Worldwide Disaster Day -- One for the books!
It sounded just crazy enough to be, well, crazy.
Worldwide Disaster Day. Yep, that doesn’t sound workout related at all. Maybe some impending doom for the planet.
But in fact, it’s all related to a TrainerRoad workout called Disaster. Its just over 4 hours of training. Not riding, training. We’re talking specific stimulus designed, originally, to test you in specific ways, so you can adapt and get stronger. It’s no walk in the park. It’s not an enjoyable, scenic century ride. It’s you, on your bike, in your pain cave, sweating, swearing and enduring.
give me fuel
Spent water bottles, dirty Kleenex, empty gel packets … need to keep that body fueled for such a long ride, and this gross cold did not help make it easier.
I heard about this kitchen sink workout from my boyfriend, naturally. I’ve known about TrainerRoad for a while, but considering I just got my trainer setup, I hadn’t used the program yet. When I first connected my bike to the trainer in September, I was drawn toward Zwift because — well, I’m a nerdy gamer, and the appeal of virtual worlds draws hard on me. Zwift hosts events and rides that are incredibly fun. Its in-game training leaves a little to be desired though. I did manage to complete a beginner FTP Builder plan, and my FTP went up a tad — 181 to 183 — even though I was actively cleaning up my diet with the goal of shedding a few pounds (I dropped from 118 to 115 over the course of the training). So I am now shifting my focus toward TrainerRoad. I’m going to start a training plan soon in the coming weeks. Give it a try, see how much I improve.
All right, enough with the background — onto the Disaster!
The full Disaster workout is 4+ hours, but there are -1 and -2 versions that shorten and compress it. We chose the -2, mainly because someone still wanted to finish the Zwift Tour of London ride afterward. (If we were smart, and, well, if had another ANT+ dongle, we could’ve done both simultaneously.) Our ride was 2 hours and 15 minutes. In my head, that seemed totally manageable. Even though I haven’t done any serious, hard training yet, I have done plenty of rides that were longer.
It started out with a warmup, then we dove into some heavy, 10-second sprint/strength work. Only a couple of pushes in this one. Easy. Next, though, was a 10-minute interval at just under and just over FTP. That’s a long effort. I was dreading these most of all. The sweat was pouring, and I broke into my gels in between intervals. I could definitely feel my legs draining after those two.
Endurance came next. Long effort at moderate intensity. It wasn’t too bad. It felt light and bearable. By the end of this, though, we were pushing past the hour mark. Still had a long ways to go!
Next, VO2 max work. This is where my heart rate started to really climb. My legs were starting to feel drained. But it was still OK. I still felt pretty good. But around the 1h45m mark came the dreaded Firecracker.
This one almost broke me.
You spend 10 minutes in the sweet spot, which is pretty draining in and of itself. But then add in 10 second sprint pushes way way above FTP. I could just feel all the energy draining out of my body. My heart rate was over 90% It was hard to keep cadence up. I was crushing food because I could tell I was right on the edge of running out of energy.
I know that I am new to this, but it’s something every athlete deals with. That serious doubt that weighs on you, telling you that, yes, you can stop, and it’ll all be over, and the pain will subside once you stop moving your legs. You don’t have to do this. You chose to do this, remember? So you can choose to stop, too.
But alongside that voice is another one in your head that says, “Nah, this is only temporary. You just gotta push though. Look at you, you came this far already. And you want to quit on the last bit? No way. We go all the way.”
And so, with drained legs, sore sit bones, tight calves and a belly full of water and sugar, I spun all the way to the end. The Discord community celebrated all of our achievements. It’s a glorious thing I’ll remember next time I feel like I can’t push on. And maybe next year, I’ll be eyeing that Disaster -1.