Knighthood Quest: 19/08/2022

Challenges and Achievements Knighthood Quest
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Hi everyone,

It’s now been a little over 10 years since I first (nervously) bought, downloaded and rode my first Sufferfest video - Revolver in mid July 2012 I believe. Chose Revolver as it was the shortest at the time - one of many not particularly bright decisions.

Despite the idea sitting in my mind since shortly after this, life and excuses got in the way and I’ve never done a Knighthood Quest. This must and will change on 19th August 2022.

Current schedule, might still be adjusted as I continue to contemplate the carnage:

  1. The Bat 60 mins

  2. Hell Hath No Fury 64 mins

  3. The Shovel 73 mins

  4. Nine Hammers 58 mins

  5. The Wretched 46 mins

  6. Defender 59 mins

  7. Power Station 48 mins

  8. A Very Dark Place 48 mins

  9. Attacker 53 mins

  10. Downward Spiral 54 mins

Total riding time of 9.38 hours plus the 10 min breaks

Longest I’ve ridden so far has been a couple of recent Kitchen Sinks (3 hours) and also done a few back to back sessions of a little shorter Defender / Attacker / Rue the Day and BAT / Angels / A Very Dark Place on back to back days to change up the longer ride.

Just to make this a bit more challenging, after saving for a couple of years, and thanks to the recent sale, I’ve just ordered a KICKR Bike and Headwind, which should be arriving tomorrow. Should just give me enough time to get it all setup, get ’comfortable’ with it and get some rest in.

I borrowed a fan last week and can’t believe the difference it’s made to training comfort. I know I’ve read this many times over the years, but I’m pretty slow at following sensible advice. I only bought my first padded bib shorts in April 2021 and my butt still thanks me.

Am working through an eating plan, food prep etc and will get that sorted out the day before. It will mostly involve jam sandwiches, flapjack, ginger cake, chocolate rice cakes, dates and bananas. I really need to start practicing eating on the bike, as I usually just get up and get going and don’t eat until afterwards even on 3 hour trainer rides. Don’t believe this is wise for 3 hours, but for 10…?

I’m a little short on kit with only 3 pairs of shorts, 5 shirts, 5 pairs of socks and 3 towels. My long suffering wife has very kindly agreed to wash and dry stuff for me, run food and water our garden office / pain cave for me and keep the downstairs loo reserved for me.

Plan is to start early, likely around 3am, currently in negotiation as it’s an hour earlier than I normally get up and don’t want to wake the family too early.

Excited, but rather nervous, but there’s no going back now I’ve publicly posted my intention.

Whilst I need the decals and certificate, more importantly, I’ll be making a donation to a local charity that’s close to my heart: https://foxproject.org.uk/

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First of all: All the best to your 10th anniversary on Sufferfest/Systm! Wonderful! :boom: :boom:

Now business: You know you where born to suffer, ehh? Now go and do your best and then some more. Go and crush it! :+1:t3:

#1 advice: Eat and drink! Repeat!

All the best!
:boom: :boom: :boom:

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Nice! Happy Anniversary :slight_smile: Great way to celebrate too. I’m looking forward to the enterpainment :smiling_imp: and you taking your rightful place here in the castle of infinite discomforts.

You’re probably well aware of all the advice that’s been given on questing so I will spare you too much of that. As for eating…the warmups and/or cool downs are perfect for eating and you might want to throw something savoury/salty crunchy in there to mix it up. As for kit…use what you got and perhaps invest in some chamois cream (applied liberally directly to your parts between each ride). I really liked taking off my shoes between rides as well.

Your menu du suffering looks truly and utterly horrible. I’m sure GvA would whole heartedly approve (if he wasnt such a heartless ba$tard!). Power Station at #7 for the win! Those standy-uppy bits are sooooo welcomed at that point.

