Southern Journey

We took off for Texas on Thursday. There was a strange rattle in the car; more on that later.
But we made it from Peoria (9 am) to Muskogee, Oklahoma with no issues. But while in Muskogee, the rattle was bothering me, so we took it to the local Toyota dealer. They got right on it: it was a loose muffler exhaust heat shield; they got larger washers to tighten it up. Lots of corrosion underneath.

That delayed our leaving though; we got out roughly 11 am or so. Still, it was a fairly smooth drive to Austin after that, though we did visit a Buc-ee’s just north of Dallas.

We made it to the Southpark Omni late in the evening.

Saturday: the highlight was a trip to Half-price (will read some fiction) and a trip to the Blanton Museum (on the University of Texas campus)

Highlight of the second day was the Bullock Texas History Museum.

Olivia went back home to ready herself for the workweek and Babs and I had some Ethiopian food.

The next day, we headed to the Woodlans (2:40 away). Amusing: my left foot hurt. It turns out that I had put on two right foot shoes!

That was a fun mini-visit. Mike (Lynnor’s husband) was a good sport.

Then came the trip to Texarkana. Google maps routed out the “quickest route” and that included lots of trips on small roads off of the main highway. That included one case where we actually had a “pilot truck” to get us through a construction zone! It sure was scenic though.

We stopped just south of Little Rock (Arkadelphia) and took the new I-57 out of Little Rock to 67, up through Missouri and around St. Louis. We took the I-270 detour to get to I-55.

Today: I watched the Chiefs lose to the Skycarp 6-4 in a very hot day game. The Chiefs are now 1-4 in the second half of the season.

Week’s worth of workouts.

Thursday, prior to getting on the road: 2.3 in 31:44 (13:48 pace)

Friday: hotel treadmill (non-working incline) 2 miles in 28:30
Saturday: Mabel Davis 3 lap (5.2 miles) in 1:22:29 (15:52). Warm.
Laps: 14:27, 14:02, 14:00
Sunday: Mabel Davis 3 lap (5.2 miles) in 1:20:56 (15:34)
14:07, 13:53, 13:37.
Note: weight room was closed for renovation
Monday: 2.24 miles in 37:53 (16:53); 3 sets of 20 push ups
(note: full PT every day)
Tuesday: hotel treadmill 2 miles in 27:35 (13:48)

Wednesday: back in town. Walk was a untimed stroll to the Chiefs game and back (3 miles total)
weights: pull ups: 6 sets of 5, (changed grip), 8, 6, then 5 mixed, 5 mixed. Alternated overhand and underhand grip and did PT for rest between sets.
Bench press: 10 x 134, 5 x 155, 4 x 155, 5 x 155
incline press: 5 x 134
high incline press: 2 sets of 10 x 94
trap bar dead: low 10 x 134, 10 x 184 4 inch: 10 x 224
Then the walk to the game. The walk home was a bit harder; I did the 1.5 route.

About to pack

Tuesday: slow 8.2 on the Rock Island. I walked to the mile 0, out to mile 4 (slightly short), back to 0 and then to the lot. It was hot (80’s and 63 percent humidity) and it took me 2:14 for 8.21. Yeah, slow. No knee brace.

Today: slow 2 mile walk about campus, weights: 7 sets of 6, one of 8.
bench: 10 x 134, 7 x 155 (weak)
incline: 3 sets of 5 x 134
Low handle: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 4 x 225 (just not into suffering today)

I have to watch doing too many miles too close together. But the legs feel ok right now.

Sleeping too much

Sunday: I did my “to the ball field and round the goose loop twice course (10.2-10.3 miles) in 2:49:10. I honestly didn’t care that much; it was never much of an effort.
Monday: slow 3.3 mile course, (kind of warm) after some pull ups: 10 sets of 5, one set of 6 (brief rests, most of the PT was before)
After the walk, to the weight room downstairs:
10 x 134, 3 sets of 5 x 160 on the bench
incline: 5 x 134 (kind of disappointing)
supported shoulder press: 3 sets of 10 x 40 (each arm) with dumbbells.

I am sleeping too darned much.

