Category: basketball

Tuesday the 16’th of December

One more final to give, two sets of grades to calculate and turn in, and some other chores to do.

Ok, it is now Thursday the 18’th and grades are in. I’ll probably make a couple of supplementary videos to help them with their weak areas.

Emotionally, the past few days were a roller coaster, much of it my doing.

Here are the walks:

December 12: commuter walk (2 miles)
December 13: 8.2 miles in increasingly awful conditions: 2:38:09 (19:24 pace) on campus loops.

December 14 (after basketball game): 2.27 commuter
December 15 2 mile commuter (snowy)
December 15 2 mile commuter (yuck)
December 16: Markin;lane 1 for mile 1, lane 2 the rest of the way. 50 laps: 1:26:42 for 6.25 (13:52) 14:23, 14:01, 13:50, 13:41, 13:37, 13:30, 3:34
December 17 (yesterday) 5k commuter somewhat slick
December 18 (today)6.23 at 16:42: damp; very few slick spots.

Yes, it was cold and snowy.

Weight workouts:

Sunday; some straight bar deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 225
Wagon Wheel: 10 x 250

Monday: pull ups (very cold) sets of 7 (one sloppy set of 10)
bench: 10 x 134 Swiss, 3 sets of 6 x 150
high incline: 10 x 94, 5 x 115, 5 x 110

Wednesday: pull ups: 9 sets of 5, one set of 6-7 trying to keep my legs together and not “cheat” by contacting the uprights
Bench: 3 sets of 10 x 134 Swiss
High incline: 10 x 94, 2 sets of 5 x 115
Wagon wheel: 3 sets if 10 x 200

Other: I went to the on campus “keep busy” basketball game vs. D3 North Central. The game wasn’t close (as expected) 86-53. But it was interesting to sit next to someone who did marathons and knew about McNaughton Park. And lots of guys got to play. Fan reaction was mixed.


Tu, W, Th

Oh boy, is it slick. Good old ugly Peoria.

Walking: Tuesday: 4.1 miles on the treadmill, 14:40 pace (treadmill reading had 4.6, Garmin had 4.0)
Wednesday: 45 minutes on slick, icy surfaces. Yuck.
Today: 41 laps of Markin (mostly inner lane) in 1:08:44 (13:45 pace). My “unofficial” miles were 13:52, 13:07, 12:59, 12:53, 13:10, and a bit extra. These were 8 lap “plus a bit” times.

Weights: on Wednesday, I did a complete weight workout.
pull ups (sloppy) 5 sets of 6, bad set of 8, 2 sets of 6

Bench (Swiss) 10 x 134, 3 sets of 5 x 150
High incline: 10 x 94, 10 x 94, 5 x 110
Wagon wheel dead 3 sets of 10 x 200

Bradley Basketball: it was cold but I went to the Washington State at Bradley game. WSU lead by 4-8 for most of it, but BU caught up at 60 with 1 minute left in the game and won by 64-60. BU shot poorly (save one player) but got a ton of turnovers. It was a gritty win.

It has been a whole week…

Wow..time flew by and I thought that I had more entries than this.

Monday 2 mile commuter walk, weights.
Tuesday: totally listless 10k course on wet pavement (1:39:47)

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.

Mixed results for Bradley Basketball

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.

No live football weekend

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).

That sinking feelings when…

things are a struggle and those who are supposed to know, really don’t.

Again, I am a bit behind on my workout log and I’ll talk about a basketball game. Here is the workout stuff:

Tuesday: 2.2 mile walk later; morning saw the following:

pull ups: real struggle (too much body weight), but I got 50+ reps with 9 sets of 5, one of 7
bench press: 10 x 134, 3 sets of 5 x 160
incline press: one set of 134 x 5
high incline: 2 sets of 10 x 94, 1 of 6 x 105
light trap bar deadlifts (sore hamstring) 3 sets of 10 x 134

Wednesday: 4.4 mile walk; West Peoria. Could not get out of the 15’s; 15:16 average for 4.4. Kind of discouraging.

Thursday: last 2.2 mile walk at a commuter pace.
Morning: 10 sets of 5 pull ups real struggle. (196 lb is why) Mixed the grip.
Bench: 10 x 134, 10 x 150
incline: 3 sets of 6 x 134
trap bar deadlift: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234. No difficulties.

Note: one night of oh-so-slight knee pain…when I forgot to stretch. Painless the other nights.

Ball game: Barbara went with me to the Chattanooga at Bradley game. At first, the Mocs missed a ton of wide open 3 point shots and BU protected the ball. The result was a 16 point lead in the first half and 38-25 half time lead.

But in the second half the Braves started to get careless with the ball (12 turnovers), the Mocs pressed on defense and started to make their 3 point shots. It became a back and forth affair.

