Beer Drinkers' Appreciation Society (BDAS) 2020 Version - ALWAYS OPEN (Page 7)

Yup, another one. For those not keeping score at home, about 18 months ago I rolled my right ankle, resulting in an avulsion fracture on the side of my foot (so although rolled ankle, injured foot) I've re-aggravated that injury twice since then, by rolling the ankle again, most recently early December mid way through a half marathon (which I have just got over in the last week or 2 BTW) And of course, I rolled the left ankle last Wednesday for 4 times in about a year and a half. FWIW, prior to the first one of this string of injuries, I've never had any issues with my ankles before. So I'm blaming it all on clumsiness/dumb luck.

My ankle was feeling better Friday, but on the weekend it flared up again. Not constant, unwalkable pain, but regular reminders that there is something not right there. And that was just walking around the house, let alone trying to run or bike. I'm thinking that the little bit of extra compression shoes and socks offered at work Friday was the difference compared to jandals (flip flops) on the weekend.

So, after having a very long 'sh*t's getting real* discussion with Mrs Bullfrog, we have decided to defer till 2021. I've put in the paper work with Ironman (haven't heard back yet, but should be no issues)

The rolled ankle by itself isn't the reason for deferral. It's more the final straw. Although I am very happy with my last 6 months training, especially the 80:20 training plan I have been following for the last 15 weeks, the 2 years before that was not good, and that lack of a huge base is hurting me. If I'm honest with myself I'm not where I wanted/expected to be at this stage. And best case scenario I was heading for another midnight finish. With a real possibility of DNF (although I do believe I was on track to finish). And that was before the latest injury. After the last time I told the family: 'I've proven I can suffer through a 17 hour Ironman, I don't need to do that again. Next time I want to finish in daylight' And I was definitely not going to meet that.

My weight is also a problem, and despite saying I wasn't going to do an Ironman that heavy again, I was on track to hit race day heavier. Proving again, you can't out train your diet!

So adding an injured ankle to that, which would hamper my training for an unknown amount of the peak training weeks was the last nail in the coffin. It's not a decision I enjoyed making, or one I'm happy about. But I know that it is the smart decision.

So, going forwards, after giving both ankles some time to be properly healed (and I've finished sulking), the plan is to continue training like I have been for the last 6 months, averaging 7-8 hours a week for the next year and put myself in a position to do an Ironman I can be really proud of. Because Mrs Bullfrog has told me to enjoy this one, because it will be a long, long time till I do another. Haha.

The exact details are still to come, as this decision has just been made. But I will do a few events this year to help with the motivation. But drop back from the 3 hour plus workouts for now, so that I can really focus on dropping some weight in the first half of the year.

Sorry for the long, self indulgent post. But writing this all out is kind of helping me work through things. Hope everyone had a better weekend than I did.

TLDNR: IronmanNZ has been deferred from 2020 till 2021.

Sorry to hear that Andrew, never fun to make that kind of decision. Although, after reading the whole post, it seems to me that ankle injury is a blessing in disguise. Gives you time to lose weight, get into shape and do more than finish your IM next year!

Gretchen,7 laps per mile track? 1:10 on It? Were you dizzy at the end? I would have thrown up! Would rather run outside personnally but well done!

Feeling a little off (itchy throat, and some pain in the ear that’s not quite right) so I ditched my masters swim yesterday and went for a gentle walk/jog with the dog instead. Also did not ride on Saturday (other than with the dog)

I probably won’t swim tonight either but hoping to do the rest of the week as planned.

Tough call Andrew, but it sounds like you made the right decision. Use it as a wakeup call. Give your ankles time to heal, then get your training & nutrition on point.

Gretchen, 7 laps per mile! I think I'd rather be running on a treadmill! (And I hate treadmills)

My 5k Saturday was fun. Or as my wife and I decided, it sucked until the finish, then it was fun. I broke my (last years) goal of a sub 25 min 5K, with a finish time of 24:56! Look out 22:00, here I come!

Did a quick ride to try out a new saddle, not sure if the new one is a winner, but its soo much better than the old one.

Sunday was an easy 10 mi run, and this morning I did 2k at the pool. (Who else here would see a workout for 1900m and say 'yah I'm just going to turn that into to 2k?')

I'm getting back into the rhythm of training and its feeling good.

Congrats Riles!

Andrew- what a bummer! But sounds like a good choice.

