Well, Thanksgiving travel will be a mess, so we might leave Friday night for Champaign, then Indianapolis on Sunday. We shall see.
Personal: interestingly enough, we bought a new car on Friday, picked it up on Monday, and found out today (Wednesday) that we had the wrong vehicle: we did not have the hybrid we paid for. We found that out when the dealer called us! So, it is all straight now: another hassle.
Workout notes:
Monday: weights and a commuter walk; the bench press was interesting: 10 x 134, then 4 x 150, 3 sets of 5 x 150 all with the Swiss bar. Then 10 x 94, 7 x 105, 7 x 105 high incline..and of course the usual “bunch of sets of 6”: 53 total reps of pull ups
Tuesday: 10k walk (usual course) in 1:35:37 (15:25 pace); wet pavement. Of interest: I was at 1:04:11 with 2.2 miles to go but only needed 31:26 for the final 2.2 (on much flatter ground)
Today: leisure: 2 mile commuter walk after my chore. Before: 5 sets of 6, set of 10 (almost), 3 penalty, 2 sets of 6 so 55 total reps. 10 x 134 Swiss, 3 close grip sets (94, 105, 105). High incline: 10 x 94, 10 x 94, 5 x 115. Wagon wheel: 3 sets of 10 x 200.
Wednesday: 2 mile commuter walk; weights included some deadlifts Thursday: 5.14 at 14:53…I had forgot about a meeting> Friday: car day (damn…when that tree came down in October, I KNEW it would be months of hassle and more hassle) 2 mile commuter walk and weights; I dabbled with some single rep pull ups, 5 sets of 6, one of 4, 2 of 5. Swiss bar bench: 10 x 134, 2 x 154, 3 sets of 5 x 150. The high incline: 7 x 105, 5 x 110, 7 x 105
Saturday: game day: 4 mile walk at 15:06 (final 5k was in 45), deadlifts: wagon wheel: 10 x 200, 10 x 230, 10 x 250
Sunday: bad attitude 10.15 at 16:56. I was tired and cranky.
It was one of those weeks where something *always* appeared during a block of time..not a happy time.
Sports: Bradley men won after struggling against a very non-descrpit opponent: U-Mass Lowell. The women beat Bellamire this afternoon (by almost 30: 67-38)
And football. Harry and I went to the Illinois State vs Southern Illinois game and the Redbirds got run out of the stadium 37-7. It was close for the first 2 series..and domination by the Salukis after that.
Then in the evening, the Illini got run out of Camp Randall 27-10; the Wisconsin lines bullied them all game long.
I looked at my phone sadly: the season finale tickets are on them: Illinois State next weekend (hosting Southern Illinois) and the Northwestern at Illinois game the weekend after that. This season has blown past quickly!
First the workouts: Friday: pull ups (5 sets of 6, 8 then 2 more sets of 6); not great quality. Bench: 10 x 134, 3 sets of 5 x 150 (all Swissbar), high incline: 10 x 94, 5 x 110, 7 x 105 (doesn’t seem like much!) Commuter walk of 2 miles and later, blood donation.
Saturday: game day. But a 2:30 kick off allowed me to get in 3 miles of walking and some deadlifts (all straight bar) 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 225. The walk 3.17 in 44:17 (13:58 mpm; final 2 miles were 13:51, 13:36..campus loops)
Sunday: (today) 10.1 mile walk; the usual loop before the Marina and goose loop, ball field. 2:46:05 (16:27); kind of windy. Blood donation may have been a factor.
Football: First the games I didn’t watch: Illinois State beat a reeling South Dakota State team 35-21. They raced out to an early 35-0 lead and held on. Navy surprised me by beating a ranked USF team 41-38.
The game I went to: Illinois defeated Maryland 24-6 in very workman like fashion. They fell behind 3-0 early and it was only 7-6 until just before the half, when a late score made it 14-6.
The Illini appeared to take control with the first drive for the second half: they lead 21-6 and really appeared to be on the verge of putting the game away.
After a Maryland punt, they drove 62 yards to the Maryland 1 (over 7 mintues) to get first and goal at the 1. Stuffed. Maryland drove it to the Illinois 4 (taking over 6 minutes) getting it to the Illinois 4..first and goal. Stuffed.
