Month: April 2024

Catching up again

I’ll talk about Thursday’s and today’s game a bit later.

Workout wise:

Thursday: pull ups total was about 55 reps in various sets

Downstairs for supersets: bench: 3 sets of 10 x 134 and a set of close grips with the Swiss bar.
deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184 low. Wagon wheel: 10 x 234, 10 x 250

high incline: 10 x 75, 10 x 84, 5 x 94 all with a yoga belt hugging me close.

Later: 3 mile commuter walk at 15:30 mpm, went well.

Friday: 5 miles in 1:15 (14:25) lower Bradley course. Pouring rain over lunch.

Saturday: PT, pull ups, walk, weights.

The pull ups: 10, 10 (really), 8 + 5, chin ups: 8 + 5, 8 then 3 (attempted 4) pause pull ups (pauses on the way up, top, on the way down)

Walk: 10K in 1:26:35 (hill course for the first 5: 1:10:30, then 1.2 campus loop)

Then downstairs: 10 x 134 bench (felt heavy), 5 x 145, 5 x 150, 5 x 150
Swiss bar: 7 x 134 Middle grip: 3 x 115 (bad; pain on the top of the shoulder), 4 x 94 (bad)
High incline: 7 x 94 yoga belt (slight slide out) ,4 x 94, with the thick belt, 10 x 80 thick belt
2 sets of curls.

Midweek catch up

Monday: My out and back hill course plus campus loop: 1:27:23 (14:06 pace) then a 1 mile commuter walk later
Tuesday: rainy 4.14 mile lower Bradley loop after lifting (14:23 pace)

Today (Wednesday) 5 hill Bradley course (1:11) 5.1 in 1:13:16 (14:22 pace) then a 2.24 mile commuter walk (15:35 pace)
I’ve had to watch scoliosis pain just a bit; the side McKenzie stretches have worked.

The weights yesterday:

Mixed pull ups with PT; 4 x 8 (pulls, then chins), 10 pull ups, 8 chin ups, then 3 pause pull ups (pauses up, top, down) and 2 pause chin ups)

High incline; NO CHEATING: 5 x 94, 4 x 105, 7 x 94, 5 x 94, 10 x 75 (most humbling)

Bench: 3 sets of 10 x 134 straight bar
Close grip: 2 sets of 10 x 64
curls 3 sets of 10

That was enough.

Toward the final week of class

I had time to make a baseball game: Bradley lost of Evansville 7-2, thereby getting swept. It has been a tough season.

The day, while chilly, was nicer than the day before.

Before that, I made time to do PT, do some deadlifts, and stroll 4.2 miles in 1:00:18 (14:20 pace; West Peoria plus campus loop); walk felt great.

The deadlifts went ok too; I was back to the “quivering legs.”
Warm up: 10 x 94, 10 x 134, 10 x 190 low

Work sets: 3 sets of 5 x 225 low (a bit disappointed that these were not easier)

Wagonwheel (4.25 inch advantage) 5 x 250, 5 x 250, 10 x 250 (felt it); idea was to not cheat by bouncing reps. These felt fine.

Other: the back had started to act a bit differently: more numbness in the left leg, less ache in the back, and the walking is going very well. I found that scoliosis stretches work well.

The Rogue Wagonwheel: it does not eat up a lot a sleeve length on the trap bar, and will leave room for 6 more 45’s on each side. In theory, you can fit 724 lb on the bar.

Repping out…

Yes, Bradley lost 6-1 in a game that was never close. BU didn’t play poorly in the field; they simply got outhit.

Now before the game, I did the work.

Usual PT; though I started PT with outside psoas marches and 4 sets of monster walks: 1 with the loose band, 2 with the tight ones, and 1 with double. In between: 8 pull ups, 8 chin ups, 7 pull ups, 7 chin ups, 6 pull ups, 6 chin ups.

Inside for the lying PT, then 8 more pull ups (filmed); more inside PT then 8 more pull ups (band to keep legs from spreading) Then 3 pause pull ups, 2 pause chin ups. (63 total reps)

Downstairs. Bench press:

10 x 134, 3 sets (tons of rest) of 5 x 155 (these were HARD).
Swiss bar: 7 x 134 regular, then 10 x 94 middle grip, then a weird set of 3, 3, 2 x 94 narrow grip (hurt the deltoid) then 10 x 64 narrow (felt much better).

High incline: big change here:

10 x 94, then 9 x 105 regular technique. Noticed that my hips were away from the support.

So 2 x 110 strict, the n 5 x 94 strict. I’ll have to lessen the weight I use.

3 sets of 10 curls.

That was probably my most thorough upper body session in a while.

Afterward, I walked my 5.15 mile course in cool temperatures: 56:30 at 4 (42:50 at 3) and I finished the 5.15 in 1:11:41; kind of crowded everywhere.

Keeping on keeping on

Well, this academic year is almost over. I have enjoyed working with the students. That is as much as I can say.

