Beer Drinker Appreciation Society - Open For Business (Page 68)

I'm loving all this beer advice! Just downloaded the app, and I will definitely send a request to all of you when I have time to set it up!

Also, love that saying!

Not the best training weekend, but it was quite a good beer drinking weekend. Took Friday off due to general fatigue, then did a trainer ride on Saturday. It really sucked having to go back on the trainer after a good outdoor ride last week, but it was raining. Sunday is normal rest day. Today I've put in 2000yds at the pool (90/400) and have plans for an outdoor ride tonight after work. I have mixed feelings about DST, I hate getting up in the dark again, but when I can squeeze in an outdoor workout in the daylight after work, it makes me happy. 72F forecasted for this afternoon. I'm like a little kid in that I can barely keep myself settled in my office and focused on my work. I have spring fever badly!!

Beer:
Tried a bunch of new things this weekend--went to the liquor store and they were having a craft beer sale. Walked out with way more than the six pack I went in to buy. They were focused on local breweries, so I bought two things from Excel Brewery in Breese, IL.
Southside Stout--not bad, but a little bitter in the aftertaste
Lefty's Lager--really, really good

KCCO Black Lager--also good, but there was a slight bitterness in the aftertaste that wasn't completely pleasant.
Also tried a pear pilsner, but I can't remember the brewer. It was not good at all, although my wife liked (and drank) it.

Sunday we met up with my folks at St. Nicholas Brewing Co in Du Quoin, IL and had lunch. I tried their Cadence Stout, which was really good--nearly black, almost chewy, but not bitter. I liked it so much I had two! C tried the Wee Heavy (10.9%), which was also good--gold/amber color, not bitter.

I'm off to catch up on posts, as I'm behind! Happy Training!

Alright, finally caught up!

Chris - Happy belated birthday. Also, that suitmate is AMAZING, definitely made me laugh out loud. Thanks for sharing :-)

Everyone is killing it out there! Keep it up guys!

Spring is definitely in the air! I think today is supposed to be a high of 64 degrees (F)! Not quite Juan's beautiful view, but I will be running around Baltimore this afternoon. I will try to take some pictures to share!

I had my appointment this morning for my shoulder, and the doctor would like to avoid surgery as well (so good when we are on the same page :-). Apparently it's the same problem I had when I was younger, it's just getting worse, so I am starting PT tomorrow. My shoulders are kind of forward a bit from being on the computer all day and all that good stuff, so I will work on strengthening my back muscles to try to pull my shoulders back more and relieve the pressure on my rotator cuff. The official diagnoses are rotator cuff/biceps tendinosis and possibly chronic labral pathology. When I told the PT my birth date his response was, "wow, way too young to have chronic labral pathology...you must be an athlete, right?" (I think that is just a fancy way of saying chronic pain in my shoulder, haha).

All this being said, I asked if I could still play volleyball and swim and although he didn't say no, he did say I would slow down the healing by continuing to do these things. I may take off volleyball tonight and give myself a week or two before I swim again. I can still run and bike though, and will get more specifics from the PT tomorrow. Overall, I'm feeling much better about everything now that I have a better idea of what it is and can begin fixing it!

Happy Monday and Happy (early) St. Patty's day! I included a picture of me from the weekend (I left my house wearing only a green shirt and an hour later...this happened...the little guy's name is Lawrence)







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Wow, that one is super close up...sorry about that.

So I'm supposed to go meet with the guy at work today about the S32, he's letting me take it for a few days, get a few test rides, and bring it to my bike shop. He also apparently has a set of shoes near my size that are practically brand new, so the bike, shoes, pedals, and 2 bottle cages..I really can't pass this deal up..hopefully everything checks out with it!

