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What's Your Highest "Suffer Score"?

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Old 08-04-12, 05:23 PM
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What's Your Highest "Suffer Score"?

Strava Users:

What's your highest ever raw Suffer Score?
Mine=199
Highest Suffer Units per Mile?
Mine= 3.42

Strava Link

Suffer Units per Mile (SUM)= raw suffer score/miles in the ride.

Discuss/describe as needed.

Last edited by billydonn; 08-09-13 at 06:57 AM. Reason: Confuse people more
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Old 08-04-12, 06:37 PM
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Originally Posted by billydonn
Strava Users:


What's your highest ever raw Suffer Score? Mine=197
Suffer Units per Mile? Mine= 3.4

Discuss/describe as needed.
I'm not a Strava user, so I don't have a number for you. But now you've got me curious. Exactly what goes into a Suffer Score?
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Old 08-04-12, 07:08 PM
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Originally Posted by BlazingPedals
I'm not a Strava user, so I don't have a number for you. But now you've got me curious. Exactly what goes into a Suffer Score?
https://djconnel.blogspot.com/2011/08...coded.html?m=1


Sent from my iPhone
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Old 08-04-12, 09:38 PM
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I think you need to be a premium strava member to get a suffer score. I'm not so I don't get to suffer on my rides!
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Old 08-04-12, 10:45 PM
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I'm too cheap to pay for premium when the free account does all I need and more.
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Old 08-04-12, 11:10 PM
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251 and 3.9 for me. https://app.strava.com/activities/14051490
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Old 08-05-12, 03:03 AM
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Off-Topic, but still on suffering - this lady is doing the SufferFest Knighthood today, of all days. That's right - ALL TEN sufferfest videos back to back. In fact she'll be an hour and a half into it by now.

Keep your fingers crossed for her and wish her luck!
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Old 08-05-12, 08:18 AM
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Suffering, like prayer and fasting, is something best done in solitude.
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Old 08-05-12, 11:39 AM
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Originally Posted by Chaco
Epic!
Originally Posted by Dudelsack
Suffering, like prayer and fasting, is something best done in solitude.
Dulcius ex asperis?

Last edited by billydonn; 08-05-12 at 01:25 PM.
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Old 08-05-12, 11:48 AM
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I once finished a very fast group ride so exhausted I couldn't unclip. So I coasted onto the grass, fell over and promptly crapped my shorts. Seriously.
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Old 08-05-12, 01:37 PM
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Originally Posted by AmFaeEmbra
Off-Topic, but still on suffering - this lady is doing the SufferFest Knighthood today, of all days. That's right - ALL TEN sufferfest videos back to back. In fact she'll be an hour and a half into it by now.

Keep your fingers crossed for her and wish her luck!
"Lady Sufferlandria"...cool. I will lurk around her blog. It sounds vaguely erotic.
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Old 08-05-12, 04:19 PM
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Originally Posted by SCochiller
I once finished a very fast group ride so exhausted I couldn't unclip. So I coasted onto the grass, fell over and promptly crapped my shorts. Seriously.
Dude, that is SO cool!
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Old 08-05-12, 08:12 PM
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The suffer score is pretty bogus. It's just a HR calculation. The program gives you a calculated HR based on age, and gives you points based on how much time you've spent in various zones. I don't suffer as much as I did a couple of years ago, but my suffer score doesn't come anywhere close to representing the level of effort I expend.

For example, Chaco posted a suffer score of 251 on a 64 mi. ride with 2800' of climbing. I did a 29 mi. ride with 2700' of climbing and got a suffer score of 73. BTW, my ride was between 7K and 10K ft. above sea level and is 7th place in the KOM for the big hill, and 4th for the shorter steeper hill that are on the ride.

Chaco suffered. I suffered. Strava cannot discern that.
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Old 08-05-12, 08:18 PM
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Originally Posted by BluesDawg
I'm too cheap to pay for premium when the free account does all I need and more.
The only reason I went premium is so I could filter segment results on age or weight.
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Old 08-05-12, 09:03 PM
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Originally Posted by Terex
The suffer score is pretty bogus. It's just a HR calculation. The program gives you a calculated HR based on age, and gives you points based on how much time you've spent in various zones. I don't suffer as much as I did a couple of years ago, but my suffer score doesn't come anywhere close to representing the level of effort I expend.

