Where do I report the Violator because that workout should be illegal. 64 sprints, full gas, some with 5 second recovery? I was trashed after 10 but somehow found a way to limp to the end. I’ve only been doing this for a few weeks but that has to be one of the hardest workouts.
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I have done Violator as well. I think how hard it is partially depends on what your cycling strengths and weaknesses are, and, of course, your mental strength.
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@platinum847 Unfortunately it is perfectly legal. It is one of those workouts where it helps to have prior experience with it so you know what you are facing. Also check out some of the breathing techniques from the yoga videos as they do help during the brief recovery periods. I am still struggling with Violator myself but I have been able to complete a similar video - The Shovel - so I feel Violator is within reach. Stay focused and best wishes for success!
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@JSampson legal in Sufferlandria, yes, but extremely illegal if you ask UN human rights council… same with the TOS.
Jokes aside, violator is one of those workouts you dread, you start it thinking, “I’ll give it a shot, but there is no way I can finish this beast” and then halfway through you think, “ok, made it this far, let’s see how far I can do it” and then the last third you realize that you can and will finish and feel proud at the end.
It’s always the mind that holds back your body.
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I did the Violator a couple of weeks back I certainly didn’t feel as violated as I thought I would thinking about the name made me more stress pre-ride than actually doing it. However, when I tackle the Scream in a couple of weeks time will that be a whole different story - in terms of being terrible I mean?
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@Gisela_Blackburn Team Scream or Long Scream? I like Team Scream and do well alternating between pulling and drafting. I haven’t done Long Scream at 100% - only as a recovery video before the new ones came out but 35 minutes at FTP should make for a great challenge. Good luck!
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Team scream I believe 
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My approach to surviving Violator is to treat it as an out of body experience: there’s no thinking about how hard to go, so the mystery is discovering the sequence your body starts to break down and what other muscles fatigue as you try to squeeze out any remaining Watts from the body.
My last time out my jaw was twitching uncontrollably during the last set. 
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Violator, nine hammers, the long scream etc.etc. In erg mode they’re all awful in their own special way, which is great, obviously!!
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to be fair I am a bit of a light weight girly so I bet I don’t have to try half as hard as you guys do, but I do my best and I dont give up and I am determined to do the TOS so I will crack on with my plan …fingers crossed 
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I did Violator yesterday, awesomely awful… and today I showed some excerpts to my family ( the little minions did jumping jacks/fast legs and laughed their little hearts out, they thought the change in music was hilarious) and for the first time I saw the parachutes. Who knew those were in there…?
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There are parachutes?? Did my third Violator last night and I have never seen parachutes.
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Yes in the last set of 10 sec sprints. I never saw it either, until I showed the fam how ridiculous that session is.
Violator has a special place in my cupboard of hatred. I have never seen that parachute. I simply refuse to believe it exists. I might have seen the closing credits once…
Give me 6 hours @ftp any day.
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I too have never seen the parachutes, 
and I have no plan on doing violater just to see them!!
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I took an unplanned day off yesterday because I just was not feeling it after the long weekend rides for the Gran Fondo training plan that I am trying out.
Today was my first day back and it was the Violator. I had finished 9 hammers at something over 100% (I think I unintentionally sandbagged my full frontal, so pretty much every workout is at 105-110%), but with the Kickr Snap, I knew I would have to do things in level mode instead of erg, which is actually what the description recommends. And the manual gear maneuvering meant that the cadence targets would get shot to hell.
In the end, Violator joins the ranks of workouts that had me grunting and yelling positive self-talk to myself out loud [yes, “Come on, you f***er!!” is positive self talk].
But it is the first workout where I had to lay down in resting pose for about 4 minutes afterwards to get control over the nausea I encountered.
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1st time doing the Violator this morning. Did see the parachutes, but it didn’t compute-too much mental overload. A challenge in the 1st set getting to what seemed impossibly high power targets in the 5 sec repeats and did better with the power targets in the “longer” repeats. Seem to better if with 5-7 secs to go again to start cadence build. That last sequence with the rest = the repeat time, the 2nd 5 sec repeat caught me unprepared.
Level mode was critical as recommended, didn’t give a thought to shift up/down the repeats were slow quick. What I saw of the tour was pretty neat, couldn’t determine whether one of the castles was a modern one. A lot of reliance breathing techniques and telling my self to relax as a way of getting through this one!
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I did it once and felt totally violated
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Violat-ED to be sure!
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I am nervous. Violator scheduled today in 45 min… 