I got a run in today and yesterday swam 500 since we stopped at the hot springs pool after my daughter’s Nordic race. My shoulders felt sore- probably from climbing the over water climbing wall in a challenge from my daughter (and yes I rang the bell at the top :-)

Goals for the week are 2 runs, 2 bikes and stretch goal of a swim.

Me too, I like round numbers!

Sappho, I envy you playing rugby. One of the sports I would have loved to try at least once. Too late now, my days of fun sports (ie involving a ball) are behind me. I never thought I would enjoy tris as much as I loved team sports.... and I don’t, but I am having fun, especially doing my favourite part of the sport: shopping! My new bike has arrived at the shop and I’m picking it up tomorrow.

https://www.scott-sports.com/se/en/product/scott-foil-20-bike?articl...

Hi guys, I'm hoping I can re-join. Here's the bio...not much has changed over the past few years.

NAME: Jenn (aviatrix802)


STORY: 49.5 years old (yeah...closing in on that big 5-0. I did my first tri probably in 2014? I started off with sprints and Olys then the following year did Oly’s and was signed up for Tupper Lake Toughman Tinman HIM but tweaked my knee so switched to Aquabike that year. 2016 I did Tupper Lake Tinman again to prep for IMMT. I went up to Mont Tremblant a few times to train on course (so beautiful) and went into IMMT well prepared. Horrible weather that year (race was almost canceled), wound up getting hypothermia and dropped 60 miles into the bike. I was racing well so it was a HUGE disappointment. Two weeks later I did Big George HIM in Lake George, NY because I was so mad. Haha. Felt great, got 2nd in my age group and destroyed my left piriformis in the process. I took 2017, 18, and 19 off from racing from that injury and it’s been a very slow comeback and I’m not in nearly the shape I used to be. I was supposed to do IMLP this past summer after deferring in 2018 due to a death in the family but work duties precluded me from training adequately so that was $$ down the drain. I'm looking at redemption for my hypothermia from 2016 so I'm going back to Mont Tremblant again this summer, such a beautiful course.

FAMILY STATUS: married, 2 boys (12 & 14), and a 13.5 year old dog named Starsky

CURRENT TRAINING: I’m following the Be Iron Fit program again as it prepared well before. I will likely incorporate all three plans they have throughout just due to my schedule (competitive or intermediate) when I can, but at least the Just Finish. My goal this year with crazy schedules is to just finish. I'm debating if I bring a coach in at some point just to help figure out my work schedule and fitting workouts in but honestly I don't know it would help.

THIS YEAR'S RACES: A-Race: IMMT in late August, B race: maybe Tupper Lake Tinman again in late June

UPCOMING YEAR'S GOALS: This year I’ll just try to be consistent as best I can with some kind of training. Eating right could also be a challenge as well on the road.


WHAT WILL MAKE ME A GOOD MENTEE: I will be a good mentee because I come from the land of craft beers. Hahaha. I love to read up and follow others’ progress and be their cheerleader when needed. I have a little bit of experience in different length tri’s and can pass along tidbits of things I’ve learned along the way and by the same token am always looking to learn more.

Edit to include favorite beers!! How could I have forgotten that???... bad mentee.. : I love our local Switchback Ale as an easy drinking, go-to beer apres ski or any time. I love Porters, heffe weissen, ales, a couple of fruity beers (blueberry ones out of Maine), pretty much anything except overly hoppy IPA's. (yeah, Heady Topper is not my favorite...shame since it's made in my backyard).

Edited by aviatrix802 2020-01-20 1:48 PM

Nice to have you here Jenn. I will also celebrate my 25th this year....

The 25th anniversary of my 25th birthday that is....

Hard to believe

Andrew, that was a hard decision to make but it sounds like you really took the time to go through everything to come to the final choice, so it's the right one at this moment in time. You've already started building that base again so that is something more in your toolbox for next year, keep it up!
I look forward to hearing about your progress.

haha, I love this! I've been saying this year I've been celebrating the 20th anniversary of my 29th birthday! That 5-0 scares me just a little bit. Ack!

round numbers = mental happiness.

Holy smokes, that's great! Good for you!

Whoop, whoop!!! Bring it! Crush it!

I use a Garmin 920xt and it feeds to Strava, MFP, MapMyRun, Training Peaks, Trainer Road and soon if I join..Zwift. I also have PowerTap pedals and last year received a Wahoo Kick'r for Christmas but have literally been on it maybe 4 times due to being out of town so much (though I plan to use it this afternoon).
Speaking of which, does anyone else use Zwift here? I know some swear by it for boredom's sake but I'm thinking TrainerRoad would be better for actually improving my cycling. (or even Sufferfest).