Late, the Mocs hit a 3 to go up 64-61 but BU’s star point guard and 3 point ace drilled one from deep to tie it at 64. So, with 10 seconds left, Chattanooga nailed a 3 to go up 67-64 with 10 seconds to go. Then BU could not get an open look and were fouled before the shot to bring on a 1 and 1 with 4 seconds to go. BU made the first one and deliberately missed the second, but the Mocs got the rebound and BU fouled immediately. They missed the front end of the 1 and 1 but there was not enough time to get off a credible shot, so it ended 67-65.

After their win, their start guard (who made the big assist in the video above) had something very interesting to say:

That is how I felt as a fan.

Workout videos

Toward the end of break

Thursday: 2 mile commuter walk. Lazy weight workout:
pull ups: 5-5-5-5-7-5-5-5-5-5. Mixture of scapular/regular, regular, narrow, chin up. These were ok.
Downstairs: bench: 10 x 134, 10 x 150
incline: 5 x 134, 6 x 134

high incline: 10 x 94, 6 x 105
trap bar dead; 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234 4 inch
10 x 280 6 inch.

Friday: Bradley park walk: 4.1 in 1:05. I was just plain slow; sunny, breezy, not much traffic but my body stayed in the 15’s. Sleep?

BUT: no night knee pain!

Basketball: Bradley started out quickly vs Northern Alabama and lead by 19 at the half and even pushed it to 20 points in the second half. But the Lions fought back and got to within 4. BU lead 67-62 with 30-40 seconds to go and NA missed a shot that would have made it a one possession game. It ended 71-62 thanks to good free throw shooting. Attendance was small: 2950.

Toward baseball season

The Bradley Men won their final home game of the regular season, dispatching a good Northern Iowa team 73-56. Torrid 3 point shooting lead to a 45-36 halftime lead, and then the Bradley defense did the rest. 7537 showed up, the third largest crowd of the reason (just behind the 7560 that saw the Murray State game, but well off of the 9646 that saw the weekend game vs Illinois St.)

Barbara went with me; that is significant.

Workout notes: I did my West Peoria course (3.14 in 46:xx plus that extra 1.16 course (to Moss) to finish in 1:03:48; this was about 14:50 mpm in just under freezing. Stretched and iced afterward; right now the knee feels fantastic. Will it feel that way tonight though?

Current events: it is tough to think about as what is going on with our country (bad, rash decisions) is well..being seen elsewhere in my life. Internationally, we are no longer some “beacon for freedom.” Trump remains above water in some “job approval polls” and slightly below in others. So, while my bubble does not approve of Trump, large segments of the country does.

Leisure

I had a day of leisure today. Later: basketball game between UIC (who was favored) and Bradley.

The back-and-forth contest was tied at the half (28-28; UIC had a 3 point shot disallowed after review due to a shot clock violation) and it was 44-44 going into the 4’th. But then BU pulled away and won 65-54. Bradley played great defense in the paint, mercilessly harassing the UIC forwards and centers.

BU is by no means a good team, but at least this year, BU would be fairly be called “bottom of the midpack” of the Missouri Valley Conference. They are no longer an automatic win for a MVC team.

Before that, I had a long weight workout (2 hours, but I took tons of rest) and a 2 mile walk at just under 16 minutes per mile (I tend to speed up with knee braces)

I may have overdone it a little; tonight will tell. I have some barely perceptible soreness.

Pull ups: ok, these were just plain hard. 2 sets of 5 singles, then 8 sets of 5, with 3-4 sets being chin up sets (harder for me, but better bicep activation). It was in the 20’s with a wind.

Bench press: 5 x 134, 2 x 155, 1 x 165, miss at 175, make at 175, 10 x 145 (hard)

1 inch bar deadlift: 10 x 105, 10 x 149, 10 x 193
Olympic bar deadlift: 10 x 225 (not that hard) slight residual lumbar soreness later; mostly glutes and hamstrings.

High incline: 3 sets of 10 x 94
curl: 3 sets of 10

Second thriller of the weekend

I watched some basketball this weekend. Today, I watched the stirring Bradley 65-60 victory over a good Illinois State team. The Braves started 9-0 down but then just rained 3 point shots on the Redbirds to take a 28-16 first quarter lead. This is very rare for BU. The game then evened out a bit; mostly ISU would creep to within 3 but BU would then pull away.

Finally, in the 4’th the Redbirds took a 1 point lead. But BU never wavered; they took care of the ball and matched every ISU surge.

This was one hard earned victory. Even better: Barbara went with me!

Working out: 4 mile walk on the Riverfront. I could feel that troublesome left knee at times. I might invest in one of those heated knee sleeves for sleeping.