You have better people in your life than me! My girlfriend is going out of town to avoid the day, and friends are coming over to drink beer and taunt me as an idiot for getting myself into something like Disaster…
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@zwillis1 Your friends may publicly taunt you, but the truth underneath is that they will respect the hell out of you. I have a friend that used to not be able to climb a 2kft hill without stopping 4x. Over a few year period I informally trained him to loose 25lbs and this past summer complete the Death Ride (125mi; 15kft climbing). His (our) friends that thought he was crazy to attempt it are now in awe of his accomplishment.
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@brenph If you can fit in 1/2 or 3/4, do it! And if 1/2 is the right one for you do that one!
As @mcneese.chad and @Macy will tell you, 1/2 is no slouch event, and as @summerson and I will tell you, neither was the 3/4.
I am hoping in future years, we rename the 1/2, 3/4 (and possibly a 1/4) to different names, similar to what Levi’s Gran Fondo did for the 11 various lengths of his ride; that is, to disassociate the distance from the accomplishment.
We all need to choose what is right for us, given our fitness, training and other life factors so that everyone feels good about their accomplishment, or even their attempt at this event.
The TR user community is incredibly supportive of one another (you can see clear evidence of this in many threads). And the more we can continue to support each other (and keep competition out of it), the better and faster cyclists we will all become.
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+1 for this
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I’ve gone through what I reckon is the hard part of the half. I didnt have time to finish on the day in question but am reasonably sure I would have. I’ll figure it out closer to the day and see how I feel then.
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“Chadian” haha! I love it!
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Not to put you off, but those sprints in the second to last interval were “fun” too… Them and the thresholds were what I found tough. I thought the VO2 Max intervals were reasonable!
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I like the idea of renaming them. Initial thoughts:
1/2 - The Nate
3/4 - The Jonathan
Full - The Chad
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I considered calling the 1/2 something like Chaos or another synonym for disaster.
I also think the right way to name them long term is to match Coach Chad’s method of using the minus method.
Disaster (Full version)
Disaster -1 (3/4 version)
Disaster -2 (1/2 version)
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I’m thinking of probably doing the 1/2 or 3/4, after I get my new handbike in full use. That will probably be somewhere near the New Year’s Eve.
I think the full would be too much with the new bike, since my positioning, and hence all the working angles and such, will change quite considerably on the new bike as I get it.
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That sounds like a good plan.
I’ve been following this thread and as a recreational rider that enjoys the occasional epic endeavor I think Disaster would be fun. Before I commit, I have a question about strategy. When riding outside on long sustained efforts, such as a long climb, I end up in my smallest gear, 34/32, and my cadence slows until I end up just grinding it out. I climbed Whiteface Mountain at an average cadence of 40. Lower cadence, lower speed, lower power, longer time. With TR in erg mode on long threshold intervals my cadence ends up slowing until I eventually grind to a halt, since the power required stays the same, and need to start back pedalling. I completed the Half Disaster on Monday and needed a couple of back pedals to get through the second threshold interval. So, for the full Disaster I know the additional threshold intervals will require many more back pedals, should I,
Throw in as many back pedals as I need to in order to complete the intervals and not lower the intensity until I spend more time back pedalling than pedalling forward, or
Reduce the intensity and try to avoid back pedalling.
Sorry for the long winded question.
I think either could work, but based on your experience you might try a combo.
That super slow cadence will overly tax your muscles and glycogen stores. It’s best to keep a cadence 80 rpm or higher. So, I’d employ a slightly Intensity reduction to start (2%?).
The plan to use backpedaling too. Drop them in earlier than you might think you need, to keep cadence productive. It’s too early in the workout to hit the spiral of death. Use them every 3 mins if you have to so you avoid grinding. This is not the workout to apply that low cadence work.
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I might do the 1/2 instead of my scheduled Dade +4. Final decision in about 13 days…
Also wondering if TR will have ~100 fewer users on Dec 16? 
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I was thinking about this as well as I look forward to doing the 1/2 Disaster this weekend…Personally, I’d call half a Disaster a “Major Inconvenience”.
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I have had good news - of sorts. After chatting with my coach we have agreed to drop my FTP from 250 to 235. I immediately thought that the timing for Dec 15th was perfect. I dont have the motivation to do a test currently but I know it is too high relative to current fitness. I still do the 20 minute test with the 5 minute effort beforehand.
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Calamity, Catastrophe, Disaster?
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Done.
