G’day all… I must be crazy (well I’m a Sufferlandrian, so that’s probably a given, right?). So I’ve signed up for Dry July. The Aussies here are probably familiar with the idea, but not sure about overseas. Basic deal is - no drinking for all of July, and try to raise money for a charity.
But… there were a couple of problems. I’m allergic to social media, and I’d earmarked Winter 2021 to go for a KOS attempt. But I am most definitely planning on having a drink after finishing!
So… the only solution, is obviously to do Dry July… and then do the KOS attempt on 1 August!
I’ve flagged the McGrath Foundation as my sponsor of choice. They support people with Breast Cancer; the money raised it to help pay for the nurses that provide the support to those affected.
If you’d like to help me suffer twice… not drink for a whole month, then spend 12-13 hours on the trainer… then head on over to https://www.dryjuly.com/users/chris-herrmann and please chip in.
And… to make it even more entertaining… I just did a HM and hit some scary numbers (well scary for me)… which means… I am in for a world of hurt. Lucky that’s why I signed up
I haven’t worked out exactly where I’ll be posting the ride progress yet, because I’m social-media-impaired… but it’ll definitely on Strava:
G’day all, quick update. I’ve got my run sheet planned out now. I made a spreadsheet to help me plan out which rides I was going to do, what kind of load it was going to put on my body - and use that to work out which rides at which slot, etc etc. Anyway, I’ve uploaded a copy here:
Curious what others used for planning. You’re welcome to grab a copy if you want for your own planning if you think it’ll be helpful.
Current planned run list:
14 Vise Grips
1
Angels
2
Power Station
3
A Very Dark Place
4
Hell Hath No Fury
5
GOAT
6
Cobbler
7
Attacker
8
Butter
9
Fight Club
10
(trying to balance out MAP / FTP. Cobbler @ 7 to give me a long sweet spot ride to get me over the hump. and Fight Club last… because… well I want to try and fight out the last one )
The idea of the planning sheet is to give you some visual feedback about how your load is going to fluctuate over the effort:
Anyway, hope it’s helpful to others. If you’re familiar with Excel you should be OK to just open and work with it / edit etc. I’ve made an Instructions page too for those who aren’t as confident with Excel.
Let me know any suggestions / corrections / etc, and looking forward to it!
I completed mine yesterday and got lots of great advice through this forum and the FB page. Then really tweaked my approach as I went through the Prep Plan only finalising it about 10 days before. Hope this advice helps:
GOAT followed by Cobbler might bury you - both have low cadence intervals that will fatigue your muscles and the long intervals of Cobbler at that stage will be really really tough. I’d consider separating them and putting Cobbler very early in your Journey.
Cheers and Good Luck
PS Just saw your “sweet spot” comment re Cobbler at no 7 - there will be nothing sweet at no 7😫
@pb07 I like the spreadsheet you made. I did the same, but didn’t consider using the NM/AC/MAP/FTP values to plot out what the ride would look like… Great idea! I spent about 10 minutes looking through it and reading the instructions, considering possible tweaks, but everything I’ve come up with seems to overcomplicate the sheet or add in extra workload for the template builder. As you can tell, I like to suffer in all walks of life.
Your lineup looks similar to mine; I went with shorter duration, high intensity videos to crank it out and not leave my wife alone with the children for too long. I think cobbler will be tough, but in the #7 slot, might be just right. As you said, you can zone out and just sweet spot your way through it.
Good luck, I’ll be saving a copy of your sheet for future training!
@Craig.Quarmby I thought about that, a lot of people mentioned that #7 was the spot where they struggled which is why I picked cobbler. Basically my sweet spot is long low cadence suffering / endurance, so I was hoping that this one will allow me to just fall into my normal endurance rhythm… and once you’re past #7 there’s no turning back, right…? I also wanted one that was a bit longer so that I wasn’t picking just short ones the whole way through. Yes I wanted the suffering to go longer… but then that’s why we’re all here, right
With us all being different riders with different strengths and weaknesses what works for one may not work for another and Cobbler at #7 may be just what you ‘need’. #7 is definitely a key point in the journey (Power Station for me) although the struggle for me was after that - #8 Butter (in particular) and then Who dares. I was very keen on back-ending my quest with my favourite workouts which are sustained efforts/ climbs but was warned through this forum and the FB group that the nature of rides changes in a whole day quest and favourite rides with long intervals become mighty nasty beasts - not just dialled down enjoyable ones. But without having done it both ways I can’t say if it’s definitely the case. Whatever you choose you will suffer admirably. And that’s what GvA wants!
