ToS feedback

Tour of Sufferlandria
#61

This was my first ToS, but here’s my feedback:

  1. Really enjoyed the FB group for support and humor. Didn’t interact at all on the Forum
  2. 7 stages felt just about all I could handle in terms of bike/life balance
  3. I learned a lot along the way about nutrition, recovery, and mental toughness, even though I’m a former road/track racer
  4. Would be great if there was a formalized option for riders to sign up to suffer together (i.e. do the stage simultaneously). I’m sure someone’s figured out a workaround, but if it was part of the app itself that would be cool (i.e. “Ride with 3 other Sufferlandrians”)
  5. Yoga should be a mandatory part of the ToS: @abicarver was once again a godsend in helping me recover between stages.

I feel like the Tour provided a solid overload training block and represents the start of my spring/summer programme.

4 Likes
#62

Can you contact the minions at theminions@thesufferfest.com
for this and they’ll get you sorted.
Cheers.

#63

I love the Tour. Please never let it end. In the spirit of feedback, here’s mine:

  1. I hope we go back to 9 days. I have no reason for this other than it’s always been 9 days and we all know 9 days is possible. If it’s not 9 days it’ll always be less than it was.
  2. I understand the concept of the 50 hour window but don’t like it. I often feel I’m a day behind. The spirit should be that ride it on the day it’s planned for wherever you are and the 50 hour window is just a technical measure to make it possible to track completion.
  3. for multi vid rides it used to be the case that special mashups were created for those stages, so the stage would be seamless as opposed to just riding the 2 separate vids. This made the stages more ‘special’.
  4. agree with others that having a more accessible Challenge page would be good!
3 Likes
#64

Feeling dim but where is the dashboard. Finished the tour, great way to focus training, last day was the hardest for me but haven’t seen any feedback on completing

3 Likes
#65

I enjoyed the event - my first tour - things I noticed: difference in what my PC says badge wise vs. my iPad. My “donation” page provided a way to build a Facebook giving page also (which was great, better response there) but I think it ended up as two different donation threads, it would be great to get things better unified. In a similar way, while I was registered, the app still shows me a register now for…it still shows that even though the event is done. So my issues are more content management and transitions maybe from independent to part of Wahoo and many moving parts.

2 Likes
#66

Thank you Michael. And congratulations on crushing the tour :trophy: I’m stoked that the yoga helped you to get you through it in one piece. Mandatory yoga for all!

14 Likes
#67

Head here for the dashboard …
https://app.thesufferfest.com/challenges
Hope that helps.

And various chat about it here

#68

Thanks. Logged :slight_smile:

#69

One additional thought…

Would it be possible to have one central location for ToS related announcements from the Sufferfest team?

I thought the final messages in Defender were amazing, but don’t know if I missed a post somewhere at some point telling us how to donate to get a message up there. I think that, combined with a few times where I wasn’t sure where to find the appropriate livestream might benefit from a “ToS blog” or somesuch.

4 Likes
#70

Thanks to everyone! The ToS was great and went off without a hitch to my eyes. Technical difficulties seemed minimal and were handled swiftly.

My thoughts:

  • I’m ok with 7 days, so long as the intensity scales to account for the compressed schedule.

  • The website was hard to follow. All the info is there, but it was challenging to figure out what you had to do. The DPF page is not always clear (not that you can help that). Links would take you to the right page, but sometimes the info was way at the bottom (see: stage start/end times). Lots of people have mentioned the dashboard. Stuff like that.

A banner inside the app that takes you to the ToS page on the website (with some edits for clarity), and clear links to the dashboard inside the app would alleviate a lot of confusion. Barring that (because I realize that all app modifications require work cycles), the ToS page on the website could simply say something like

“Interested? Here’s what to do:

  1. Register at DPF
  2. Sign into dashboard
  3. Go to app, load up prep plan
    etc etc etc

A numbered list would make that process a lot easier. All the rest of the information is great and really helpful.

  • This conversation is exactly what a forum is good for: replies to a general topic. Linear forums like this are not good for creating conversations…as soon as people start replying to replies, they become anachronistic streams of opinions and random comments. As much as I hate Facebook (I don’t install it on my phone), it is far better for creating spontaneous conversations. A forum with nested convos may be better than this format.

  • Unpopular, uneducated opinion/devil’s advocate talking point: the label “Nuclear” deters people from trying the full ToS, and is as likely to indicate that your 4DP is inaccurate as it is to indicate how tough you are. No veterans are crowing about “going nuclear”, but a whole lot of newbies are beating themselves up for not being that tough. If you did away with the label but kept the intention and the description, I bet more people would give it a go. Which, if you are doing a shorter tour, maybe isn’t as much of a concern as before.

Thanks everyone! Amazing job. Love you folks :slight_smile:

9 Likes
#71

I could find my DPF page but I could never edit it.

1 Like
#72

Hi Abi
I’m not sure if it was the Tour or all the decorating I’m doing but my back is sore, my hips are sore and all the way down my legs feel tighter than I ever remember.
Whenever I follow a training programme I tick the yoga option (still beginner after a year!). I do think we need yoga during the Tour. I hope for future years you could add an optional yoga section when you select the Tour Plan. I wouldn’t mind doing the same thirty mins every day if it helps, probably from beginner, intermediate and showing off categories.

4 Likes
#73

Oh I totally forgot… I also think there could/maybe should be room for a Southern Hemisphere Tour or ‘mini’ tour this year (or in future years) to help them through the COVID winter (or normal winter in future years). ToS was such a mental lift when it was cold and gross here, I’d love to extend the same for our Southern Hemisphere Sufferlandrians.

9 Likes
#74

I did not know this - where do we find out about the quarterly events for Knights? Thanks

3 Likes
#75

Hi @WeeLilBrentley I am tagging the folks at Team DPF (@Lauren_TeamDPF and @Rebecca_TeamDPF) so they can get more information about your DPF page comments. Alway good to get more information that make the experience better next year. Thanks for the great feedback.

2 Likes
#76

Oh! Good idea! It wasn’t anything crazy but I remember being a bit confused about a few points. I’ll have to go back and remind myself :smiley:

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#77

There will always be people for whom a given week simply won’t work. I suggest a “catch-up tour” the following week so those folks can participate.

Ok, I’m being selfish: Tour Week is usually the week I take my family on our winter vacation. We stayed home this year due to C19. Under the current “one week and one week only" paradigm, my first tour will probably be my last.

2 Likes
#78

Thanks for doing that Gerry.

#79

More great additions for the list … :slight_smile: thanks everyone.

#80

@abicarver do you have any suggestions for on-bike stretches we can do whilst suffering? Maybe you need to do a video!

2 Likes