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What's Your Highest "Suffer Score"?

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What's Your Highest "Suffer Score"?

Old 08-11-12, 04:06 PM
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Originally Posted by cccorlew
I had an 816 suffer score on the Devil Mountain Double. 206 miles, 21,718 feet of climbing.
https://app.strava.com/activities/7558502

It was the hardest ride I've ever done by quite a lot. It will eb interesting to see what the upcoming Knoxville produces.

I wonder what the highest score ever is.
OUCH! You might have the highest!
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Old 08-11-12, 04:30 PM
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Originally Posted by cccorlew
I had an 816 suffer score on the Devil Mountain Double. 206 miles, 21,718 feet of climbing.
https://app.strava.com/activities/7558502

It was the hardest ride I've ever done by quite a lot. It will eb interesting to see what the upcoming Knoxville produces.

I wonder what the highest score ever is.
Truly Epic.... I feel so insignificant now. SUM Score for that is 3.96

Hmmm... Perhaps a new category "suffer scores by sane people" is in order.
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Old 08-11-12, 04:38 PM
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Suffer Units per Mile (SUM)= raw suffer score/miles in the ride.
Mine might be
https://app.strava.com/activities/3896316
317 for 50 miles, 7,500 feet of climbing.
I think that's 6.34.

It's amazing I can suffer so much and still be so very very slow.
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Old 08-11-12, 05:29 PM
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I'm not sure how much faith I have in Strava my highest watts is 1110 but I don't have a suffer score over 200 I don't know what that indicates
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Old 08-11-12, 06:27 PM
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Seems to me the suffer score ought to be in synch - at least to some degree - with the average power output.

But it isn't - which leads me to believe that "Suffer Score" is bogus.

(Perhaps it adds all the hills, but ignores recovery time on downhills..?)
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Old 08-11-12, 06:35 PM
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Originally Posted by DGlenday
Seems to me the suffer score ought to be in synch - at least to some degree - with the average power output.
You can suffer with very little power output. It tracks to your heart rate more than power. So someone out of shape can spike their heart rate while not producing much power and have a high suffer score.
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Old 08-11-12, 08:51 PM
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Originally Posted by cccorlew
You can suffer with very little power output. It tracks to your heart rate more than power. So someone out of shape can spike their heart rate while not producing much power and have a high suffer score.
Exactly. Power is the amount of work produced. HR (suffering) is the body's reaction to that work. A strong rider will have to do a faster or longer ride to suffer as much as a weaker rider.
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Old 08-11-12, 09:43 PM
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sigh
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Old 08-11-12, 09:50 PM
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BWAAAh... WTF is this "suffering score"... More than a few times I have thought that if I don't stop and rest on such and such a hill I WILL DIE... I didn't stop, and I didn't die... But in the end I was alive and proud that I made it, Is there a proud and made it (and didn't die) score out there somewhere...?
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Old 08-15-12, 03:55 PM
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I am such a wimp compared to Curtis. My maximum suffer score is 375 with a SUM of 3.2. Strava link to my 2011 Cool Breeze double-metric century almost one year ago this weekend. I'm signed up for the double-metric again this Saturday. Since it looks like I've solved my cramping problem, I'll be able to push it a little bit more than last year, but no way I'll even come close to Curtis' 816 score.
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Old 08-16-12, 07:07 AM
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Originally Posted by volosong
I am such a wimp compared to Curtis. My maximum suffer score is 375 with a SUM of 3.2. Strava link to my 2011 Cool Breeze double-metric century almost one year ago this weekend. I'm signed up for the double-metric again this Saturday. Since it looks like I've solved my cramping problem, I'll be able to push it a little bit more than last year, but no way I'll even come close to Curtis' 816 score.
I think Curtis is going to be KOM of suffering for awhile. So far the silver medal is yours with no threats in site. Bronze is still up for grabs though.

Too bad Barrett hasn't chimed in. He does some pretty long rides.
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Old 08-16-12, 08:34 AM
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Originally Posted by DGlenday
Seems to me the suffer score ought to be in synch - at least to some degree - with the average power output.

But it isn't - which leads me to believe that "Suffer Score" is bogus.

(Perhaps it adds all the hills, but ignores recovery time on downhills..?)
But no. I don't think there is a necessary correlation of power to suffering for the very reason you mention. I suffer more on a hilly 20 miler than Ted King does on a 100 mile race loop because he's in shape and used to it, and I'm not.

I use a heart monitor because I don't want to redline it because of my SERIOUS HEART CONDITION. I don't worry too much about exceeding any given level of power.

