Beer Drinker Appreciation Society (BDAS)--OPEN (Page 6)

Got in a 45 minute trainer ride in Z2 (OK - I'm out of shape so maybe a little Z3 in there ) and then swam 1400 and did some core work last evening.

Back felt pretty good during the ride, flared up after about 1K in the pool (so I cut it a little short of the 1600 I had planned) and wasn't too happy with the core work.  But the good news is that it calmed down afterwards, which I've had a real problem with it not lately.

Maybe all this talk of surgery is scaring my back a little.  LOL

I have my pre-op physical today...can't wait to see what that scale says. NOT!!!!!!! 

For whatever childish reason, that just made me laugh.

Hard swims are the best - once their done.  I was sweating for 15 minutes after taking a shower yesterday - from swimming.  Tough coach yesterday and I was the only one there - no way to slack off.

When I look to drop weight, my go to breakfast is two hard boiled eggs and half a grapefruit.

I expect to do at least one more training ride.  In the past, I've started new shows (Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, etc.) while on the trainer.  I don't allow myself to watch the next episode unless I'm on the bike - which is very effective.  Last night I started watching Mad Men - 89 episodes to go.  

Good choices on TV shows!  I've watched all of those (well, I gave up half way through TWD because it got stupid, but I heard it's gotten better, so I may pick it back up at some point).  I do the same thing -- only watch TV when I'm on the trainer or treadmill.  It makes indoor sessions so much more manageable, and even motivating.  I'm currently watching The Wire.

Another good trainer/treadmill binge watching thing is triathlonlive.tv -- it's a paid subscription (but cheap) and you get all of the ITU WTS racing (current season and many past seasons), plus some bonus racing.  I'm excitedly waiting for ITU racing to resume

Whew! Finally got caught up with all the new BDAS posts. Great start to the year, everyone! My goal for BDAS this year is to keep up with the group discussion. I burned myself out a bit last year with all the HM's so I'm going to focus on adding back in fun activities while keeping my fitness level up.

NAME: Mark

STORY:  I started the path down recreational endurance sports after having surgery on my foot and realizing that "running wasn't so bad". Going from couch to 5k, 10k, sprint triathlon, half marathon, and olympic triathlon!

CURRENT TRAINING: Mixture of running (on and off road), some biking as I can.

2016 RACES:  A whopping 8 half marathons (two of which were off-road), a sprint triathlon, and an olympic triathlon.

The Plan for 2017: Taking a step back from "lots and lots of races" to focus on one giant challenge: Full marathon distance trail run.

BEER/WINE/BOOZE PREFERENCE: Hoppy (balanced hoppy,  not just super hoppy), pales and IPA's. I've also recently expanded into stouts. Being local to one of the nations best craft breweries (Firestone Walker) has me spoiled a bit.

WEIGHT LOSS: Need to drop about 10 pounds that I put on at the end of 2016.

WHAT WILL MAKE ME A GOOD BDAS MEMBER: I'm a middle aged, middle of the pack, beer appreciating, recreational endurance athlete. This will be my fourth year of BDAS and I can contribute tips and advice from the "average guy" perspective and help those coming "from the couch".

Thanks!  It's a bit of "pre-hab" and a bit of sanity-keeping.

That's in the BDAS wheelhouse! 

And yes you read that right...Mark did eight (!!!) half marathons last year.

I have stayed consistent with swimming over the past couple weeks and am getting back into the grove of cycling.

I'm the same way...I can't take in solid food when running.  Biking is OK with pretzels or something light like that, but pretty much Gatorade only on the run.

10 miles indoors - that is FIERCE!!!! 

Got in an hour on the trainer this morning -  should have been Z2 with a little tempo in there but RPE and HR wise it would up being more like a threshold ride.  I am SO out of shape - I should probably drop my FTP some, especially given I'll be off the bike anywhere from 2-6 weeks.  Back held up OK on the bike, but got a little fidgety the last 8-9 minutes or so. 

Yesterday was an off day because my back flared up pretty good. 

Had a two hour ride on the trainer toady -- 4x18' @ 80%, low cadence work.  I did this same ride last week with cadences of 70/65/60/55 and found the 55 to be incredibly challenging....wasn't sure if it was due to the accumulated fatigue or if 55 is just a bit out of my comfort zone, so my coach suggested doing the cadence progression in the opposite order.  I did it and while the 55 was a bit challenging, it was certainly manageable, and the 70 felt more natural, but my legs were tired.  So I think it's more about cumulative fatigue than anything.  I'm not quite ready to hold 80% for 2.5 hours, but hoping I'll be there by April for my first race of the year!

Unfortunately, I'm at work today.  Things have been rough for almost two weeks here, so I've been working a lot of hours and feeling a lot of stress.  Hoping to meet a friend for a couple beers tonight -- one of the local breweries near my house is tapping a cask of a double dry hopped IPA.  And next weekend is a barrel fest with 30 different barrel-aged beers.  I bought tickets and rented a place to stay....planning to bring my bike and ride in the morning (on the IMTX course), followed by beer consumption in the afternoon....assuming work doesn't interfere.

Hope everyone's training is going well.  Glad to read about the swimming, biking, and running everyone is doing (even when we get stuck doing it on the trainer or 70 laps on an indoor track!)!

IMTX is not on my race schedule.  I am doing Galveston 70.3 though.  The area where I live is pancake flat, so if I want a change of scenery, I tend to go up to the IMTX course area to get some rolling hills.  If I want real hills, I have to drive a few hours west....which works out nicely because it's wine country

Unfortunately, by the time I got out of work and over to the bar, the cask double dry hopped beer was gone.  Still enjoyed a flight (two goses, two IPA's, and two Belgians) and a pint of a stout.

Double run on the schedule today....knocked out 40 minutes before coming into work and have another 30 minutes tonight.  Will also be doing some meal prep work when I get home.  I've been trying to prepare meals for the week so I don't have to do it during the week.  It's been working out really nicely and my weight is back to where I want it to be without feeling hungry or deprived!