I’ve been using the Sufferfest app in anger for about a year now, having first experienced it during an impromptu spin class at my local gym. I walked in thinking I’d try the new Watt bikes and get a quick 30 minute Les Mills under the belt only to be metaphorically buried for just over an hour by a Sufferfest classic ‘The Shovel’…I was in love. 

[ Like marmite, but with bikes ]

Sufferfest isn’t for everyone, and seems to massively divide the indoor cycling community, for every one you find loves it, another will come along and hate it.

If you like a shiny, happy, instructor giving you encouragement while colourful backgrounds shimmer and dance beats pump out, I’d give Sufferfest a miss. If you, like me, like your indoor training dripping in sarcasm, backed by some real cycling footage and a storyline that combines the workout with the footage to drag you in to feeling like you are part of the race then I’d certainly give it a go. 

To get the full experience, as with most online cycling apps, you really need a turbo trainer that allows the app to control the power output. I went from a Tacx Vortex to a Wahoo Kickr and I get a much better experience with the Kickr, simply because when the app asks for more power / cadence etc the trainer just reacts in a much smoother, more efficient way. Not essential sure, but it just makes for a better experience, which after all is what it’s all about. 

My setup – for what it’s worth – is a Wahoo Kickr, Garmin Forerunner 935 watch broadcasting heart rate, Garmin Cadence Sensor on my bike crank, all connected via an Ant+ Sensor connected to my PC, where I play the app from. 

[ A timely update ]

I’ll be honest, up until the most recent update in December this review would have been quite different. The user experience was a bit lumpy and, I’ll be honest, the only reason I stayed was for the videos and the fact that cycling around and around on Zwift had got somewhat repetitive.  

For any kind of long-term plan, you had log into Training Peaks or Final Surge to create a training calendar and then manually go back into the app to play the video. Many of the videos felt a bit standalone and while there were a few training plans I never felt like, as a whole, they were as scientifically planned out as I would like. All of which ultimately put me off committing to it for a build up to an event, (more on commitment in a separate blog post). 

[ That was then…this is now ]

The new update is a revelation. The ‘simple’ addition of an in-app calendar and a whole host of new, event specific, workout plans bring it all together. You no longer have to go into a different app to check the days workout, go back into Sufferfest, find the workout from the list, manually reduce the intensity to suit and then start the workout.

The app shows you on the home screen your workout for today, clicking on it takes you to the intro screen and a quick click of play runs the video and adjusts the intensities according to the workout plan and your 4DP. All you have to worry about is getting on your bike and pedalling. 

At this point it’s probably worth touching on the 4DP metric that Sufferfest use to underpin every workout, you can find out a lot more science on the site but essentially it is their take on FTP. They argue that: 

‘Cycling isn’t just about long, sustained efforts. It’s about attacks, surges, sprints and breakaways.  It’s about being able to recover and hit it again.’   

© 2020 The Sufferfest

To be honest, I hadn’t thought like that in the past, spending most of my time working on the good, old long slow miles and ‘building a base’, but they certainly put forward a compelling case. Relating it back to a cycle to work one day I had to agree, a quick punch to get through the lights, extra effort on a little hill, hammering that Strava segment, it’s not all cranking out the same power mile after mile. 

[ In practise ]

In December 2019 I thought I’d give it a proper go and kicked off the 1-week 4DP training plan. Touching on the actual 4DP workout briefly…it’s not for the faint hearted, give it some respect. I’d highly recommend the 1-week plan to get you ready for it especially as it’s a little different from a traditional FTP test. 

I now have a ‘4DP passport’ of a rouleur…and this part just sums up the Sufferfest experience, the text accompanying the result welcomes you in with ‘well hello rare unicorn’, just a bit of fun but engaging. With my 4DP set, all workouts I now do will take these into account and automatically tailor themselves to me, sorted. 

All in all, it’s now a real polished app, and one that, in principle, I can recommend to others. It seems the company has come of age, and I for one am loving the results so far. Let’s hope their purchase by Wahoo will mean more resources are spent on it to take it from strength to strength. 

I’ve taken the plunge now and am giving their 10-week Fitness Kick Starter program a go to see if the substance can meet the style…I’m cataloguing this and my training program for the Fred Whitton on a different blog if you want to know if it actually works in practice. 

What experiences do you have with Sufferfest or indeed any other virtual cycling apps?