The highest suffer score I ever generated was when I was riding next to a guy on a "slow and easy spin". I wasn't wearing a heart monitor, but he was, and my Garmin picked it up. He was about my age and was redlining it the entire time. My very own highest suffer score was around 150 or so.
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Old 08-16-12, 01:25 PM
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SS will relate to average power output within but not between persons. Post 3 in this thread tells how SS is calculated. Argue on.

Last edited by billydonn; 08-16-12 at 01:31 PM.
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Old 08-20-12, 06:50 AM
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Bump
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Old 08-21-12, 07:39 PM
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I'm not a Strava user but I did ride up the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Climb and I suffered.
7.6 miles felt like a tough century.
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Old 08-24-12, 02:32 PM
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Sorry to bring this back to life, but I haven't been one for a while. No one actually specified riding, so 745 and 28.1: https://app.strava.com/runs/2063246.
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Old 08-24-12, 05:28 PM
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Originally Posted by RedC
I'm not sure how much faith I have in Strava my highest watts is 1110 but I don't have a suffer score over 200 I don't know what that indicates
I finally figured out where the outrageous watts figure came from. Back in March I went on a charity ride with my grandchildren and forgot to turn off the Garmin so it tracked my 200 mile car ride. I figured out how to edit the ride to cut back to the end of the ride and reduced my maximum watts to 419 which makes more sense. and my highest suffer score is 186 which happened on my fastest 50 mile ride. It will be interesting to see what it is at the "Horrible Hundred" in November which is the biggest hills I ride.
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Old 08-24-12, 05:40 PM
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No Strava for me but I had a TSS of 211.1 for 62 miles.

https://connect.garmin.com/activity/211996665
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Old 08-24-12, 07:25 PM
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Originally Posted by RedC
I finally figured out where the outrageous watts figure came from. Back in March I went on a charity ride with my grandchildren and forgot to turn off the Garmin so it tracked my 200 mile car ride. I figured out how to edit the ride to cut back to the end of the ride and reduced my maximum watts to 419 which makes more sense. and my highest suffer score is 186 which happened on my fastest 50 mile ride. It will be interesting to see what it is at the "Horrible Hundred" in November which is the biggest hills I ride.
I love it!

Your SUM score is about 3.7... not bad!
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Old 08-25-12, 01:09 AM
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Mine is 441 for a double century around lake taupo last November, sum is 2.3. Doing the quad century this November four laps of the lake

https://app.strava.com/activities/6083608
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Old 08-25-12, 07:29 AM
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I dont suffer!! I ride either a recumbent bike or trike at the speed I like.

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Old 08-25-12, 08:26 AM
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Originally Posted by petrolhead
Mine is 441 for a double century around lake taupo last November, sum is 2.3. Doing the quad century this November four laps of the lake

https://app.strava.com/activities/6083608
Okay then... looks like Volosong is bumped from second place for now. Well done petrolhead! Double century riders are going to dominate the standings, it looks like. Perhaps an index of "weekly total suffering" should be created.... or something like that.

As moderator of this threat, er thread, I rule that running does not count.
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Old 08-27-12, 07:07 PM
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Found STRAVA Suffer Scores for pro Joe Dombrowski in the recent USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado.... behold ... and weep! (He finished 10th)

https://app.strava.com/rides/19321721

https://app.strava.com/rides/19420467

https://app.strava.com/rides/19194230
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Old 08-27-12, 09:40 PM
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Originally Posted by billydonn
Found STRAVA Suffer Scores for pro Joe Dombrowski in the recent USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado.... behold ... and weep! (He finished 10th)
Did you look at those? Though he has reasonably high suffer numbers, it's from the distance and climbing. If he has his max heart rate is set correctly, he didn't hit zone 4 or 5 the whole race! Is that possible? I max my heart rate going out to get the mail.

My guess is he has an "auto calc" heart max and his max isn't really that high. Otherwise it would appear he isn't working all that hard, which seems impossible considering his speed. Or maybe I'm missing something....
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Old 08-28-12, 12:41 AM
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I noticed the same thing. But a max HR in the low 200s seems about right for a young guy... it's hardest for me to believe he rode so fast at such a low HR. Why didn't he get the HR higher? If true, it's really absolutely amazing. Can LeMond have been wrong.... i.e. you can go faster and it DOES get easier?

I'm thinking more research is needed. Can we find Strava feeds from some other Pros I wonder?

Last edited by billydonn; 08-28-12 at 01:26 AM.
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