Month: July 2020

And this is why I am not a libertarian

Yes, I confess to having a “leave me alone” streak. But also, well, I believe that a modern society has to work for the vast majority of people to remain a humane society.

So let’s take this current COVID 19 pandemic. Take schools. Yes, kids can spread the virus.

Yes, teachers and staff will be at risk being cooped up in a room full of these spreaders, and let’s face it, our buildings don’t have the best circulation.

But parents: these-a-days, it is often the case that both parents have to work…so what then?

And let’s talk work: much of the spread is in the work place. And there are only so many jobs that can be done remotely, and not everyone has proper broadband that is usable for work and education. It we could really lock down, save a few essential services, we’d be done with this a lot quicker.

So many who rent..well, can’t make rent. But to allow evictions..where do they go? But landlords..and many are good ones have bills to pay too. What about them?

The list goes on and on.

In my opinion, this is a time where a functioning government can just view COVID19 as a threat, just like a warring country, and, well, PAY PEOPLE TO STAY HOME.

But, well, that goes against just about every American instinct of “either work or you are a slacker.” Add that to the NO ONE TELLS ME WHAT TO DO…

And you get what we have. And compared to the rest of the developed world, it kind of sucks.

I know that the American attitude can be beneficial at times (e. g. we have excellent freedom of speech laws) but at times like these it can really hurt.

Workout notes:
Weights only. Over slept and ended up feeling great.

usual warm up
pull ups: 5, 10, 10, 10, 5, 5, then 10 singles (high quality to make up for some sloppy “set of 10” reps.
bench press: 10 x 132, 3 sets of 5 x 176 (surprised me)
seated shoulder: 10 x 70, 10 x 82, 10 x 82
trap rows: 3 sets of 10 x 132
outdoor: shoulder press: 7 x 44, 10 x 40, 10 x 40
rows: 3 sets of 10 x 60 single arm.
Push ups: 30, 20

About 80 minutes.

Changing it up a little

Weights only; then some work on my paper..

usual warm up
pull ups (and chins) 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 10, 5, 5, then 10 singles with short rests. Varied the grip throughout. This “fat bar” is killing me.

bench presses: 10 x 132, 4 x 176, 4 x 176, 10 x 154 super set with
hex bar rows: 8 x 134, 145, 150
seated shoulder press: 3 sets of 10: 70, 79. 88
hex bar deadlifts: 10 x 184, 10 x 217 (tough)
push ups: 30 (challenging)

Took: 80 minutes, with warm up. (15 minutes). Why this routine takes me so long I do not know.

COVID19
Yes, Louie Gohmert was COVID positive. Yes, he has a bout a 2-3 percent risk of death, and no, I do not wish that on him. He has a somewhat greater chance of serious illness. But the fact is that he spread it to others while disdaining the use of masks.

I sure hope that the stubborn take this to heart.

Columbus: yes we have a Columbus statue in a nearby park. And, well, I discovered that I don’t know much about him. I will ask the history professors for references (reliable popular books) I have no interest in being “educated” by some “activist” whose main credential is their self confidence.

I am pretty sure that this isn’t accurate:

Back at it

I did have a pleasant surprise; as I was heading up Heading I saw Tracy just prior to mile 2 of my walk. So I joined her and we did miles 3, 4, 5 together.

1:58:28 for 14:47 mpm; note the 15:56 and the dip/increase in the heart rate right around the time I had a 15:56 mpm average mile; that was the cemetery hill. The 3 miles with Tracy were just a bit painful for some reason; the pain settled down when I walked on my own and before..I am sure it is posture related in one way or another.

The cult of selfishness is harming the USA

Ok, let me admit that I am part of the problem as well, and I am probably blind to what I do.

But, unsurprisingly, it is easy for me to see that I don’t like in others.
Yes, I am talking about many conservatives, as outlined here.
Just think of how far along we’d be if we masked up, practiced social distancing, and if we accepted that there was a time and place for the government to help out; during this time, more people should be staying home and, well, workers need pay, businesses need that lost capital, people don’t need to be evicted and landlords need to meet expenses too. There is a time and place to pay for the public good.

But this is far from one sided. These massive protests ARE spreading events and I completely get (and share) the resentment many have about the media not treating it that way:

And of course, if these protesters want to block roads they should have the right to do so..and to get the police involved when the protesters are not obeyed:

I’m just completely disgusted with our country on the whole..it isn’t just a “left/right” issue. It is the old “don’t tell me what to do” and “you should do what I say”, taken to extremes.

Introspection is in short supply.

Oh well…let me change what I can change and let me do my job honestly.

Workout notes
weights only. The workout took 85 minutes from the start of warm ups until the last weights were put away.

warm up
pull ups: these were hard at first: 4 sets of 5, sloppy set of 10, 4 sets of 5, then 5 chin ups at a later time.
bench press: 10 x 132, 4 x 181 (not bad), 3 x 181, 10 x 159
trap bar squat: 2 sets of 10 x 134, really focusing on keeping the shoulders above the hips..trying to really keep this a squat.
one armed row: 3 sets of 10 x 60
standing shoulder presses: 3 sets of 10 x 44 dumbbells
push ups: 25, 20, 15 (these went ok)

Getting my goat

I had a nice week of workouts and it finally got to me. Today’s workout was simple: 4 mile walk to Dozer Park (where the Chiefs play) and back; 17 minute pace average. Butt hurt a bit; probably due to the slower pace.

I just had zilch in the tank. I had figured it would be that after yesterday when it went so well.

