE to hit them. I improved over the course of each set of intervals and what seemed totally unreachable at first did eventually become realistic and I hit or exceeded the target on about 2 of each set; best efforts were mixed through the 1st set, and were late in the 2nd and 3rd sets.
I didn’t find the recovery spans too short, really; I just found the target seemingly “above my pay grade” in terms of how it felt and what the power shown on the screen was telling me. I felt like what I was capable of generating using level mode and trying to stay in cadence range was 30-50Watts shy of the demand.
As I learned what worked in terms of shifting gears on the KICKR BIKE doing each interval, I got better and closer to the target.
But as others have said, it took time getting up near target power and 10 seconds is gone in a hurry. I took it as a victory if I got close.
Violator was absolutely a different BEAST, and will ALWAYS demand a huge sacrifice to complete it well.
But I felt Burgburg was difficult mainly due to the technique required to get those numbers to emerge from my legs while I tried to learn “on the fly” what approach and gearing could match my abilities.
The 2nd set was the hardest for me also; 80rpm doesn’t seem like a “slow” cadence to me, and trying to hold that was a very different demand than the REALLY SLOW cadence workouts I’ve done recently, in the 50-60rpm range, and those were also not nearly as high targets for Watts output.
80rpm at 566W is a whole 'nother country, between NOWHERE and ELSEWHERE (but we’ve all BEEN THERE!
I think doing this workout a second time fairly soon after experiencing it and learning what works for one’s own ability and equipment could improve the results significantly.