Steamboat 2025

This year, well, was very different from the previous 2 years. For the first time, Tracy and I did it together. It was fun; glad we did it. And Tracy won the 80-84 F age group (open category)

As far as our race: I was going to walk with her and we stayed reasonably steady the whole race, never varying much from 15:10 mpm until the very downhill last mile which got us to the finish line in 1:00:17. I had predicted this time for us.


As far as the race itself: it was different. They started us in “waves” but perhaps not quite as defined as they are in other races. They had the wheelchairs, USATF 4 mile waves (W , M, W master’s, M master’s, then some open waves going at 7:15) and we had a slightly different course and went in reverse of the traditional route.

Obviously, I finished much further back than normal, save for the time when I walked with Barbara, years ago. Yes, I walked last year too, but then my “chip time” was just under 44 and people around me were mostly doing their best.

Now, at an hour, you had “participants”, people posing for photos, people engaging in long phone conversations, people with braces, old people (I saw several octogenarians), overweight people, etc. On the way back..I got to see the swift 15K runners; that was fun. It really is a different world back there.

This was definitely one of the “fun ones.” I am glad I did it and I am glad I did it this way.

Afterward, I sneaked in 3 sets of trap bar deadlifts (low handle this time): 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 225

Steamboat History

1998: 15K 1:08:22 183/844 (sticky) Was running just under 20 for 5K in those days. 22:50/23:05/22:27, 29/71 AG 167/603 men
1999: 15K 1:07:53 187/725, place was a bit worse; roughly 20:40 for 5K in these days 22:38/23:01/22:13 39/76 AG, 170/511 men
2000: 4m 27:51 After a 10K/half marathon double and 1:35 half a few weeks earlier.
2001: 4m 29:13 Lake Geneva Marathon 3:40
2001: 15K 1:11:16 (126/381) Fall 15K 23:20/24:04/23:51
2002: 4m 43:15 (walk)
2002: 15K 1:14:33 (run; fall) 167/405 24:10/25:07/25:16
2004: 4m 33:10 (two 24 hour walks in May; 101 and 88)
2005: 15K 1:23:13 (26:40/27:39/28:43) McNaughton 100 in April, Marathon on Memorial Day.
2006: 4M 42:10 (walk), FANS 24 in June (83 miles)
2007: Walk with Barbara 1:10
2008: Walk with Barbara 1:13
2009: run 1:27:23 (9:22 mpm) Place: 519/726 29:21/29:49/28:43, 34/43 AG
2010: walk 4 miles 39:32.
2011: walk 15 km 1:48:02 37:12/36:24/34:26
2012: run 15 km 1:36:55 29:26/33:54/33:35 679/835
2013: 15K 1:29:04 (29:34/29:53/29:38) 40/50 AG, 552/866
2014: 1:29:57 (29:22/30:46/29:49)
2015: 1:34:28 (30:49/32:49/30:50) (2 weeks after FANS 59.9) 579/804, 376/461 males, 173/219 male masters, 36/43 AG
2016: 1:41:57: 31:40/34:37/35:40 667/822, 413/458 male, 196/221 master male, 30/33 AG.
2017: walk 1:55:52: 37:04/39:41/39:07 Just not in very good shape.
2018: 2:15:55 walk/jog…gave up after 2 miles and mostly walked (22:15). 39:20/48:19/48:16
2019: 1:38:36 31:44/35:12/31:40 (3 loop version, rainy and cool)

2020: covid cancelled, 2021: cheered on Tracy (injured), 2022 injured (back)

2023: walk with Lynnor: 54:46 (cool day, 27:28/27:18)

2024: 4 mile walk 43:44 cool day, 22:16/21:28
2025: 4 mile walk with Tracy: 1:00:17 (social).

undisciplined with time

As usual, I am not getting much done, but I am doing the small tasks.

