What is the hardest workout you have ever done?

Humble brags are welcome! What you got?

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Easy guess…

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At first I thought that said “Dexter.” In which might be an accurate name because that looks like it kills! :rofl:

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Dexter, the evil big brother to Baxter? :wink:

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Yep. Disaster :100:

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I’ve never done Disaster, but Elephants 2 and its variations crack me every time.

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Can a completed workout be the hardest workout you have ever done?

If you have ever failed a workout, wasn’t that one harder?

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For me it’s probably 4x8min, very close to max heart rate

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Anything truly VO2 Maximal. Unpleasant. Deeply unpleasant.

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Here’s yer Dexter. :smiling_imp:
Interval durations ×1½; interval intensities +10%. End VO2s + an extra 30%.

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Crikey that looks fun :anguished:

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My achilles heel is anything with super short recoveries. Poster child for this is Crag. Failed it both times I’ve been served it up.


Also failed Caldwell for the same reason.

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For me it was probably 1h at FTP last spring.


Continuous long threshold efforts have always been challenging for me, more so than even stuff like 5x5min vo2max. I had before done a 35min TTE effort and a couple good progressions like 2x20, 3x15min, 2x25min. But even with the progression over a couple weeks, the final 10min of that hour effort was super hard for me mentally. I constantly wanted to stop and I had to really motivate myself to continue. Let’s see if I’ll do a similar one this year – a week ago I did 3x15min at 370W and that felt pretty manageable, so there’s not too much progression until that mythical 1h attempt :smiley:

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Without the VO2s & the sprint it came out at Tempo L8.8. Custom workout levels can be hit & miss though.

I’m not Chad, but imo, that’s exactly why Disaster is so brutal. I pushed myself to just less than failure multiple times. Each time, I had to back off or take a break so that I could get back in the saddle and fight again. Having publicly committed to finishing it, I didn’t feel like I could take the easy route and just fail.

Think of it like a long ride with friends where you crack, get spit out the back, and know you’re going to have to limp home for the last 90 minutes on your own with even light power on the pedals feeling like high intensity…and then along comes another group of friends pushing you to hop on the train…to only be spit out the back again…over and over.

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I dare someone to do Villafañe :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:

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That third interval in the main three blocks looks a bit tasty (15s@150% into 75s@108% into 15s@181%).

On the “all rides” tab, there are a couple of users that have done Villafane very well.

And quite a few more that have had a go and surrendered!

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:see_no_evil: :see_no_evil: :see_no_evil:

IMO “Done” per my reading = Completed as prescribed (95% or better) vs failed (early stop or major reduction of 50% or more to finish).

And like Pbase said, the Fireworks section there hurt me to the point of missing a couple of the kicks. Bailing entered my head but the fact that I was doing it live with others was motivation to complete it despite the misery.

Feel free to post whatever you found hardest. For me, the answer is still as clear as the moment I read the OP.

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Back on the old plans Mary Austin was always something I dreaded - think it was part of the sustained power build plan. There might have been harder ones but that’s the one I remember. Thankfully haven’t seen her around since the advent of AT:-)

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