Then the Illini drove it 82 yards and had to settle for a field goal.
19:54 of game time, 238 yards, no turnovers and 3 points!
Navy is 8-2 with games at Memphis and against Army. Illinois State is 8-3 with a tough Southern Illinois squad visiting next week (taking a crew to the game). Illinois is 8-2 with a road trip to an improving Wisconsin squad and a home finale vs decent Northwestern team.
Texas got creamed by Georgia (35-10) and is 7-3 with home games against a bad Arkansas team and against the no. 3 Texas A&M Aggies. ND is 8-2 with games against Syracuse and Stanford coming up. They destroyed Pitt 37-15, to the surprise of no one.
Workout notes: yesterday, 2 mile commuter walk and weights.
Weights: Lots of sets of 5 and a couple of 6 ; enough for 50+ reps Bench: 10 x 134 Swiss, 10 x 94 narrow, 2 sets of 10 x 105 narrow Wagon wheel: 3 sets of 10 x 200 high incline: 10 x 94, 4 x 115, 7 x 105
Today: 2 commuter walks: 5K and 2 miles (slept in due to the ball games)
What of the games?
In the opener (started at 5 pm) the women’s team beat DePaul 78-64, leading 38-30 at the half. The Braves swarmed on defense and played sound offense. They held DePaul to 36.5 percent shooting and 16.7 percent from 3. All around, it was a great effort.
The second game didn’t go as well. Tennessee-Martin has a mostly international team of players who play smart and as a team. American players played a total of 14 minutes out of the 200 player minutes available. They held Bradley to 33 percent shooting including 15 percent from 3. So, though BU made 30 free throws and got 23 turn overs it was not enough. The Braves lead 36-34 at the half, in large part thanks to the turnovers and foul shooting.
Time and time again, UT-Martin found holes in the Bradley defense and forced Bradley into doing things like running themselves out of bounds.
Ok, I walked my hilly 10k course in 1:27:52, which is the fastest I’ve finished this course since October 2024 (when my knees went). So, that’s progress, right?
The middle line (faint) is my all time average, and the red segment is the period over which most of my below average performances were: the later ones. The bottom started to fall out last fall right about the time I had a knee setback. I’ve recovered somewhat but not all the way back.
And that is how it usually goes: I have a stable period, get a setback, start up again at a lower level and get better, but never quite to where I was before the setback.
My marathon performances show this. I started in 1980 with 3:33 and did 3:48, 4:24 (showed up fat and out of shape), long period of morbid obesity, then 1998: 3:55, 3:46, 3:45, 4:26 (hot), 3:38, 3:40, 3:57, 4:44 (walk), 4:04 (walk jog; shin splints) in 2002. Then came the walking period (mostly longer) but 5:12 in 2004 to 5:28 in 2009 (knee surgery in 2010).
The post knee surgery period was a disaster: almost 7 hours in 2012 (walk), 5:44 run/walk (2013), 5:48 walk (2015) 5:52 run walk (2016) then 2 slow walks (2018, 2019) in 6:14/6:42.
I have not been worth a darn since 2009. But there it is. And now: I had the lumbar setback in 2020-2021 and it took a long time for me to recover and..I am not sure if there is another marathon in me. I wonder how normal this is.
Life is not “made to order” and stuff happens that you do not anticipate and do not welcome. That is all I will say. Ok..these are “first world problems” and are mostly “irritants” than serious issues.
Now onto things I have some control over: it was the first day of pull up season. I had 2 sloppy sets of 10 (going inside and out), one of 8, one of 5 then 3 sets of 6. These were not great sets.
Bench: 10 x 134 Swiss, (sore shoulder today), then 3 sets of 5 x 150. These were hard. High incline: 10 x 94, 2 x 115 (not there), 6 x 105, 6 x 105. Made the best of it.
I did have some spousal duties this Friday though. One thing to remember: if you are married to an elderly spouse, they get infections easier, recover MUCH longer, and ordinary proceedures are harder for them to recover from.
Thursday 10k course in brisk but dry weather: 1:28:54 (earlier daylight helps) then a 1 miler over lunch. Friday: 3.1 miles on campus, slowly before class; I did stop a couple of times to talk to the nurse.