And yes, working out.
Thursday: 6.3 miles on the Rock Island trail in 1:30:21. It wasn’t that crowded but I did find one “run/walker” to chase. The timed miles (in the middle 6): 14:56, 14:10, 13:44, 13:44, 14:21 (tired), 15:05 for 1:26:02 The middle 4 were an effort (56 minutes).
Friday: easy 5K first, then upper body weights:
pull ups: 5, 7, 6, 6, 6, 10, 5, 5 (though 10 was shaky)
bench: 10 x 134, 3 x 165, 5 x 160, 6 x 155
Incline: 3 x 134, 5 x 134
dumbbell shoulder: 3 sets of 10

Steamboat will have its own post.

It isn’t as if I am doing nothing

But I am NOT working efficiently. I’ve done a few things though.
Some of it is using a tin can to bail out water from a ship that is flooding.

I’ve worked out some too. I had a slow 2 mile walk after pull ups:
5 sets of 6, 10, 6, 6
bench: 5 x 134, 3 x 154, 2 x 165, 1 x 180 (yes!) (**)
incline: 3 sets of 5 x 134
curls: 3 sets of 10
dumbbell incline: 14 kg plus 2 lb just under 33 lb: 3 sets of 10 shoulder supported

The bench: this age grades to 265 for a 23 year old, which is what I was doing at this weight at that age. Go figure.

Catching up yet again

Sunday: I came to understand that deadlifts the day after a long walk just does not work for me. So, the only exercise was a pleasant 5K walk at 16:40 mpm or so.

Then came a double header; Saturday’s game was rained out. B was there for the first one. The Chiefs swept the division leading Riverbandits convincingly 9-5 and 9-4. Neither game was close. Both games saw decent relief pitching. In the first game, their top prospect struggled a bit in the first inning but then settled down.

Monday: pull ups, 5k walk, weights, in that order.

pull ups: 5 sets of 6, 2 sets of 7 (one chin, one pull up), 2 sets of 5 (mixed grip)
bench: 10 x 134, 3 sets of 5 x 160
trap bar low: 10 x 134, 10 x 184. 4 inch: 10 x 224
high incline: 7 x 105, 7 x 105, 6 x 105

Interestingly, the low handler trap bar made me sore the next day! I need to make it a point to do some low handle stuff with lighter weights.

Today: Rock Island trail. Yes, I didn’t take my Garmin.

2:12, 15:00, 14:51, 15:09, 14:51, 14:50, 14:59, 1:57. This was 1:33:52 for about 6.3. Note: there were people on the trail for the first mile then it got pretty empty after that.

Long walk part 2

The video is post walk. The walk: some gym had an event going on; it was a weird sort of triathlon which included a mile run, boxing and something else. I declined.

The walk: Garmin shorted me a bit and gave me the turn around about .12 miles further than last time. So you could call it 10.4 but I called it 10.3 in 2:43 (15:52 pace). This was about 13-18 minutes slower than I would do this course “in the day.” I can’t say it was difficult but I took a nap in the afternoon.

It takes me longer to recover these days. Here is the course profile. Note: the return was about 3 minutes faster than the out; it is easy to see why.

Rainy Wednesday

Tuesday: waited too late; walked to the W. Peoria track and ended up with 6.2 miles at 15:51 mpm, making it to the track at 2.3 miles and doing 5 laps (2.1 miles) in 27:04 (5:52, 5:36, 5:18, 5:11, 5:05).

Compare to last week: 27:12: 5:43, 5:35, 5:25, 5:17, 5:12. This time I started slower and finished stronger.

Today: no walking; just too lazy. But I did take my time with a long (in duration) weight workout:
Pull ups: 6 sets of 6, 10 (really! ok, almost), 6.
downstairs: 10 x 134 bench.
incline: 6 x 134, 7 x 134, 6 x 134
high incline: 6 x 105, 7 x 105, 6 x 105
4 inch trap bar: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224, 10 x 244
I had quite a bit of rest between sets.

Baseball: last night the Chiefs were in town. My favorite starter was on the mound. I bragged about him to Harry, Vickie and Barbara. And he promptly gave up 4 hits (3 extra base) and 3 runs. And THAT was all of the scoring. He lasted 6 innings as did the visiting pitcher.

In the middle of the 8’th, a thunderstorm was moving in rapidly and so we left..and they called the game.