For example, Chaco posted a suffer score of 251 on a 64 mi. ride with 2800' of climbing. I did a 29 mi. ride with 2700' of climbing and got a suffer score of 73. BTW, my ride was between 7K and 10K ft. above sea level and is 7th place in the KOM for the big hill, and 4th for the shorter steeper hill that are on the ride.

Chaco suffered. I suffered. Strava cannot discern that.
You're probably just in MUCH better shape than I am! And probably lighter, too. And maybe younger as well. I'm 64, and weight 219 lbs. So keeping up with the youngsters in my group ride is a monumental effort for me, whereas for many of them, it's a routine workout.

I really don't pay much attention to the suffer score myself, except in comparison to myself.

One more thing about their suffer score -- the length of the ride makes a huge difference.
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Old 08-06-12, 07:18 AM
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Originally Posted by Terex
The suffer score is pretty bogus. It's just a HR calculation. The program gives you a calculated HR based on age, and gives you points based on how much time you've spent in various zones. I don't suffer as much as I did a couple of years ago, but my suffer score doesn't come anywhere close to representing the level of effort I expend.

For example, Chaco posted a suffer score of 251 on a 64 mi. ride with 2800' of climbing. I did a 29 mi. ride with 2700' of climbing and got a suffer score of 73. BTW, my ride was between 7K and 10K ft. above sea level and is 7th place in the KOM for the big hill, and 4th for the shorter steeper hill that are on the ride.

Chaco suffered. I suffered. Strava cannot discern that.
No... this is not correct.

True, the suffer score does not tell how much your legs were hurting. The third post in this thread has a link to a nice discussion of the SS, for those that want to argue about it.
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Old 08-06-12, 07:55 AM
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One other thing I just noticed about what Terex was saying - actually Strava does not base its calculation based on an immutable formula of max HR. It may start with that, but you can easily set your maximum. In my case, for example, the traditional formula (220 - age) would say my max HR is 156. I knew this was too low, so a few months ago I reset it to 166. Then I routinely hit 168 to 170, so a few weeks ago, I set it to 171, 15 points higher than the formula.

I've also noticed that the better shape I'm in, the longer I can sustain being in Zone 5, which for me is 165+. It used to be that a few seconds would be all I could stand. Now I can sustain a couple of minutes. I don't think my max HR is going up. I think what's happening is that HR is a delayed response to power output. The better shape you're in, the quicker your heart responds, and the longer you can sustain a maximum effort.

Obviously, I'm not a cardiologist, but that's my theory based on my own experience and the research I've done on the subject.
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Old 08-06-12, 08:23 AM
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Originally Posted by Dudelsack
Dude, that is SO cool!
He must have gotten some dudel on his sack.
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Old 08-06-12, 04:41 PM
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Originally Posted by billydonn
No... this is not correct.
OK, maybe not age, but the zones appear to be bogus. See : https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/2...score-analysis
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Old 08-06-12, 06:37 PM
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175 but still looking.
https://app.strava.com/rides/6737006
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Old 08-06-12, 06:41 PM
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209

https://app.strava.com/rides/5226713
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Old 08-06-12, 06:44 PM
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220
https://app.strava.com/rides/5226713

Im gonna quit looking, Im getting tired thinking about them.
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Old 08-06-12, 07:21 PM
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Originally Posted by Phil85207
SUM=2.8

Originally Posted by Phil85207
SUM=2.68

Originally Posted by Phil85207
220
https://app.strava.com/rides/5226713

Im gonna quit looking, Im getting tired thinking about them.
SUM=???? (Phil, I did the SUM calculations for you... but your Strava link is wrong for this one)

Cheers!
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Old 08-06-12, 07:40 PM
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Lowest Suffer Score Ever?

I have for sure found the record lowest Suffer Score! I have issued Kudos and a smiley face to that person, who shall remain nameless.

Lowest Suffer Score =1
SUM= .5
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Old 08-11-12, 03:42 PM
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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.
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