Category: cycle

My fall plans and then came delta…

Ok, I don’t know.

I’ve bought several Illinois masks to wear in hopes of going to some football games. I might even move to the upper row for some of the games, not that the games are that well attended. But we shall see; I am hoping the university announces either a mask or vaccine mandate, as other sports teams have.

As far as my job…I have some uncertainty as to what might happen..ultimately, though I think that, as of 3 months ago, it sure SEEMED rosy. I honestly think that we’ll go the way of Missouri, Florida and Arkansas by the time school starts, at least in terms of infections, hospitalizations and death.

I’ve designed my course with the ability to pivot to hybrid/online on a dime.

I HOPE that was wasted effort. I fear that is was not.

And yes, if a student is uncomfortable with the “in person class” set up, it will be very easy to accommodate them.

Workout notes: rehab itself took about 1 hour …really could not be helped. I do..a LOT. Then my usual 1 km loop (measured this time as 0.6 miles..it has also been measured at .66, and .62 miles…

Then 7 loops of the “Campus route” on the Expresso cycle (14.3 miles, 57:10) which, was similar to a month ago. Go figure.

Chiefs: with Tracy last night; a huge rally came up short and the Chiefs lost 5-4, though in the 8’th inning they were down 5-2 with 0 outs and bases loaded…Kernels put in a relief pitcher who struck out two; gave up a long single which scored 2. But no more.

In case you are wondering: yes, I wore a mask for entering and for the concourse. But I think there was a good amount of “social distance” in the ball park..we had a whole row to ourselves and the row in front of us: two people on the opposite side of the section.

Overdoing it?

I admit that my back, while not “painful” is “what did I do” sore..probably because of both the rehab and the deadlifts on the same day. That is a lot to ask of it.

What I did: limber up, some rehab.

deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224

On the 3: I used 251 and did: 4, 4, 3, 4, 3. I did NOT push that last rep.

Then 2 sets of 10 x 134 Romanian

Then: 1K walk (woo hoo) at 15:20 mpm or so (watch gave me too much credit)

more rehab: included quite a bit of banded walking

31 minutes on the home bike (10 miles)

Stretch

In short: I spent a LOT of time…didn’t do much.

baby steps

Well, shoulder hurt a little last night; glute pain is now more along the IT band.

Today: a LOT of rehab at home (1 hour), 1K walk (15:50 pace; Bradley-Cooper block…woo hoo! 1k!) quit before pain; had a few tingles.

Matrix bike at the Riverplex: 1:02:10 for 20 “fake miles”; slowly at first, 38:43 for 20K, 57:41 for 30K, 19.5 miles at 1 hour even.

Stretching…that is when my glasses fogged up big time. Weight afterward 204 (lockerroom scale), with shoes. and sweaty shirt, shorts and yes, mask.

Rehab just takes so long but I did a LOT of it. Hey, I have cords, stretch bands, you name it.

Discouraged? Well, my physical troubles are “first world” troubles. I know people who are dealing with much, much, much worse…they would be delighted to be where I am. My troubles are really sports; I want to walk 5K pain free, to be able to swim a little bit of crawl (say, work up to a set of 10 x 100), and do bench presses and shoulder presses again.

So…whining from me is just unwarranted whining.

I’ve fought through this a few times: 2000: shoulder, 2006-2008 piriformis, glute, 2010-2011: glute, knee AND shoulder again, 2012-2013 back.

Realistically I’ll get through this too, but it will take longer than I like and when I return, it won’t be to the level that I’d like. Hey…I’ll never take a pain free 5K for granted again.

I do think that my workouts will be a lot different this time around; lots of band work..rehab will be basically, permanent.

Last Lazy Day

Time to get on the stick. A couple of things:

  1. my typical workout (without yoga class) will take about 2:30 to finish; this includes a 30 minute cycle session, rehab and whatever weights I am doing. It can’t be helped. I need to plan accordingly.
  2. I do have some time to write and I had better get to it.
  3. Football? I have my tickets and masks all ready to go..but if COVID cases are still surging and there are any sort of crowd…maybe give up my tickets to a younger person. Baseball isn’t a problem because crowds are kind of sparse.
  4. My upper body looks like crap. No getting around it; I need to drop 20 lb if I want to look decent.
  5. Shoulder felt better last night; glute was TIRED and stiff..sore in a different way (like I pushed it too much)

Today: rehab ..actually, no weights at all..strange. I’ll try to remember most of what I did. The non-rehab stuff:

  1. pull ups: 2 sets of 5, 2 sets of 10, 4 sets of 5 (2 chin up style), 5 singles “penalty set”
  2. push ups: 3 sets of 20 with better depth then 2 sets of 10 with lower handles.
  3. rows with resistance cords. Last set: I used red, green and blue together. (3 sets)
  4. single arm curls with resistance cords. I used green and blue together. (3 sets)

Rehab stuff: 2 sets of: “spinal balance with band”, “side single leg left for gluteus medius”, 3 sets of chest taps (video..need to work on these), 2 sets of banded walk; multiple sets of high elbow rows, low arm rows, lat pull downs, single arm rotator cuff, 2 sets of dumbbell rotator cuff.

