Yep
I felt pretty awful half way through the first set (like throwing up), it got gradually better after that, the final set went past in a kind of blur…
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@jtroll Ride in level mode but yes you should try to get there on every sprint. It is a match burning party and you will burn them all.
Yes, the old guy did it once in level mode. It was last January, and the shape of my power curve is just like everyone else’s, except the peaks are lower.
My notes say I set 5 second and one minute power records.
You also only spend about 25% of your time at high power levels, but that just shows how misleading distributions can be.
On the other hand, I have done The Shovel four times over the past year.
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Hahahah this is true. Here’s mine from 2 weeks ago. Sometimes hitting, sometimes missing, sometimes exceeding.
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Yep, hit every one of the 64 sprints as hard as I can and power profile usually follows that of the “suggested” power profile, except in the last set where by the end my Honour, Glory and Victory may simply being ensuring every one of my last sprints is above my FTP line! Second set usually harder because well, it’s the second set and not the third and final. And I know that. I judge my “success” not by whether I hit the power targets or not, but by whether I hit every one of those 64 sprints with everything I have (left).
It’s a brutal workout that works your mental fortitude as much as your sprint/ recovery ability. Perhaps more! The name really does give a clue …
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I had GOAT, which I had to knock down to 90% during effort 2, and TINT the next 2 days, then followed by a longer endurance ride, strength and then FTP/MAP builds.
By the end of the week I had to stop half way through the builds session and then got a cold 2 days after that. So I think that week broke me a bit, as it happens!
As the originator of this post: Yes, I was silly enough to follow these guys’ advice and went flat out 64 times.
I’m coming from the endurance side of things, and this workout left me shattered.
My power curve looked similar to SUF targets, I remember thinking, oh, they predicted this fade quite well…
In my perception, the workout gets tougher with each set. As you go flat out each sprint, the lowering power targets don’t help you at all.
The first set feels tough, but you have not accumulated all that fatigue yet, and recovery is long compared to sprinting. I can see how people can feel sick here (for me it’s not high HR, but HR change rate that makes me feel sick, and this set of sprints give you the max HR change rate possible), but other than that, it’s manageable.
Second set with its lower rest to work ratio will push you to your limits.
Then there is the third set. 1:1 rest to work, and super fatigued already. No joking, your jelly analogy sounds exactly how I felt. I was pretty overwhelmed, both physically and mentally. I could not think in coherent sentences any more, towards the end all that was left in my mind were swear words, vision was first blurry then dark, glutes and quads were as much of a jelly as my brain was, breathing sounded like… well, my wife asked me “to be a bit quieter” next time, the neighbours might mistake it for something else… I asked her if I always swear like that after we did something else…
Anyway, the entire experience is special. A workout to remember. At least for an endurance athlete.
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You’ve just made GvA very happy.
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Yes, is there any other way? 
I could mention the “KillerWatt Challenge” at this point and show you some very silly power charts but given the minions that came up with the idea and then failed to get close to 64 x (redacted)W hang out here I probably shouldn’t. Bad for their rep 
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I had the slow response to when the Neobike was connected via ANT+, when changed to BT it was perfect.
I ride violator on ERG and seem to be hitting the sprints pretty well:
It is a hard session though
I think the times I’ve done Violator I have also set records each time. Also one of the workouts where the bucket comes out. 
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Ok, I made it without throwing up despite some fluid in the knee and 48 hours since covid booster. And while I did do it in manual mode, I wasn’t so far from the targets (perhaps this was a self-fulfilling situation, though i really didn’t look at power often at all).
Aside: Dropouts and lags are frustrating (lost one whole 5s sprint). Somehow I’m also noticing that intervals.icu isn’t able to correct all these - possibly because they import as non-zero power, though they are still dropouts.
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Nicely done!
Dropouts will happen as the trainer is trying to catch up to the sudden changes the flywheel is experiencing.
I’m not sure if this thread has inspired me to try Violator again or not. I’ve done it once, which was during the 2020 Tour. My notes from that ride say:
ToS 2020: Stage 5 - Focused. NM / AC sprints tough but do-able. Last MAP sprints crazy hard and missed two.
This is my Garmin’s recording of the ride from Strava:
I hate The Shovel but I wonder if Violator is worse…
I think the difference between The Shovel and Violator is individual strengths and weaknesses.
Violator has more of a NM and AC focus, while The Shovel has more of a MAP and FTP focus, although they both hit AC hard.
I do not particularly enjoy either of them.
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I’d rather do The Shovel over Violator, and Violator over Half Is Easy. Hahaha
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Half is Easy is the worst of both worlds, AC and MAP.
@jtroll That looks like a solid effort! It is an intimidating workout physically but there are a lot of head games as well. Be sure to write some post-workout notes and you will be even stronger next time.
@Harpoon Neither one gets easier - you just get better. For me Violator is more difficult but have done it enough that I know what is coming.
Just go for it!