All I can think of (probably because I just watched the SNL 40th special this weekend) is the Wayne's World 'extreme close up!' bit - haha

One thing to keep in mind - if you've never ridden clipless pedals before, the time to learn is not while test riding someone else's bike. You will fall. It's not even a question...lol. What my LBS did for me (they brokered the sale of my bike) was put some cheap flat pedals on, and gave me the pricy Look Keo pedals tied together with a zip tie so I could put them on later.

Hi all! I heard Gretchen mention 72 degrees and I hope that is heading east! Still lots of snow in the yard and we're hoping to be riding in a month here. (I've already seen some folks out there but the pot holes will swallow you and the gravel on the road is like death cookies on a ski slope.

I had my meeting with the ortho guy about my knee on Friday. I wish my outcome was more like Christine's....alas, no. I'm slated for an MRI on the 27th at 21:15 - yup, 9:15 in the PM! This will be to confirm the need for surgery....
Soooo, non-invasive and at least it's not ACL, MCL, or meniscus so that's a huge relief. i have "excessive lateral patellar compression syndrome." Basically the retinaculum (ligament -like tissue that attaches the outside of my knee cap to the base of my femur is extremely tight (always has been) and any time my knee bends it pulls my patella into the groove of the thigh bone. If you relax your leg and straighten it you can usually move your patella all over the place - mine can be moved up, down, and to the inside but barely at all to the outside. Mine is very exaggerated looking at the x-ray. Adding to this I have femoral antiversion (my femurs angle in slightly right from my hips - you often see people walk like a duck or are pigeon-toed - they have this). I have done enough PT that my feet stay straight.
So the potential surgery would be going in to sort of tease apart those ligament fibers (I don't think they outright cut it) to allow more play for the patella. If this is all it truly is, I have to do this if I want to run again apparently.

That's where I am - rethinking my race plans. So the June HIM is out - BUT!! - I can still do the Aqua bike for the same distances as for the HIM! That's good!! Even if I have the surgery, there is a good shot I'll be doing a sprint by mid-summer and an outside chance of the HIM on Labor Day (and I'm thinking worst case the Oly I did last year)! So all is not lost and I can keep up with 2/3 of the sport and slowly work in the running when this is resolved. I'll admit it sucked a little life out of me when I walked out to my car after the appointment but you figure out work-arounds and ways to keep trucking and things don't seem quite so bad. Besides, I still haven't had the mri and who knows - maybe it is bursitis after all and I'll be back at it sooner.

Swam Saturday for 2000, took yesterday off and was planning on 2500 swim for today - but after only 4 hours of sleep and a very jammed weekend and Monday I am going to bed early tonight and get my 2500 in tomorrow. I kind of feel that since I don't have the run piece anymore I am afforded a little wiggle room to take care of fatigue! LOL. I did miss one day of my plank and squat challenge so I'll have a - well, I only have Corona for a penalty. I guess the penalty will be not putting the lime in it. (the rest of my beers are all craft beers - about 4 different ones right now so Corona is the penalty).

Dave - I won't know about the NE Season-Opener now until last minute if they don't sell out. Who knows what the wind will bring....until spring and the farms start spreading....

My error, Nicole has the injured wing, not Christina! Sorry about that!

It went from cold to hot REALLY fast. It's 90 freakin' degrees freakin' F out today. What?
The overnight low on March 5-6 was -1F. Today it's 90.

*scratching head*

It'll drop back down to normal for the rest of the week (50's - 60's). I just hope that all of the single track gets dried out so I can trail run and mountain bike next weekend!!!

So, how did it go Christina?? Looking forward to hear!

Juan

I can understand that happy face in green after speaking with your doctor, good to hear!

Juan

Good luck on Friday Jenn, hope everything goes well! (I am impressed with your planning, even before knowing the veredict, you already readjusted your race calendar, I have a lot to learn....amazing!)

I tried to do some spinning after work, but the day was endless and got home too late to consider going to the gym... So let´s take it as an off-day, tomorrow will be another day!!