Today: had a hard time sleeping, so I had extra time for PT (few more monster walks) and pull ups:

4 sets of 8, (alternating sets of chins and pull ups), 8 pull ups, 5 pull ups, 5 chin ups, then 3 pause chin ups.

downstairs to superset.

Deadlifts (low) 10 x 134, 10 x 184, then 10 x 204 (trying to NOT bounce the weights…VERY humbling)

wagon wheel: 10 x 234 (no bounce)

bench: 10 x 134, 3 sets of 8 x 145

high incline: 3 sets of 10 x 94

curls: 3 sets of 10.

Over lunch I walked 5K at 15:55 mpm (commuter walk; just toured campus and the neighborhood and dodged showers.

I am still having left leg symptoms; tingling and superficial numbness. These are not new but I am noticing them more. Walking: slightly stiffer than normal. But thankfully, that stabbing glute pain appears to be history.

This and that

I seem to have had some small success with doing scoliosis stretches, so I should keep them up.

Usual PT (ok, some plus) then my “lower Bradley loop plus 2.05 out and back on Moss) course in 1:26:24 (14:17 pace; a little stiff at times) then a painless commuter walk of 1.07 miles.

I have to decide on whether or not to do a long walk every week; maybe this May.

Neo-toddlerism

This observation struck me as interesting:

And this is part of it; You can act up to your heart’s content! You are merely expressing yourself! And how DARE you be subject to consequences!

This is one of the January 6’th rioters…hey, can’t you just storm the Capitol if you want to?

And we are seeing this in some of the current protests.

These wankers are not drawing attention to their cause; they are drawing attention to THEMSELVES, just like a toddler. Here: Humphreys talks about voting, but mentions protests.

Another aspect of toddler-ism, at least in my opinion, is the idea that other people are merely props for one’s existence and entertainment.

Here some idiotic prankster (someone who hassles others just for laughs) gets shot..and the shooter was let go! My feeling is that people are just sick of these idiots.

And lately, at least in gym communities, there has been pushback against those who film in gyms…and expect everyone else to clear out for them.

I don’t know if such incidents of self absorption are more frequent nowdays (due to the “influencer culture”) or that we just hear more about them.

Oh yes, I film myself while working out, but mostly that is to check myself for form errors or to see if I am damaging my back further. I have very poor body awareness. I doubt that my sorry performances awe anyone.

Feeling good..sort of

This was sort of a weird day. I seem to have mostly on but sometimes off numbness in my left leg; this is consistent with S1 nerve root impingement. Doing scoliosis stretches seems to help it.

The workout itself went fine: pull ups: 4 sets of 8, PT inside, 5’th set of 8, 5 chins, 5 chins, then 3 pause pull ups. Note: the first 4 sets of 8 were pull, pull, chin, chin.

Downstairs:

high incline: 5 x 94, 5 x 105, 3 sets of 5 x 120 (lots of rest; these were hard)

superset curls (3 sets of 10) and bench presses: 9, 10, 10 x 134.

Then a 4.18 mile walk; basically my 4 mile lower loop course (42:06 at 3, 55:48 at 4) then to Bradley Ave and back. That went GREAT.

But at the end of the day: too much sitting lead to numbness and tingles.

Why this blog has gotten so boring

In my previous blog life, I used to write about a lot of things. Now I rarely do. Frankly, I see little point in it.

Yes, things are happening and I have opinions on some of those things. Ok, i have opinions on many of them. But I rarely express them in public anymore.

It appears as if the online community has become polarized to the extent that even deviations in thought…and I mean, in “thought”..not in actual preferred actionable policy, are greeted with cursing, cries of “bigotry”, etc. It appears to be all “politics by meme” or “politics by slogan” now.

So, any meaningful online discussion is all but dead for me.

Workout notes: Well, I did my 5.2 mile course (lower Bradley Park plus campus loop) in 1:12:56; just a hair over 14 minutes per mile with the final 2.2 done in just under 30 minutes (13:36 pace) Later: 2.2 miles at 16:37 in glorious weather; both walks were painless though the back got tired from sitting.

All good things must come to an end..eventually.

I watched my 5’th Chiefs game of the season..and saw my first loss: 9-4. The Chiefs started off on fire: first at bat was a triple, home run and a single. But eventually Beloit rallied and had a 5 run and 3 run inning to win 9-4. The Chiefs committed 3 errors and lost a key fly ball in the sun (with bases loaded, no less).

The upside is that, while the crowd was not large, it was the largest of the young season (save the education day game), and it was “Bark in the Park” Sunday.

Last night, the Chiefs won convincingly, 3-0 behind outstanding pitching.

Workout notes PT, deadlifts, flat 4 mile walk (4.3 in 1:02:08; 14:27 pace). I started off slowly; 30:15 after the brick street neighborhood in West Peoria.

Warm: in the upper 70’s at that time, to reach 80’s during the game.

Before the walk:

low: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 5 x 225 (easy), 5 x 240 (hard, sloppy)
Wagon wheel: 5 x 250, 5 x 260 (I think the wagon wheels discourage bouncing making these more honest)

6 inch (big trap bar) 5 x 280 (easy), 4 x 300 (hard).