Okay, now that you're all post-weary of me, I'm pretty well caught up with everyone's posts.
Last week I managed a couple of trainer rides out on the road (thankful for spin bikes and pelotons at hotels) and a couple of runs. I was getting over this now three week long cold and it crushed me when I tried to stay in zone 2 on my runs - heart rate would spike, I'd hack up a lung, all the glory. I'm finally relatively caught up on sleep from last week and am heading down to try and figure out this Zwift thing for a bit before I take the 12 year old to swim practice (at which time I'll run over to my gym and get a very short swim in). My "official" training plan starts next Monday and I'm not quite where I'd like to be fitness-wise for the start of that, but I can't do much about that at this point.

Gretchen, what's the date of your race, mine is August 23rd. I'll be cheering you on as we progress through this at roughly the same time. I will live training through you vicariously as you will be much more regimented than I can be.

MiTi is Aug 16, so we’ll be quite close all summer!

Haha yes, these were relays for middle distance runners. It's actually pretty big over here. There is a meet called Penn Relays that takes place at University of Pennyslvania each year, and the 4x800 is probably the biggest race of the meet. It's a fun race because since it's a little longer, a lot can change with each leg, but it's not too long that people get bored. Overall it probably takes about 8 1/2-9 minutes, give or take.

Andrew, sorry to hear you had to make that tough decision, but it ultimately sounds like the best decision for you. You will crush it next year!

Jenn, welcome back!

I had a pretty lovely weekend. Saturday, went to master's practice and got in close to 3k yds in an hour. 21 x 100 yds on 2 minutes...ouch.
Yesterday got in a 30 minute treadmill run before I taught a few swim lessons. I also did a ton of cleaning, which feels really good to have done (although there is still lots more to do).
I also threw some axes a few times!

Well, Ironman have responded and the deferral is now accepted and official. Thanks everyone for the support.

Yes, I agree that although disappointing today, in the long run deferral is likely going to be a blessing in disguise.

I've spent the last couple of days planning out some events for the year, still have to get a sign off from Mrs Bullfrog, but I should have a fun year regardless.

Ankle update, no ibuprofen today, still strapped up, but no pain. There is still swelling however. Planning on a swim tomorrow, and if that goes well maybe an easy spin on the bike. Very much in taking things easy mode.

Now that is hard core... But as per the discussion about not stopping at 1900m, why oh why wasn't it 20 x 100? Round numbers are the best.

Congratulations on the 5km time. Great to reach your goals.

What sort of saddle have you switched too? With my new found extended time frame till race day I'm thinking about trying a split nose option.

What tech do I use.

I have a Garmin 920xt which I wear 24/7.
I pair it with a Wahoo TICKR Fit optical HRM for running and biking, chest HRM's never really worked for me, I would always get crazy high (like 250bpm+) readings. I find the optical is much better.

That said, running I use target paces (derived from 5km TT's) as my main gauge, and just keep an eye on the heart rate.
Biking, almost all my bike training for the last few years has been indoors, on a spin bike rather than road bike and trainer due to noise levels, I use heart rate for longer intervals/steady efforts. and RPE for short high intensity efforts. A power meter would be ideal, but the budget hasn't stretched that far yet.

No zwift or Trainer Road for me. I use workouts from the 80:20 training book, programmed into my Garmin and watch TV while riding. In this just abandoned Ironman training cycle I've decided up to about 90 minutes inside is OK. But longer than that is a struggle. My longest time on the spin bike was 4 hours, next time round that will be outside on a real bike... if only for the enjoyment factor.

My main training log is on RunningAhead.com it's got about 10 years worth of workouts in it now, so I will keep using it. The Garmin syncs here, to strava and MyFtinessPal, automatically. BT and Strava both have some nice features, but if it wasn't automatic I wouldn't bother. and of course MFP is for counting calories, which is something I haven't paid enough attention too.

Andrew- I’d love to hear more about your spin bike vs. trainer decision (also everyone else). I have a $20 yard sale exercise bike and an old magnetic trainer - both of which are crazy loud. I like to watch tv and ride in my basement- but I have to turn it up ridiculously loud.

I’ve been thinking of upgrading to something quieter- but can’t decide between a spin bike and a trainer. I’m leading towards a spin bike because the whole family could use it and my daughter likes to come down to my pain cave and work out with me.

25 minutes on the trainer and after bringing youngest to his swim practice I ran 2 miles on the indoor track and hopped in the pool for 1000 yds - then went to pick him up from practice.