For me, the Knighthood prep plan with the “dress rehearsal” was essential. Turned out i screwed up my nutrition, eating differently than normal before starting the five workout day, and ended up with serious gastrointestinal distress as I got to the end of the third Sufferfest. So serious that I stopped and thought I learned I couldn’t do it at all. But then after a day or so, I realized that what I really learned was to plan my eating better. Two weeks later I succeeded through the ten sufferfests without a bit of stomach trouble.
On another subject, a purely technical point, we occasionally have flaky internet connectivity, and I usually don’t download my SYSTM workouts ahead. For my challenge I downloaded all ten workouts onto two devices for insurance against either internet hiccups or unexpected computer problems. Belt and suspenders!
Downloading the videos ahead of time is very important to guard against internet outages and other random glitches.
And I’ve had them downloaded on a second device every time starting with my second attempt. Could’ve used it during my first attempt. Never needed them since, but better to have them than not.
I only have one piece of advice. Manually update your 4DP to reflect your likely % reduction to enable you to get thru all 10, e.g. drop everything to 75% of your actual numbers. You can still adjust upwards if feeling good or downwards if not. I think my last vid I probably rode at like 10 watts. It was Powerstation and there was no power.
The reason I give this advice is, I was loading my videos and adjusting to 75ish or 80% but I forgot for like video 4 and nearly DIED because I rode it at 100% (erg) and it MAY have been AVDP. Needless to say I didnt stuff that up subsequently. But adjusting your 4DP values avoids this issue
To steal a line from Nike- “Just Do It”. I know the engineer mindset will be to plan it out in an orderly fashion and prepare for problems, but remember it doesn’t have to be perfect.
One caveat is since you bike commute will doing 9+ hours on the trainer at a relatively challenging power level have some downstream effect (such as saddle sores or other issues)? Granted, you may not know until afterwards….
I prefer to leave my numbers at 100% and then just use my keyboard to raise and lower the power at the beginning of each workout so I can more anticipate the differences and know exactly what % I rode each ride if I need to adjust them down or if I choose to ride a video at a different intensity level.
It does make for some interesting moments if I forget to lower it at the start of a video, but I always keep my wireless keyboard within reach while I’m on my bike for quick and easy adjustment with the arrow keys.
But this may need to be different based on your setup and how easy it is for you to raise or lower the intensity at a moment’s notice since it’s harder to do it quickly if you need to do it directly on-screen with a phone or tablet than with a keyboard. Dame Lisa’s may work method better for those. I’ve ridden a lot of my rides using my phone, but I’ve done all my KOS attempts using a PC.
Consider also that if you change the numbers in your profile it will now mess with the metrics, if you use those at all, e.g. it will think you are at FTP when in fact you’re at 80% FTP.
Thanks again everyone. Yeah I almost never use chamois cream but this is absolutely the time.
Oh yeah I’ll make sure to download them to my tablet and I’m going to have my phone as backup. Need to make sure the trainer and everything is paired to SYSTM on my phone too.
This is kind of my attitude. At this point I can do it or I can’t. If I blow up, I’ll just try again.
Very true in general, was planning on this. One thing that’s going to be on the menu that I love for long outdoor rides is single serve Spam. Really. Salty as heck, fits in a pocket nicely, great for mixing up the pallete.
Also going to have a lot of drink mix I know works for me (Hummingbird Fuels), candy and chocolate, uncrustables, fruit, peanut butter and Nutella.
Just a couple more things. I had all my drinks (mixed and otherwise) ready to go before I started so there was no time wasted mixing/pouring/spilling, that way for my breaks I could go to the bathroom and change clothes when necessary. I also had all my solid food ready to go in a musette bag hung on my laptop stand. The last thing is, while you must stand when GVA say to, it helps to stand more often too. The thing about riding at the somewhat lower intensities is that ends up being more pressure on your butt. This almost derailed my attempt during the last video because my ass was so sore I couldn’t sit for more than a couple minutes at a time.