Social: Yes, I am voting Biden all the way, etc. No doubt. But I can see why the left wing turns off so many people.
Yes, COVID is beating us up; too many are not taking it seriously. Yes, the ignorant and the MUH FREEDUMS people have a lot of blame here. but so do those on the left. Yes, protests are contributing to the spread. Yes, it is hard to pin down to what degree they are contributing to it, but, well, check out the risk charts. Yes, outdoors but a lot of yelling and not much social distancing.

And I wonder that some of these..many of these…are really just ego trips for the protesters?

And yes, even if many of the protesters are young and it is open air, etc., and yes, the mortality rate for the young is low, the severely affected rate is NOT low.

Our whole country..the I AM RIGHT AND THE OTHER IS WRONG and YOU CAN”T TELL ME WHAT TO DO..is indeed bipartisan. Cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy is bipartisan.

Garmin vs. Strava distance

My workout, which I was pleased with, is at the end.
But with Garmin being down due to a ransomware attack I got a chance to see what Strava would do with the same data points that Garmin connect uses.

This is the course in question. On Thursday, I did this course 3 times then a bit extra. The Garmin measured it as 6.3 miles and Strava got this at 6.4 with the same data points that the Garmin used.
Here is the Strava output, which includes the extra partial loop.

The time before, Garmin measured these two loops as follows:

Strava gave me 4.3 on the same data:

Now look at today’s walk, where the Garmin and Strava got the same mileage with the same data points:

6.22 (which is what the Garmin showed).

So, why the difference?

(yes, this is based on only a few outputs)

First note that there was a time when the outputs were all but identical. That tells me it is NOT “round off” error (e. g. one program carrying more digits than another).

But note when I had a different number: the lines are all “wiggly.” Reason: the two that were different were weekday morning walks; there was much more traffic. I made course corrections to avoid other runners, pedestrians and vehicles on the road.

Today’s trek was on a less crowded day: note the lack of “wiggles” in my path.

My inference: the difference is in how the algorithm connects the dots. First of all, each “dot” is really just an intersection of lines from different satellite signals and those lines of intersection form a polygon rather than an exact point.

The centers of these “polygons” formed by the signal lines determine your position points. So, what to do with these position points?

The crudest way is to draw a straight line path between these points (black). One can select the points in batches and fit different sorts of curves by either a spline or by a least squares principle.

Here, I approximated paths by cubic splines between each group of 3 points and one that uses all 5 points (but doesn’t quite cut through all of them.)

But one gets different distances when one uses a different “curve fitting” algorithm, and it is my guess that Strava algorithm fits curves through more of the points than the Garmin algorithm. And the difference is less when the curve has less “wiggle” to it (in math terms: smaller magnitudes for the second derivative).

Anyway, that is my guess.

My workout: I warmed up my glutes and back..(15 minutes)

Deadlifts (low handles, trap bar): 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 5 x 228, 3 x 250, 5 x 233 NO BOUNCED REPS. Note: this might not seem like much but at this time last year, I couldn’t get 225 for a single rep.
Then the walk:

It was 81 F at the start, 84 F at the end, 69 percent humidity. That is warm for us.

No glute pain. Not much knee pain either.

Getting the timing down

80 minutes; that is how long everything (from pre workout PT to putting up the weights) took, and it was a bit reduced.

PT before hand (I can do this right after I get up)
pull ups: (with rotator cuff/hip hike recoveries: 5, 5, 7, 8, 7, 5, 5, 5, 3, 5, 3 ) trying to keep quality; some questionable reps on the set of 8, penalty set and some chins.
bench press: 10 x 132, 4 x 181, 3 x 181, 3 x 181
trap bar rows: 8 x 134 (one set)
outdoor shoulder press: 44 dumbbells: 3 sets of 10 x 44
outdoor one arm rows: 4 sets of 10 x 60
push ups (deficit) 2 sets of 20, 2 of 10 (challenging)
headstand

It really does not seem like it should take that long.

Why it matters if others wear a mask if you are wearing one

I am going to treat this as an honest question. If you want the “full science” answer, go here.

The quick and dirty: we get COVID19 when we inhale (or intake) droplets carrying the virus. The probability of getting infected goes up with the amount of virus we intake…yes, that means we can be exposed and not get infected. But the chances of getting infected go up with “dose” (amount of virus) we inhale …”more virus” means “higher chance of getting infected.”

Masks absorb the droplets that carry the virus. It doesn’t absorb ALL of them it it absorbs a high percentage of them.

Now think about how COVID19 gets spread: it starts with the infected person spreading droplets (sneeze, cough, breathing).
If the infected person is wearing a mask, the absorption is at the source. The mask is in a position to catch many of the droplets before they get out.

Now the non-infected person wearing the mask will have some of the “droplets in the air” filtered out by the mask..but the mask isn’t in position to catch as many as it can when the infected person is wearing it.

Still, the wearer gets their risk reduced.

When both the infected and non-infected person are wearing the mask, there is a series protection effect; the droplets have to pass through two barriers, not one. The droplets carrying the virus have to run the gauntlet twice, not just once.

For each virus carrying droplet, that is two barriers to elude, not just one. And the probabilities of getting through multiply.

Example: if a droplet has a 20 percent chance of getting through a mask, it has a .2^2 = .04 = 4 percent chance of getting through two masks.

Ha ha..nerds will find a way.

Yes, Garmin is undergoing a loss of service attack.
But the workaround works just fine.

These mile splits are a bit better than what the watch showed. No miles over 15 minutes! I knew I had a decent walk, though, yes, I know, this was my “easy long pace” walk in times past. I was just glad to do it without glute pain; posture improvement is helping as are the pre walk exercises.

Afterward: 195.5. Slight “heaviness” in the knee.