Fulgaz Vs Sufferfest
Discussion
I used The Sufferfest for about a month recently. Initially it made a nice change from Zwift but I got bored of it quite quickly. It’s just a training tool so there’s no racing or social element. And whilst the live footage is good to start with, it soon gets repetitive.
And the Sufferfest ‘schtick’ with all the Sufferlandria guff got a bit tedious too. But the thing that really killed if for me was the number of workouts that it had me doing at really low cadence. 320 watts at 50rpm for five minutes. No thanks.
Having said that, it’s horses for courses and you’ve nothing to lose from the free trial. Oh, and the 4D test is horrendous! Think of the worst 20 minute FTP test you’ve ever done and make it even worse. I know someone who took four goes just to finish it!
And the Sufferfest ‘schtick’ with all the Sufferlandria guff got a bit tedious too. But the thing that really killed if for me was the number of workouts that it had me doing at really low cadence. 320 watts at 50rpm for five minutes. No thanks.
Having said that, it’s horses for courses and you’ve nothing to lose from the free trial. Oh, and the 4D test is horrendous! Think of the worst 20 minute FTP test you’ve ever done and make it even worse. I know someone who took four goes just to finish it!
I'm a long time Sufferfest user. I started back in 2014 when they just sold the videos and you could play them through TrainerRoad to see the intervals / structure. I moved to their Windows app when it was launched in November 2016, paying monthly but switched to an annual account October 2018.
As lauda says, it's not a social activity but mainly all about chewing your stem. There is a 30 minute recovery "workout", plus Open rides which have video footage but the workout levels / intervals / etc are left to you. Some of the sessions don't have a video (No-Vid), so I fire up The Col Collective on YT and enjoy the exploits of Mike Cotty. You can also switch to mini-player if you want to get flogged with one of the standard workouts but watch your own video (or nothing).
Obviously we're all different but I like the Sufferlandria nation and humour aspects. Through lockdown I've been doing 3 or 4 sessions (25 to 50 mins) before breakfast Monday-Friday. When the weather has been good, I'll do a shorter video in the morning and then go out on the roads in the evening. Sunday morning is normally a road ride but if the weather is manky, I'll hit a longer SF session. SF have added a number of new workouts during lockdown, so IMHO there's plenty of choice and I don't find things repetitive.
No complaints here about the workouts all being low RPM grindathons. Every workout in the app tells you what it is targetting and the few climbing sessions I can think of immediately all mention it being low cadence work.
I've also started on the yoga workouts that are in the app during lockdown, with Friday's being a day off the bike and 2 x 15 minutes videos before breakfast. I've no doubt you can find similar sessions for free on Youtube but it's a nice to have easy access to a choice of sessions which are of consistent quality, get logged in the app so you can easily look back to see which sessions you've done and any notes you've made.
Oh, and, yes, the 4DP test is pretty horrible. However, I think "The Shovel" is possibly worse...
As lauda says, it's not a social activity but mainly all about chewing your stem. There is a 30 minute recovery "workout", plus Open rides which have video footage but the workout levels / intervals / etc are left to you. Some of the sessions don't have a video (No-Vid), so I fire up The Col Collective on YT and enjoy the exploits of Mike Cotty. You can also switch to mini-player if you want to get flogged with one of the standard workouts but watch your own video (or nothing).
Obviously we're all different but I like the Sufferlandria nation and humour aspects. Through lockdown I've been doing 3 or 4 sessions (25 to 50 mins) before breakfast Monday-Friday. When the weather has been good, I'll do a shorter video in the morning and then go out on the roads in the evening. Sunday morning is normally a road ride but if the weather is manky, I'll hit a longer SF session. SF have added a number of new workouts during lockdown, so IMHO there's plenty of choice and I don't find things repetitive.
No complaints here about the workouts all being low RPM grindathons. Every workout in the app tells you what it is targetting and the few climbing sessions I can think of immediately all mention it being low cadence work.
I've also started on the yoga workouts that are in the app during lockdown, with Friday's being a day off the bike and 2 x 15 minutes videos before breakfast. I've no doubt you can find similar sessions for free on Youtube but it's a nice to have easy access to a choice of sessions which are of consistent quality, get logged in the app so you can easily look back to see which sessions you've done and any notes you've made.
Oh, and, yes, the 4DP test is pretty horrible. However, I think "The Shovel" is possibly worse...
As an ardent fan of Zwift I downloaded FulGaz because that’s what VRAW was being raced into. Different strokes fro different folks but I found it excruciatingly dull.
The Facebook group is all talk of ‘stunning rides’, ‘lovely scenery’ etc but personally I can’t get past the sense I’m. Just watching a scrolling video while pedalling my bike. It doesn’t have the interactive emersion of Zwift. Add in that the video speeds up / slows down depending on how you’re riding vs the person who originally filmed it and it can all start to look pretty odd. It wasn’t for me, I cancelled the subscription last week so as not to have to pay for another month.
It’s free to try, give it a go.
The Facebook group is all talk of ‘stunning rides’, ‘lovely scenery’ etc but personally I can’t get past the sense I’m. Just watching a scrolling video while pedalling my bike. It doesn’t have the interactive emersion of Zwift. Add in that the video speeds up / slows down depending on how you’re riding vs the person who originally filmed it and it can all start to look pretty odd. It wasn’t for me, I cancelled the subscription last week so as not to have to pay for another month.
It’s free to try, give it a go.
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