Illinois 38 Michigan State 16

This was senior day and the Illini closed out a 6-1 home record (4-1 vs Power 4 teams) by beating Michigan State 38-16.

There is a lot one can say. Though total yards were close, the Illini won the field position battle and had shorter fields. And they sacked a good MSU quarterback 5 times; he had little time to throw.

The game started with an exchange of punts. Then came the Illini, who converted on a long pass (poor camera work on my part)

No problem; MSU responded with a drive of their own but missed the PAT; it was 7-6.

The Illini offense passed the ball very well; another drive and it was 14-6 after one..and they appeared to take control with yet another drive to go up 21-6. But MSU got a field goal to make it 21-9 at the half.

Second half: a smart drive by MSU gave them a 21-16 deficit and momentem appeared to shift. Illinois got a field goal to make it 24-16 going into the 4’th. But then the Illini owned the 4’th; two touchdown drives and a fierce pass rush finished the game.

The Illini dominated, despite the final stats being sort of close. MSU was only 2-15 on third downs.

Afterward, I drove to Peoria, got dinner and picked up the Northern Illinois at Bradley basketball game in progress (4:30 into it). It was close until 3 minutes to go in the half and then Bradley pulled away to win 76-60.

These games spared me from watching Navy get blown out 35-0 by a strong Tulane team. The Midshipmen are 7-3 but those 7 wins have not come against the strongest competition.

Weekend post I: workouts

I’ll have separate posts for football and for social/political .

Thursday night: very little knee pain. Friday: weights and two commuter walks totaling 5K.

The weights: pull ups: 50 + 3 penalty reps. I had one attempt at 10 reps (came up short on the final 2), 2 sets of mixed grip, rest were sets of 5.
downstairs: 10 x 134 bench.
incline: 3 sets of 5 x 134 (note the video and the knee position)
High incline: 3 sets of 7 x 94
curls: 3 sets of 10 (very light)

Friday night: quite a bit of knee pain (about 2 am or so)

Look at this video of my incline presses and at my left knee in particular:

I think THAT is the culprit.

Saturday: 4 mile walk (14:5x pace) before getting on the road; also 1 mile walks to and from the parking lot to the stadium. Wore a knee brace for the exercise walk.

Saturday night: very minimal night pain.

Sunday: deadlifts, with knee brace, followed by 4 flat miles of walking (14:5x pace)

4 inch: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234, 10 x 254
6 inch: 10 x 280
I did 3 sets of knee extensions with the curl bar as well. The lifts felt strong. But I still need to see how the night goes.

Cutting people out of your life over Trump

What I am about to say might be controversial. But what the heck.

If you look at my blog and some of the photos, you’ll find selfies of me with people that voted for Trump. Note: it is probably not who you expect.

And yes, we are going to keep doing things together, provided that they want to.

So, does this make me immoral? I suppose you can be the judge of that.

But I see it this way:

  1. People vote for candidates for a whole host of reasons. For example, I doubt that those in the 40K and lower income bracket voted for Trump’s choice of Cabinet members. It was probably as simple as “prices are up, my pay is not, so I’ll give the other party a shot.” In short, other voters might not be seeing what you are seeing, and you might not be seeing what they are seeing.
  2. People change, for the most part, due to in group persuasion and NOT from out group persuasion. For example: I am not going to be convinced by some Bible thumping blowhard that I do not know. Some stranger sending me a Fox News clip won’t change my opinion. But a friend CAN change my opinion. They are part of my “in group” even if they vote for someone else.
  3. People have a lot of strengths and weaknesses. I have PLENTY of weaknesses.

Now, of course, you do you. Do what you like. But this is how I feel.

Day 1 of cut back

5K course (W. Peoria) in 45:04 or at a pace of 14:21 (course is 3.14 miles long); added some leg extensions. We’ll see how tonight goes. The weirdness is that I won’t know until tonight, when I try to sleep.

B is recovering from a MAC lung infection; yes she coughs all of the time.

Social: Trump’s cabinet picks are …bizarre. It is almost as if he is daring the Senate to do anything.

Ok, the knee is hurt

Last night; pain..worse than before. Yes, the 5 good miles followed by leg extensions felt good at the time, but I paid for that last night.

So, I am going to have to cut back walking, but I have to walk some for my back. We’ll see what a week or two of very short walks do, along with naproxen.

Maybe I’ll start back with the extensions; night pain will be by guide.

Workout notes: 2 one mile commuter walks (very slow) with
pull ups: mostly sets of 5 with 8+3
bench: 10 x 134, 10 x 145, 4 x 154, 3 x 160
high incline: 3 sets of 7 x 94
curls: 3 sets of 10

Perplexed

My response to my knee continues: I tried to add some leg extensions to help out, and I limited myself to 10k walking yesterday (14:34 pace), and 4 miles today (14:35 pace).

In addition to the extensions (tried things; the curl bar works: 3 sets with embarrassingly light weight) I did some trap bar deads:
low: 10 x 134, 10 x 184
4 inch handle: 10 x 234
6 inch: 10 x 280, 5 x 300 (actually, sort of easy)

Then the walk.

Election stuff: I’ve talked about the aftermath. What I’d like to stress this time is how utterly perplexed many Democrats are.
1. The stuff that Trump said and did would get him fired from most academic jobs, and probably sacked in corporate America (if done in public). So how could he possibly win an election? Many cannot comprehend that the values and codes in their own bubbles are NOT nation-wide!

2. Economy: yes, it did matter. Lots of lower income people suffer from higher prices ..so lash out at the party in charge. They see things like their stores putting things behind glass to prevent theft…and then they see commercials that say “Harris is for “they/them”, I am for YOU”…and the thought “no wonder things suck; the Democrats are too busy making safe spaces to do the important work that helps me! And no..they are not going to be impressed by graphs, charts and Krugman articles.

More election babble

Yes, I spent too much of my morning workout time talking about the recent election with people on the internet. And some of the conversation is heated.

But as far as the workout: 3 mile commuter walk over lunch. The weights: pull ups (2 sets of “10”(sloppy)), 6 sets of 5,

bench: 10 x 134, 3 sets of 5 x 134 on the incline. These felt fine but I did NOT have a 6’th rep in me.

Now to the election: I am very different than those I hang around. When I go back and think about it, I wonder: what went wrong? Why were Democrats rejected and Trump accepted? Now in the swing states, Ds did win some downticket races. But nationally, we got blistered.

Typical of the liberal I see: they go on about how immoral the Trump campaign was and how awful he is.

Me: expect a shark to be a shark. I can’t do anything about a shark’s nature, but I can learn how to beat the shark. And THAT is what I want from my political leaders. It is a football (or a war) approach: how do we win?

And, well, the recently college educated are sorely unequipped for this battle.

Show this on a college campus and faculty would get the vapors. But THIS is the political world we live in and we have to know how to counter this crap. BTW, these sex changes were taking place when TRUMP was president, but never mind that…

And, even worse, many liberals have more of an interest in feeling morally superior to “the masses” than in, well, actually gaining more votes.