The art of fighting without fighting......

"Don't do it Alberto, don't do it......."
The words have left my mouth before I can even stop them. I'm so engrossed in the moment that I can't control myself.
I'm on Alpe d'huez, i've just put in a massive effort to stay with the leading group and now that cocky little shit is going to ruin it just like Andy Schleck tried in Liege 20 minutes ago.
Ok, back to reality now. I'm in the living room, on the turbo, in front of the TV with a massive fan struggling to keep me cool as I give it my all to "Beat my ass today so I can kick theirs tomorrow." Welcome to the Sufferfest........
I used to struggle to motivate myself to train. I'd get on the turbo and don't really know what i'm doing so just whir my legs for 30 minutes and then get off. I might as well go running for the good an effort like that would do for my cycling.
What's the answer? That's the question I continually used to ask myself until I stumbled across an advert on a website offering me pain, misery and suffering in the name of sporting success. I wanted it. I wanted it bad.
It was the first step to a faster stronger ride. A simple click and a Paypal payment later, I was downloading Downward Spiral - the first in the line up of 4 releases from the Sufferfest.
That was almost 12 months ago now and here I am trying Angels, the latest offering from the suffer god.
So, what's it like? Brutal, painful and a little bit sadistic. Exactly what you need from a training video. I'm not pretending that training videos are as great as riding or racing on the road because nothing beats the adrenaline of a race but they do offer the next best thing when the weather or time are against you. These videos are only as good as the effort you put in though so be warned. If you want to mince about and not give it your best shot, you will get nowhere and won't benefit from the routine.
I like to give it my all until my nose runs, my thighs pack their bags to leave me and my lungs wish that I smoked so that I could submit them to less suffering. It's brilliant. I get lost in the moment and for an hour I believe that I am everything that is great in racing. When something hurts this much, it must be doing some good.
The efforts are well structured and do a great job of offering just the right amount of effort, making it hard but not impossible. A thumping soundtrack mixed with the recovery and exertion efforts really bring the whole experience to life.
I can't wait for the next installment from The Sufferfest. I'm hoping it's some sort of constant time trial effort with a thumping dub step soundtrack. That'll be nice. Sparticus could do with being brought down a peg or two and as for Wiggins, he should be quaking in his Bonts....