Saturday: a long one; leisurely 5k before weights. Pull ups: 10 sets of 5. Swiss bench: 10 x 134, 3 sets of 5 x 150 high incline: 10 x 94, 2 sets of 5 x 115 (first one was “high”, second one was much better.)
Wagon wheel deadlift: 3 sets of 10 x 200 (just for tone)
Sunday: (today) my 10.10 walk was not very fast. But I did the spur, a 2 mile segment where I went up the “classic” Cornstalk course and looped back around, 2 1.15 mile lower loops and a mini-loop; that put me at just under 10 so I added a “around the Honor Circle” segment. It was snowing and sleeting for the early parts; total time was 2:49:37.
Last night, Bradley played their home opener vs Central Michigan. And aside for a short stretch in the first half where CMU cut the lead from 31-12 to 33-25, the Braves dominated all phases and won easily 85-54. No one is confusing Central Michigan for a strong team, but they did win their opener vs Appalachian State by 20+ points.
I watched some football on TV; I watched most of the Illinois State 52-20 blowout of Indiana State, some of the Rutgers vs Maryland (Illinois hosts Maryland next week), 2 of the exiting finishes of the day (Oregon beating Iowa late, Indiana beating Penn State late via a spectacular touchdown catch), and some of the very sad 49-10 blowout loss that Navy suffered at the hands of Notre Dame (who declined a late score).
This past week has been a whirlwind. So, here goes:
Saturday: 2 mile walk before the game. Sunday: Boring 10.1 mile usual course (to the Riverfront) 2:54:23. Absurdly slow; not sure why (bad eating on Saturday?) Monday: weights and 2.2 commuter walk; featured my usual 50 reps of pull ups, (sets of 5, 6, 8), bench was 10 x 134 Swiss and then 3 sets of 5 x 150, high incline, etc. Tuesday: bloodwork day (physical on Monday) so a flat 4 mile walk at 14:20 around campus (cool) Wednesday: 2.1 mile commuter walk; did some deadlifting (10 x 134, 10 x 184 low), 10 x 230 wagon wheel bench: narrow with 94, 105, 105 (sets of 10) and a first set with 134 (regular) high incline: 10 x 94, 2 x 115 (didn’t have it), 2 sets of 6 x 105 Pull ups: I did have 5 sets of 6, 8, 5, 6, 6.
Thursday: 6.2 before classes in 1:28:54 (14:20); better than the past few.
Today: B to the hospital (non-emergency procedure) so I walked 5k around campus.
Football: Saturday, I went to the Illinois vs Rutgers (11 am start) (sold my ISU tickets; they won easily 31-16. Because I had B with me, I did not attempt to make the second half of this 2:30 game.)
The Illini won 35-13 and it was not really that close.
You knew how the game was going to go. Rutgers did get a nice punt to pin the Illini on their own 1. Then the Illini drove it 99 yards for a touchdown. Rutgers responded with a drive and a field goal. A tipped pass interception gave the Scarlet Knights another shot and another field goal and so it was 7-6. The Illini drove it again (5 trips to the red zone, 5 touch downs) and it was now 21-6 at the half. Two touchdown drives in the 3’rd put it away.
Rutgers got a face saving touchdown late and appeared to have a chance at another, getting the ball to the 3 with 1 second left in the game. The Illini called a time out to set the defense and prevented the score.
The Illini outgained Rutgers 445-312 but most of Rutgers’ yardage came at garbage time.
So, here goes: Wednesday: weights and a 2 mile commuter walk. Weights: low 10 x 134, 10 x 184. Wagon Wheel: 10 x 200, 10 x 230 pull ups: 50 reps as usual (sets of 6 then 5) Swiss bar: 10 x 134 then 10 x 94 narrow, 10 x 105, 10 x 105 high incline: 10 x 94 2 sets of 5 x 115
Thursday: dark walk (Bradley Park 5.14 in 1:18 or 15:20 a mile) then 2 miles commuter
Friday: 5k commuter; weights: pull ups 5 sets of 6, 10, 3 penalty, 2 sets of 5 bench: 10 x 134 then 3 sets of 5 x 150 Swiss high incline: 10 x 94, 5 x 110, 10 x 94
Life of an old goat 