Day: January 12, 2020

Not getting it…

Liberals aren’t good at marketing. Yes, one might argue that is ad is intended to get other liberals to contribute to the “Ditch Mitch” campaign.

But I’d imagine that this would be counterproductive, especially when shown in Kentucky. Hint: Samantha Bee and Trevor Noah probably won’t convince many Kentuckians; this is a bit like trying to convince San Francisco people to vote against a Democrat …by quoting Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

We just don’t get it.

Others do; there are Republican strategists who hate Trump and are trying to help us learn to win elections. This is an excellent article by Rick Wilson on “how to run against the devil.”

Along those lines: the humanities are suffering badly and this article links to a free Chronicle of Higher Education special on the death knell of the humanities. I am sure the problem is deep and has multiple causes, but one thing strikes me: will students and parents want to fork over 6 digits worth of tuition in order to learn how to be offended?

Yes, classical humanities has quite a bit to offer, especially as small as the world has become. But I worry that the outside reputation of the humanities is that it is mostly a bastion of wokeness.. place to learn about the 37+ gender pronouns and the plight of transgender males who suffer through periods.

Bradley men and women pull away for big wins

Friday: the women hosted a tough Illinois State team that boasted a 10-3 record coming in, which included a blowout of the University of Illinois in Champaign.

And the game WAS close for 3 quarters; at the end of 3 Bradley lead 57-56. But then came the 4’th quarter and the Bradley defense was magnificent; they went on a 13-1 run and ended up with a 76-61 victory over a very good team.

ISU brought some fans and the decent weather helped; it was a nice atmosphere.

Related note: my wallet fell out of my pants but a friend found it and turned it in..so I got it back with everything intact.

Sunday: dreadful weather; the snow and ice hit right in the late afternoon/early evening..before the plows and salt trucks could do their work.

The result was a smaller than usual crowd by the standards of this season (but in line with the crowds when Bradley was losing)

Note: the “fake sad look” is part of a Facebook joke about being “stood up.” In reality Barbara felt ill and wasn’t up for going to the game.

And like the women; the men started slowly, going down 29-26 at the half. But like the women, they rallied strongly in the second half and shot the ball much better. The final was 67-48. The star guard had 21, a forward had 16 and the 6 11″ center had 11 rebounds and 5 of the 9 BU blocked shots.

Things got a bit chippy after this late game dunk; there was some jawing and the BU player got a technical.

sadly, toward the end of the first half, a SIU player was injured during a collision; just as he was planting his foot the back of his ankle/achilles area got stepped on (unintentionally); you could hear is moaning in the stands. It seemed as if the air in the SIU sails vanished after that; up to then they were playing well.

Sports: my recurring delusions

Workout notes: slippery outside.

So I walked 6 miles on the treadmill in 1:15:55; mile 5 was 1:23:52 and the last mile was 12:03.
That walking workout was FASTER than my alleged “run” of similar distance yesterday..though to be fair, yesterday’s slog was on a tough course in the rain. And I also had an extra day of rest from a tough (for me) hex-bar deadlifting session on Friday.

2020 looks like this so far: 28 miles for the previous week. That should move up, though it will be tricky so long as I am working the dead lift in. I also plan to work in barbell shoulder presses, but that shouldn’t affect running at all.

Delusions I have ordered a pair of bumper plates (45 lb plates) and a trap bar (or hex bar) for my basement..well..lifting area.

(this one)

That isn’t delusional of me; this will help give my workouts flexibility and I do use the trap bar (handles down). I love using it.

Here is what is delusional: I read the reviews (almost all positive) but one said that one weakness was the the sleeves were too short to hold more than three 45 lb bumper plates on each side.
(hint: that means: 314 lb on the bar, as the bar is 44 lb.)

I thought: “well, if that is a problem, I can order some of those precision, thin powerlifting 45 or 55 lb. plates.”

Heck,I could hold 8-9 55 lb. plates on each side!

Then reality got back to me; I realized that this is a strictly intellectual exercise..unless I was planning on having an NFL lineman as my house guest.

What I have in my basement plus the new plates would give me..yes, up to 1 45 bumper, 1 44 cast iron, and 2 22 lb iron plates on each side; the bar WILL hold that many and if I ever work up to needing more than that (highly unlikely but a guy can dream), I’ll treat myself to these precision thin plates.

For now, I”ll focus on adding 5 lb at a time starting with my current 245. And I imagine on the days I do NOT go to the gym, I’ll be using not much more than the new 45 lb bumper and the 2 22 lb. iron plates for now.

Note: this is a photo of a strongman deadlift with the elephant bar; note the “deep dish” 45 lb. plates.

This is a heavy deadlift with the thin plates

And just for the heck of it, these are the old school, old thick 100 lb. metal plates:

insidepowerlifting

these are the thick bumper plates.

This is the trap bar deadlift with bumper plates (though I use “handles facing down” so I have to bend my knees more) and, as you can see, you run run of sleeve room for plates on certain hex bars. IF that becomes a problem for me, I’ll treat myself to a set of 4 55 lb thin plates (and that probably will never happen)