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

Rally?

Knee pain: none the night before last, and very little last night..at all. Tonight will tell the story.

Workouts: yesterday, 2 miles at 17:44 (commuter over lunch). Weights:

pull ups: sets of 5 (one of 6), with 2 of them chin up style. These burn my biceps. 51 reps total.

Bench press: 10 x 134, 5 x 155, 5 x 155, 5 x 155
4 inch trap bar dead: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234 (all easy)
High incline: 10 x 94, 9 x 94, 6 x 94 (very little rest)

Today: 3 miles at 17:07 (not supposed to be a commuter pace), 1.13 mile commuter walk. The knee was feeling it on the first walk (no brace); no pain but I could feel it tiring. Knees felt great during the day, especially after the lunch time icing.

Bradley women’s basketball

The women hosted Valparaiso. Both teams came in 11-16. BU started poorly..again. They had more turnovers than baskets at halftime and trailed 35-22; the Braves missed all of their 3 point shots.
In the 3’rd quarter the lead grew to 53-32 and it appeared to be over.

But BU went into a full court press and rattled them. And then some of the 3 point shots fell and it was a 10 point game with 4 minutes to go.

Valpo started to fall apart and with 1:24 Bradley tied the game and took the lead with 42 seconds to go, 64-62. On the next possession, Valpo hit one of 2 free throws to cut it to 64-63. But with 21 seconds, BU missed 2 free throws to give Valpo the ball back, and Valpo hit a 3 with 7 seconds to go to win the game.

Sometimes, teams with bad records can make for a memorable game.

Well, I asked for it

I just said “no” to NSAIDS. Last night: that hurt..the knee absolutely killed me. I’ll take the opioid tonight, though…well..

As far as stress on the knee: just a slow 2 mile walk (to vote then to the office) and weights:

pull ups: 8 sets of 5, one of “almost 7” and one of 4 (two were mixed grips). These were just hard. I did not sleep well..was tired and I had no endurance at all.


bench: 10 x 134, 8 x 150, 6 x 150, 5 x 150, 1 x 150 (wanted 20 reps)

curls: 3 sets of 10

high incline: 10 x 94, 2 sets of 5 x 105

Yes, the knee, well, both knees, was a little bit sore.

A 47 year old relationship turns toxic and I say “goodbye.”

The relationship began in 1978. I had a strange knee pain and swelling; I couldn’t even run a mile without the knee blowing up. Exams, surgeries..and I had “your symptoms are consistent with rheumatoid arthritis, but the blood markers never showed up (my synovium was very inflamed; red to purple and I had rice bodies in my knee). So began a 10-12 period where I was on heavy doses of NSAIDS: aspirin (4 taken 4 times a day), Naprosyn (prescription level doses), etc.

Eventually the knee stuff died down but I had the usual shoulder, lumbar, and yes, knees at times. So I was on again, off again with heavy doses.

But..eventually, I got mouth ulcers (last November it was severe) and I got off of them. I tried a few Naproxen and…bam..mouth ulcers are back. The doctors would not prescribe NSAIDS for me but gave me a weak opioid (Tramadol) instead. I’ve yet to take any.

But NSAIDs, we’ve had 47 years together, and I’ll miss how good you made my joints feel. I am going to have to take it the rest of the way with heat, ice, activity management, etc. And yes, I can still do stuff; I have very little daytime pain. The pain is almost exclusively at night, at about 5 hours after going to sleep. It is relieved by stretching and it goes away after a step or two upon waking up. Crazy.

Today: super slow 5k of walking (almost 19 minutes per mile) and 1 more mile of commuter walking. No problems .

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.

Pain free evening

I gave into it and took Naproxen yesterday. None today.
Pain free night.
Now about today: I did a leisurely weight workout followed by 3.2 miles at 16:09 (16:44 mile then high 15’s after that)

The weight workout:

Yes, I trolled a friend. LOL..she is not me.

The set of 8 on the bench press was hard, as was the 1 x 305 on the trap bar deadlift.

Bradley Basketball

On Thursday, the women played the Murray State women. It went as expected: 81-55 Murray State. It was only 13-12 after the first quarter, and got out of hand after that. Bradley had 18 turnovers and 18 field goals.

The men’s game went as expected as well: the spread was 6.5 points going in (though MSU is 14-14) and Bradley won 85-83 in overtime, scoring a last second layup. MSU went out to a 12 point lead in the first half and a 16 point one in the second.

It was a 5 pm start and 7560 attended, the second largest crowd of the season. One more men’s home game remains, and three women’s (with the next one tomorrow)

Knee pain is back

Sort of. I am trying to get a handle on what hurts it.

I had pain the last couple of nights, though it resolves with a stretch.

Yesterday: 2 mile commuter walk and weights:
pull ups; 9 sets of 5, one of 7 (cold: 0 F)
bench: 10 x 134
incline: 3 sets of 5 x 134
high incline: 10 x 94, 6 x 105, 5 x 105
curls: 3 sets of 10.

Today: walk outside: (7 F); icicles in the beard walk. 3.2 at 16:30 mpm

Building back up

Slow, 2 miles in 3 F walk after weights:

pull ups (it was -3 at the time)
5, 7, 6, 6, 6, 8, 5, 5, 4 (hands were cold; not great reps)

bench press: 10 x 134, 6 x 150, 7 x 150, 6 x 150
high incline: 10 x 94, 5 x 105, 5 x 105
curls: 3 sets of 10
4 inch deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234

Note: no knee pain last night (treadmill the day before)

Note: while I feel 100 times better than I did last week, I still coughed after the higher exertion sets.

Yesterday: 3.1 on the treadmill in 45 (per Garmin; my treadmill’s reading gave me a sub 13 pace), then a 1.2 mile commuter walk.

Still on the upward path

I felt good enough to try more of a workout.
PT
Pull ups (while it was snowing): 7, 7, 6, 5, 5, 6,5, 4 (mixed grip), 4 (mixed grip), 1 (to get to 50 reps)
Swiss bench: 10 x 134, 3 x 150 (missed with rep 4), 7 x 134 (first rep was a pin press)
regular bench: 5 x 150 (harder than it should have been)

high incline: 10 x 94, 5 x 105, 5 x 105
curls: 3 sets of 10.
Then a 15:4x ish walk outside on *mostly* plowed walks. I wore my heavier shoes.
Had some knee pain last night so I iced today.

Coughing: still cough during exertion (right afterward) but it has calmed down quite a bit.

Plan: maybe a bit harder tomorrow: challenge myself to 5K?

Basketball obsession: watched the Bradley men on TV (picked up just before halftime due to the longest game ever before) and the Bradley women on ESPN+; at first I had the women on the phone and the men on the laptop. Both won 2 point games (Drake, Indiana State). I payed more attention to the women’s game as it ran a shorter time; then I watched the conclusion of the men’s game.