The only thing left to say then is:

CRUSH IT
CRUSH IT1920×869 39.8 KB

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One thing: 7, 8, 9, and 10 better be rides you LOVE to do! Also, you are stacking LONG rides at the end. If you have Sustained Effort as you strength that might work. Anything else and you might want short efforts that are punchy.
Now onto the REALLY important bits:

  1. Change kit at least twice. More if you sweat a lot.
  2. Chamois creame. Refrigerated if you can tolerate (I use a cream that has menthol in it, same effect).
  3. Long ride nutrition is not like a single Sufferfest, even Kitchen Sink. You are going to be on the bike for 10 to 12 hours. Gels and blocks are going to cut it. Neither is the average hydration drink. I ate pizza, bagels with almond butter and drank a long endurance drink.
  4. Chamois creame (yes, I duplicated it and you’ll thank me the day after)

Do some long riding. Not necessarily on the trainer to get hydration and nutrition dialed in.

  1. Sleep like you haven’t before. You want to be well rested.
  2. Follow the Full Frontal plan for the week before. There’s NOTHING you can do better for the ride than arrive well rested (5) and primed for battle.
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@jmckenzieKOS has provided an excellent list. Let me add one more. Hydrate well for several days before the quest. Do it with intent. Make sure that when you start, you have a well satiated body.

The eating part is highly personal. If that will get you through, awesome. I would suggest you consider having a wider flavor profile available, even if you never eat any of them. After several hours your body might crave something completely different that what you are accustom to. I had never thought of banana nut bread as fuel for my quest. My wife made some the week before and what a revelation. I would not have made it through without that.

Your itinerary looks awesome. You are going to do great!

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Firstly congratulations on your 10th anniversary aspiring Knight @ediblehedge! Reading your OP makes me think, you must be a veteran in all things suffering and what a wonderful (painful) way to celebrate the anniversary :wink: #itwillallbefine

Sir Glen has put it rightly so, the warm up and cool down sections are the best time to fuel the fire :slight_smile:
On the chamois cream, I can concur with both Sir Glen and Sir James that it is best to invest in it and be sure you have your undercarriage get used to such a thing (if you haven’t used chamois cream before) for the big day.
Personally, I used 2 kinds, one which is called ‘snow-flake cream’ and the other is just the regular Sudocrem.

When it comes cycling wear, you seem to have a good amount of kits there. I changed kits every 3 rides for first half and every 2 rides towards the second half of things.

Food wise, I think what you have planned out if good. Just so, it works best for you and your GI system. It’s a very personal choice, so eat what you like and and what works best for you.

Btw, I have made a short write up about my experience from idea conception to the actual questing day itself. You can check it out here. :smiley:

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Many thanks for the words of encouragement Sir Gerald.
It (or me) will be crushed

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Thanks for the encouragement and advice Sir Glen.

Yes, I read through a lot of the quest forum over the last months and some really great learning are found.

Great advice on having some savoury options in there, so will give this some thought - thanks! Also, on the chamois cream, this comes up a lot and given how much of a game changer padded shorts and fans have been, I need to get better to acting on advice from those more experienced than me. I figured, the point was to suffer, so anything that makes you more comfortable isn’t acceptable. I’ll whisper it, in case GvA is listen, but maybe some suffering is unnecessary…?

Absolutely love power station and was an easy decision for slot 7. Did it this morning, just to make sure and yes, still love it.

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Just a quick note that assuming you will use the KICKR bike as your power meter you should probably do a new 4DP test before your quest.

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Twas my #7 too in Feb ‘18. Still a favourite. As for suffering, there’s the right kind and the wrong kind. Avoid the wrong kind but #bepreparedforboth

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Thanks Sir, so really solid advice there, really appreciate it.
7, 8, 9 & 10 are definite favourites, but you’re right, the ordering might not be the best, will give it some more thought.

