Review:The Sufferfest’s “Revolver” Video

Old-style interval workout videos make the effort even more painful by showing some coach with a stopwatch in front of spinning class. The only thing that made it tolerable was being snarky about the fashion choices of some of the class or the laughable fixation of the cameraman (I assume) at ensuring the camera found itself frequently squarely in front of the more voluptuous female in the class who always seemed to be in the aero position.

The Sufferfest made the long, hard Midwest winter far more bearable. Living in the land that hasn’t seen 40 F since December 1 (and counting) with around 2 feet of snow in my yard, the trainer and I became sympatico over the last few months. They found their way into becoming a cornerstone of my interval/max effort training. The mix of engaging racing video and euro-rock makes the suffering far more bearable.

The “Revolver” trailer is shown below:

Enter The Sufferfest’s latest offering “Revolver”. The workout formula for this video is very straight forward – a brief warm up, followed by a series of 1 minute on/1 minute off intervals. The video for the 10/10 efforts is a great mix of UCI track, World Cup cyclocross and few intervals of the U23 and Women’s World Championship road race. On-screen commands occasionally tell you to get out of the saddle and sprint, grind a bigger gear or my favorite “OBEY! SUFFER!” The recovery intervals are a long-winding descent where the on-screen instructions provide pleasant scenery, but encourage you to keep your cadence high. The music keeps the intensity high when it needs to be and keeps the mood high when you’re recovering.

By comparison to the other videos, the workout is a little less strenuous…but 15 1-minute intervals straight through still provides an incredible workout. Most other workouts like this would probably give a 3-4 minute recovery in the middle, but this one pushes straight through. The Sufferfest always keeps a hidden trick or two to make you squeeze that last little bit of effort out before leading you through a good cool down period, featuring video from the Etape du Tour.

For a $9 download, I would argue that the soundtrack alone is worth that much. Given the great video that puts you in a racing mood rather than the “stuck on the trainer” mood, it’s worth much more (but don’t lift the price). The Sufferfest has come through with another great addition to the training library, which could still come in handy as the world is seeing some crazy spring weather.

To find out more, go to The Sufferfest website.