Morning all! And I’ve made it through the 10X rides… I haven’t had a chance to do the paperwork yet, was just too knackered last night and couldn’t focus my eyes on anything. @Craig.Quarmby GOAT at #6 was an absolute killer, and with Cobbler at #7 I simply couldn’t hold the cadence & power targets, so span at 90 to hold the power. Rides are public on my Strava profile if you want to look.
Fight Club as the last video was absolutely perfect though - you’re totally wasted, and then the attacks come, and you just have to dig a bit deeper and your body responds… and then thank God the attack finishes in 15 seconds before you totally blow up… try to recover… go again… that really worked for me.
Reflections:
I think the idea of balancing the different NM/AC/MAP/FTP targets worked well.
One change I might make to the line up would be to swap GOAT for an AC / sprint type one. AVDP → HHNF → GOAT was pretty challenging.
Prep was really good, I had everything I needed (including a bunch of tape for when chafing started to set in around #6 - that made a huge difference). I had spare knicks etc laid out so that if I had to do a quick change it would be easier.
I used an 8 minute timer on the phone to make sure I was back on the bike ~8 minutes, hopefully allowing enough time for that delay while you’re saving the previous ride, and waiting for the next one to load up and start.
My normal Saturday ride is ~5-6 hours / 150Km, and so I paced it at that level, which worked really well. It’s “different” - because the 150Km is mostly steady state, with the inevitable accelerations / relax as you encounter traffic lights / hills / etc. Doing MAP intervals does hit you harder than the long steady state. But the basic principle worked well. I was able to hold that out until 6 hours, then had to drop 5%, but I was able to hold that through to the end.
Was tracking weight before each ride and fluid / food consumed to make sure I wasn’t losing too much fluid. This worked pretty well up until ~8/10, where I just couldn’t take on fluid fast enough, I ended up about 2Kg lighter. Drank about 7L.
I almost bonked on 8/10, was getting really light headed and couldn’t string a coherent thought together, but caught it in time.
Getting out of your cycling shoes, wiggle your toes, stretch a bit in each of the breaks was good.
stretching afterwards was really good, did some more stretches this morning and good walk with the dog.
All in all, was a really good experience. Got a bit emotional at the end, but that was good too. I guess the whole thing about climbing into the pain cave and just digging and digging and digging and never freaking give up resonates pretty strongly for me.
I’ll get my stuff organised & approach the pearly gates tonight, and hopefully all is in order!
@pb07 HUGE Congratuations! Welcome Sir Chris! Any knighthood quest is full of suffering
and I am super-impressed that you even made it through Cobbler - let alone those that followed. Well done.
Now for the last bit of excellent advice I was given - I know you’ve walked your pup today but remember to get back on the bike (!) for a short recovery ride!
Thankyou @Craig.Quarmby I’ve been in two minds about a short recovery ride, let’s just say the chafed spots are pretty tender but I think I’ll have to at least give it a whirl.
Thankyou @tolstoi and @Martin ! I found an awesome cream called… wait for it… “Aussie Butt Cream”. It really is awesome, my new best friend
@tolstoi I don’t know where your cycling is at - for example can you comfortably ride 10Km or 100Km, or is your FTP 100W or 400W. But my take on the KOS is that it’s more about “did you really, truly suffer AND do the 10X rides” - at whatever level you can push yourself to - than an absolute target like “it must be at XXXW average power” or something like that.
And the community here are awesome. Like - actually a great sense of community, people supporting each other. Good advice. Good questions. Good discussion.
I’ve been in two minds about a short recovery ride, let’s just say the chafed spots are pretty tender but I think I’ll have to at least give it a whirl.