Lots of chest stretching (with band) and piriformis type stretching.

Perturbation training (spinal balance; wife helped me)

Then 31 minutes (10 fake miles) on the cycle.

It doesn’t seem like this should have taken this much time, but it does.

Videos: 2 of the 3 sets of chest taps: way too much hip motion, and a bit less:

uncertainty

I know that my fall schedule WILL change and I am working out how to give exams; I have some ideas.

I will also “stream” my classes in case some of my students get ill or if some are just uncomfortable being in such a large room (yes, masks will be required)

I will also be going to physical therapy once a week. Funny thing yesterday: a young PTA was working under the supervision of a PT and was giving me perturbation treatment…the PT said “oh, you can hit him harder than that…”

Today: excellent yoga class, rehab (2 kinds of ab exercises, glute medius leg raises, chest taps, banded walks, shoulder stuff) and a good hard 45 minutes on the cycle (14 miles total)..enough intensity for me to stop (getting out of breath..mask was a sweaty mess)

rehab: some glute ..well…soreness..this is a bit different than the pain/tingles induced by walking. The PT and the deficit deadlifts (only 1 inch!) made my legs sore, in general. Shoulder: ok..sort of. This is a long slog.

Note: you can see mask use slowly inching up in the gym…with no mandate.

Holding pattern

Yesterday’s PT was a bit embarrassing; my glute medius is super weak on my “bad” side; the leg lifts I did humiliated me (leg behind the body near a wall); these are hard to describe. One of them is here:

I did better with chest taps with a wider leg stance.

Today: yoga, 4 lap walk (tingles started), rehab: some shoulder, abs with the ball (two kinds) chest taps, band walks, more shoulder

1 hour bike (19.25 fake miles)

Some shoulder pain last night.

1 August part I: lifting

Rehab, some deadlifting outside, then 30 minutes on the house indoor bike (10.1 miles..I know..fake)

10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224 (ok; focused on set-ups)

Work set: 5 sets of 3 on the 3 minute: 251, 251, 251, 257, 257 (some tugging on my RIGHT glute medius on some of the reps..not pain but I noticed “something”..I am paranoid.

Romanian: 2 sets of 10 x 134; second set was better. Also did some banded walks.

Shoulder and glute: some tingles with the glute; shoulder ached a bit last night; was my pre-sleep chest stretch too aggressive? It is just a tiny bit achy right now too.

Bunny was completely unimpressed.

10 x 224 These were ok.

The three sets with 251 were ok; I think I rushed things a bit. Note: I changed directions as the driveway isn’t completely level.

Set 4: felt the tug in reps 2-3

Romanians: the second set WAS better; first was ..well..done so I could see what I was doing wrong.

Pathetic: I get excited about a …mask?

I am now masking up in the public gym; I do not trust Delta.

The mask: the Mission sports mask. I did not scientifically test it, but when I was breathing hard, I put my hand in front of my face and could NOT feel my breath.

Yes, at the end the mask was a disgusting mess, but that was 2:40 of work, which included 1:40 or cardio (broken up)

Yes, that 10 mile shirt still taunts me a bit.

What I did: lots of rehab; abs included twist crushes, hand to leg ball exchange, and the dead bug with a ball.

I learned these yesterday. I did the shoulder stuff, banded walks, leg extensions, etc.

The cardio:

12:20 (1 mile) on the elliptical (did I quit at the right spot?)

40 minute NuStep (3.6 miles); a lady asked me about the machine.

8:30 4 laps on the track walking (quit at onset of tingles))

40 minutes (13.15 miles) on the Matrix bike

After weight: with shoes: 203.7…so some progress.

back to masking at the gym

So, today: yoga, NuStep (40 minutes), stationary bike (recumbent, 45 minutes or 12.4 miles…almost 20 km)

And I did some rehab; added the leg swing (minor) to the banded walks.

I wore my mask..indoor. I do not care if anyone finds it strange.

Note: in rehab, they had me go to a “spinal balance” pose and the therapist pushed me ..physically..to tone up my core…physical taps from unanticipated directions

I also went to a Chiefs game; they won 6-2, mostly on the strength of a 4 run 3’rd inning which featured back to back home runs.

No mask needed at my seat; I did wear it for the concourse.

Things are looking grim for minor league baseball.

Speaking of sports: I haven’t followed much of the Olympics as yet. Most of it has been because I was on the road so much. I hope to catch some of the weightlifting.

What I found interesting is that there is such a social and political divide, some Americans are cheering for our teams to lose.

And yes, I am aware of the US gymnastics star who retired from the competition; but our best rose to the occasion.

Just one comment: professional athletes who make it to the “big stage” will be ruthlessly critiqued by the public; often the critiques will be incompetent. After all, anyone who only has connoisseurs following them will not be that popular, nor that rich from their sport.

It comes with the territory.