Kurt, it could be worse.. Down here in Louisiana, we've had quite a few days where it's been 80-85 mid day, and below freezing by midnight. It's HORRIBLE on your immune system and joints..

So I picked up the bike today, managed to fit her in the back of my mini Cooper(thank god for Tetris) and brought her to my LBS of choice..had him give her an inspection..tires and chain could use a replacement, as expected, and the rear break sticks a touch, he wasn't sure if it just needed lube or if it was the cabling. He recommended that I ride with just tennis shoes on the look pedals until at least got a few rides in to get used to it a bit...ended up buying a LG helmet and LG tri x speeds they had on sale, figured I was gonna need them anyway, and it would help build a little relationship with the shop.

Got the bike home, and after a little saddle height tweak, i rode about 10 miles around my neighborhood, getting used to turning, breaking, transitioning in an out of aero(holy shit scary at first..getting a tad more comfortable with it), and shifting..all I've gotta say is..JESUS this thing can move...I can't even imagine what a trained set of legs can do.

Sadly I had dinner plans tonight or I would have stayed out longer..definilty was feeling my legs from yesterday, but it was just so much fun..


Oh, did some arms at the gym today, they are replacing the floors, so they had everything crammed in half he usual space, so it was a good thing it was a quick day today.

I think it's beer:30 now though.

Jenn- sorry to hear about the diagnosis. You have an amazing attitude about it!

Pretty good. Running a big loop definitely made it more fun. Although I missed being able to exchange things in my car.
Towards the end my feet were really hurting and my left calf was starting to spasm when I ran up hill- as soon as I felt the twinge I started to walk. My calves/ shins are always my weak point so I was very careful.
Eating more definitely made a difference. I had 3 gels, one fig bar, a small Dr. Pepper and lots of water. Looking forward to not having to carry liquids on race day! Also listening to an entertaining show was super helpful.

Awesome! That's a great idea to just ride tennis shoes on the pedals. It's great that you love it and are excited about riding it- I think that's what it's all about.

Does anyone have suggestions for good podcasts?
I have very little patience for searching for them but I don't like to listen to music while I run. Mainly looking for things that are humorous and/or educational. (Which, I know, is just about all podcasts.)

Things I want to avoid:
~ obvious political bias (on either side)
~ accents
~ free-form, where people are just like shooting the breeze
~ anything overly earnest
~ interview shows where the host is always trying to show how smart he is

I listen to WMMR's Preston and Steve podcast from the local radio station. It's funny and fits your above requirements. It's way more on the humorous than educational side of things though. Give it a try. I just did 10 miles with them in my ear on Sunday.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wmmrs-preston-steve-podcast/id78...

Check-in: Workout 1 for the week. Did 1200 in the pool today. My daughter practically drug me out the door to go today again, I think I'll hire her as my physical trainer. I was planning on going anyway, but we got there early enough that I did some warm up on the bike. The legs were sore from yesterday so I wasn't going to do anything crazy. I just did a very low resistance warm up. I wasn't generating many watts so I'm not going to include it for the week, but I could have lit a few LED bulbs...

Strength Training I need the advice of the experts here. Let's just say that I want to dip my toe into the strength training waters. Can someone recommend some basic upper and lower body strength training exercises? Knowing myself, I'd like to start small with just a few exercises that I can add into my weekly routine. What are the most bang for the buck exercises when it comes to triathlon strength training? Oh, and just to be picky, let's leave squats off of this list since I don't think my left knee can take that.

Any ideas?

Charles - your swim is inspirational. Good work!

Geaux - love that you love the bike. That's how I felt with mine when I rode it the first time. Welcome to a new addiction.

Jenn - you attitude concerning the knee and the diagnosis is nothin short of awesome. Sad about the season opener though - was looking forward to a Switchback!

Christina - great form with the long run! I'm like you, calf and shin issues like crazy. Looking forward to long runs like that myself someday!

Oh a little late but Juan - thanks for the bike pic! That is one sexy ride.