If your pain cave is not on the same level as the facilities, it’s best to notify your loved ones when you’ll be heading up shortly so they can clear the path of any small children and animals and keep the room unoccupied for faster pit stops. Clenching with short time slots make for an interesting quest as is, no need to invite possible injuries as well.
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Personally I found the 5 back-to-back ride in the KoS prep plan one of the best times to practice the change of bibs, answer calls of nature and just giving the back and buttocks a break.
The general idea is to set the timer of 8 minutes instead of 10 minutes to cater for the sensors to sync up with the app and also to load the next video in queue.
Oh another tip is to download the videos in your quest list too.
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Yup.
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And still remember how long it actually takes to change a fresh set of bibs after 6 rides in my quest. 
Talking about food intake, I was so done with my egg sandwiches and my rice balls by the 5 ride. From reading a couple of knighthood reports, I think I made a slightly awkward choice to have more savoury food in my meal plan than sweet ones which I sort of regret.
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While it does come a lot down to personal taste, your sweat rate and sodium intake also matters. Your body recognizes sweet as carbs and savory for the sodium. If you’re not a salty sweater, and you’re consuming plenty of sodium, the savory foods may not be as appealing. And if you’re low on carbs the sweet food may also be more appealing.
That’s why it’s good to have a mix of sweet and savory, and also good to test it out on multiple pre-rides.
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I phoned a friend when I lost the plot at stage 6. They arrived in time for stage 7 witj hot sweet tea, marmalade on toast and ham and cheese sandwiches. Was JUST what I needed
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I do think Wahoo should make more of the Knight challenge, It’s incredibly tough and kudos to all who have attempted & completed. The advice here of having sweet & salty and varied foods makes sense. you never quite know what your body will crave. Tinned rice pudding became an obsession for me on one ride.
I’d like to see Wahoo issue more mini knight style challenges, 3 in a row, 5 in row under the same knight rules. Be great training for those taking it on.
For what it’s worth I’m thinking on a mini knight -
G.O.A.T
Do as you’re told
There is no try
The best thing in the world
The Wretched
Comes in around 3hr 45m
Maybe give that a crack for your training. Best of luck.
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Thanks for all the advice! Having read through these posts, I definitely feel better prepared to plan for nutrition for the day, and there’s been some other great info here as well. Looks like the consensus is that Ride #7 seems to be “the wall,” which has made me go back and rearrange my list of rides.
Thanks again, everyone.
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A “squire”, if you will…
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It’s much more of a mental game halfway point than a physical halfway point.
I believe Sir Glen and other Knights might have mentioned it somewhere in this thread that the Mental Training Program (MTP) will be very helpful in getting you past #7 and completing all 10.
Remember that this is much a mental challenge than anything else. 
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Hey all, I really do admire anyone who has done a Knighthood. I really do not know how you do it. It is certainly a mental challenge as much if not more so than a physical. One question which is not meant to be irreverent, but…
How the hell do you stop your butt from hurting and your body from aching spending so much time on an indoor trainer?? I’m not sure I could do that.
I am a bit of a wonky rider, one of my heels rubs the crank, where the other doesn’t and my but hurts after an hour. The longest I’ve ever done indoors is The Cobbler.
I’m not adverse to long hours, I one did the full Cyclosportieve of the Amstel Gold and rode out and back and did 300km that day and also managed Leige Bastogne Leige, but you can get in and out of the saddle and move the bike around underneath you. The thought of it being static and not being able to move it around in the same way is what puts me off.
Well done all you Knights, you are made of strong stuff.
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you don’t. you just need to accept the pain as part of the challenge. what you can do, however, is prepare. do several workouts in a row with short breaks (< 10min) in between. start with two and add up. do longer workouts with a variety of efforts like Blender, get out of the saddle for the sprints. and don’t expect to be able to do all this within the next week or two but allow yourself enough time to prepare. we’re always ready to lower the drawbridge for you, whenever that may be
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This.
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@FatSprinter A proper bike fit, well fitting shorts and cream, getting out of the saddle every 10 minutes or so and also some ability to let the bike move a bit whether via something like the Kickr Move or a rocker board or the axis feet will go a long way to managing discomfort.
Also bike position is really important. You want to stay on your sit bones and not slump in the saddle. The sit bones are very tolerant to continuous pressure whereas if you are sitting improperly you can aggravate tissues that are not as tolerant.
That is why lots of core work off the bike it really important. Single leg drills such as squats and bridges in the strength videos will also help as bikers and runners really only use stabilizing muscles in one direction versus other sports where there is more lateral movement.
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When I first read your question, I laughed at myself and to myself.
Actually my butt did hurt quite a fair bit and was figuratively flattened like a piece of flat bread after 9+ hours on the bike
And to make matters slightly worse, I barely got off the saddle because I wasn’t confident enough to pedal out of the saddle while cycling on a set of dumb-rollers.
What really did help was as Dame Isi and Sir Jon mentioned, first is to prepare, then ride 2-3 rides back-to-back, pairs of well fitting bib-shorts, chamois cream and of course a proper bike fit.
Granted, I didn’t get a full bike fit actually but experimented with the positions quite a fair bit over the years and settled for the one which felt the most comfortable (*ahem the Quest isn’t meant to be comfortable, but forgive me GvA, #tuhntf) which doesn’t cause any pain.
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I’ll add to what others said:
- Chamois cream, regularly, liberally applied and reapplied (I put on fresh cream after each video), some will even say to keep the cream refrigerated or in a cooler.
- Good bike shorts (don’t skimp here. I used to wear my worst shorts for indoor rides, now I only use my best due to the relative lack of other comfort measures available outdoors as you’ve mentioned)
- Change your kit (I changed shorts after every 2-3 vids, also took my shoes off and changed socks after every vid if I recall correctly)
- Don’t wait for the “STAND” prompts on your videos. Get out of the saddle for at least 10-20 seconds every 5-10 minutes, or whatever suits you.
- Vary your position on the saddle from time to time as well as the bars (tops, hoods, drops)
Remember that this is an endurance event and you’ve already done some pretty remarkable things. Those 10 minute (8 minute) breaks off-bike also provide significant relief from saddle pressure. So much of a quest is mental.
Make no mistake, it’ll be tough AF and it will hurt, and you’ll question your life choices (and maybe even your video selections) especially around video #7 but I’m 100% certain you’ll CRUSH a Knighthood. Plus, there’s some cool decals
Now start planning, and show us your menu d’suffering 
Edit: and 100% on the bike fit. Your heels shouldn’t be hitting anything. You might need a cleat adjustment or a spacer or something but that’s just not right.
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One more to add: practice standing for extended periods of time. I was standing 30 seconds every five minutes and that was real great until hour 9. It then turned into a minute every five minutes. My last video was GOAT (thankfully low cadence higher power) and I was up to 2-3 minutes standing every five because my backside hurt so much.
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I did my KoS on smart rollers. The freedom of movement of the bike on the rollers makes a huge difference to the comfort level. And as others have said, regular standing to take the weight off the saddle.
The big thing I noticed later in the KoS was the fatigue effect of the constant pedaling - I think we don’t always realize how much time we get to not pedal while riding outdoors, while riding on the trainer is pretty much constant pressure on the pedals.
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Excellent point.
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One of the improvements I want to make in my riding outside this year, is to pedal on the downhills hard enough to produce power.
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