  1. Weirdly I’m sweating a lot less now I’ve got 2 fans - who’d have thought! Planning 3 changes, more if needed and if bib shorts dry quickly enough. I’ve tested the drying time of all 3 and will wear the fastest drying ones first. I do like planning!
  2. Definitely looking into this over the weekend and getting some
  3. Great ideas. Have just added up the calories burnt according to KICKR for all these sessions which came to 5,575, so if I manage 80% effort there’s still 4.5k to consume. With little time to eat before I start this is daunting.
  4. :slight_smile:
  5. Definitely, although I generally wake shortly after 4 like clockwork, so getting more hours in might be difficult
  6. Brilliant - have just added it to my calendar. But no, I’m not added full frontal to the quest :nauseated_face:
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Thanks Sir Critmark - definitely worth a reminder and also for the food tips. Banana bread is a great idea and will knock some together.

I guess I’ll be spending most of the day before prepping food and drinking.

Have also been digesting the eating to suffer ebook for the quest, so eating a lot that day too :yum:

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As @AndyP suggests, new trainer def means new FF. As for adding it to the quest, it’s not an eligible vid anyway but there’s no reason not to do one as a warmup to your official 10 or a cool down after you’re done your 10th. Or both. Twice.

evil laugh

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Thanks Sir Darren. It would be remiss of me not to mention the other, even more important, 10 year anniversary a week later - my daughters’ 10th birthday, whose impending birth kickstarted my efforts to be a role model she might not be so embarrassed about :smiley:

Short write up? It’s 25 pages! Definitely going to read this in the coming days…

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I feared someone would say that. Sounds like an awful idea, but yes, you’re right, I should. On the calendar for this Sunday…

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Just read though your write up - brilliant stuff. But The Trick? In a Knighthood quest? Hats off to you, seriously impressive.
I am not a sprinter by any stretch

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:joy:

for what it’s worth, @jmckenzieKOS has covered it nicely. You should take their advice. What I may add though - re nutrition - is to add a few completely different things to the list of foods for grabs. You’d be surprised what odd cravings you can get throughout the day. Bananas, snickers and boiled pasta worked for me, but on hindsight I would have loved some oranges in there.

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Yay! It’s good to see this thread really coming to life! For the not-too-many months I have been on this forum as an active participant, I love threads about Questing :smile:
Can’t wait for your enterpainment aspiring Knight @ediblehedge! We will man the turrets while we await your arrival at castle :smiling_imp:

Chamois cream is a must for me now whenever I cycle more than an hour on the weekends. In fact I had a little bit of chafing a week before my quest but it wasn’t due to cycling though. Oddly enough, it was due to my work trousers. But thank goodness the soreness healed in time for the quest.
As for the fan, it is definitely a life saver and is a must have if you want to keep your HR in check. Heat is definitely not our best friend when it comes to indoor cycling.

I agree with Sir James’ on the advice of putting long rides toward the end if you have sustained efforts as your strength. I have been told that 7 has got to be your favourite ride and 10 is your ‘most-favourite’ ride. So, you got this in the bag! :wink:
But don’t let others sway your decision on which rides to do and in which order. Your suffering menu is a personal one and something which can truly be proud of.

I had 3 changes of bib-shorts. For every scheduled change, I’d just leave the wet jersey and bib shorts in an empty bucket. Since you have 2 fans, I think your bum and jersey should remain relatively dry. But make sure you change kits though including the socks :smiley:

Yup that’s what I did too. Hahaha. For me, it was preparing the tuna sandwiches, chilling the drinks and buy a pack of ice. You guys are experiencing a sort of heatwave in the UK right now, is that right?

Oh same! I did this same thing too!

Haha it’s only 25 pages. :rofl: I hope it’s not too boring as I tried my very best to make it as entertaining as possible.

Yup, did The Trick as my third ride of the day. Hahaha. To be honest, it wouldn’t have been a better story if I didn’t chose to be a Trickster. Hahaha
I was told I am a #totalbadass too for completing the quest on the rollers.

I did have the appetite for some savoury food until the 8th ride. From thereon, I only wanted something sweet and a little sour, so it was bananas, gels and yoghurt coated blueberry muesli bars.

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As did I. That seemed like a good spot for it. I bookended it with climbs on either side, Thin Air @ 2 and The Wretched @ 4.

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I wish that I could like this more than once! How exciting! :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart:
YOU WILL CRUSH IT!

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