covid 19 – Life of an old goat

Slight relapse, winning, etc.

Today: I’ve had sort of a mini-rebound wave. I’ve had brief periods of just not feeling well, though my workout went fine. I quit my walk at just the right time.

Wednesday: PT, stretch, walk.

The second walk went great for 1.8 miles or so.

Today: weights and a short walk.

Mile 1 was 14:04. I quit at just the right spot. It was cold and rainy.

Weight: 196.

the weights: pull ups: single crunch/lumbar stretch combinations (5, 5, 8, 8, 6)

two sets of 5 then 10 singles.

Push ups (before) 2 sets of 20, 2 sets of 15, along with 2 sets of 10 chest taps.

Weights: low: 10 x 134, 10 x 190 (no bounce) 4 inch: 10 x 235 (no bounce) All felt …good?

Then high incline presses: 10 x 75, 10 x 80, 10 x 85, full range of motion this time. Lighter, but yes, I CAN get the full range of motion, engage the back, etc. I feel it (in a good way) and will stick with that. I think I can up the weight just a bit.

Then the walk.

Bradley Basketball

Bradley raced to a 37-26 halftime lead and extended it to 44-28 with 18 minutes left in the game. BU was getting great shots..and working to get them. But then BU got a bit complacent and Missouri State clawed back into the game, pulling within 6 at one point.

Nevertheless BU responded and won 64-54.

This is a very good Bradley team; 20-8, tied for first in the Missouri Valley conference. And yet..the average attendance is about 1900 LESS than the first team our current coach had..which went 5-27. The largest crowd we had this year was just over 6200 which would have been a below average crowd from 1992-2014…every single year.

“Win and they will come” has been scaled back. This year saw the worst attendance going back to at least 1978.

COVID and Roe

COVID: I have not spoken about this for some time. Clearly cases are going up again and yes, hospitalizations, while still low, are trending up.

I am starting to see an uptick in mask use (indoors) and I’ll stick with mine for a good long while. Second booster: depending on what happens, I’ll try to delay that until fall, when I’ll be back in the classroom and (maybe) going to football games (the maybe is that I don’t know the future status of my back)

Roe a leaked document, confirmed to be authentic, says that the SCOTUS is likely to either overturn it or at least weaken it a great deal.

And OF COURSE you knew the reaction:
MEN: STFU. WE are ANGRY. And there will be gatherings, marches, protests angry speeches and …it won’t matter. (and of course, the usual “what about meeee…” coming from the “men get abortions too…” crowd. (transmen with the biology of genetic women)

Of course, things are rarely that simple: men are 50-42 in favor of “pro life” and women are 52-43 in favor of “pro choice”; the difference is not as great as some might think.

No, I am not going to protest or march: those things do NOTHING. What I will do is participate in get out the vote activities …because what we need most is a law from Congress, and to get that, we need our people in Congress to begin with. THAT might do some good.

Sigh..this will be difficult. All too many times, Democrats give exactly the wrong message. They think “these laws hurt people in demographic X” is somehow going to persuade people on the fence.

Reality: “the poor” are ..just not popular. No one wants to be poor and the idea that many of us are just an unfortunate incident away from being like them is too unpalatable to contemplate. Hence, the poor are instead resented.

So championing them will never pay off at the ballot box.

Democrats …just have no idea on how to market…none at all. We are awful at it.

Brrr…

Just getting caught up; due to a snowstorm we had classes online on Wednesday and Thursday; back to “normal” today. So, I went to my office in my sweats (short walk).

The snow was deep enough to get inside my tall boots; snow on the rug was from my socks.

Tonight: made a women’s game; hardly anyone there. Indiana State got so many second chance points; they raced to a 30-14 lead though Bradley cut it to 7 at the half.

But alas..back to a 65-47 lead going into the 4’th and the final ended 83-63. Rough year.

Yes, I hate cold weather, but the work..well. slowdown gave me time to relearn stuff and I enjoyed the math and interacting with students.

COVID 19

Down to 100 new cases a day…deaths were from the previous surge, including 2 in my age group and 4 in my spouse’s.

Workout notes first, note my Ned Flanders like neighbor used his snow blower to clear off part of our driveway and to do most of the sidewalk on the street! That is so sweet…really. I shoveled some more and it did set off the glute…though the cold, slippery walking didn’t help either. But the spinal twist stretch before bed helps, a LOT.

Shoulder: mostly ok.

Note: I’ve returned to the naproxen as it does take away a LOT of the body-ache.

Now about the workouts:

Wednesday: weights…it was COLD…managed 8 reps on the pull up bar; called it quits. strong wind, blowing snow..ugh.

Still got rehab and 4 sets of 25 push ups
bench press: 5 x 154, 5 x 154, 5 x 159, 1 x 181 (hips down); most I’ve done since April.

dead lift: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234 then 8 inch: 10 x 270

Thursday 1:02 for 22 fake miles; 10 min medium then 15 reps of 1 hard, 1 easy, 4 reps of 1 easy, 4 medium, then finish medium, followed by a ton of rehab (clamshell, banded walks)

Friday Upper body: 4 sets of 5 singles, set of 10 (gloveless), sets of 5/5 singles to get to 50 reps, then 2 sets of 5 chins.

Inside: rehab and 4 sets of 25 push ups

bench: 3 sets of 5 x 161 hips down, 3 sets of 10 rows (60 each arm)

3 sets of 10 curls, 3 sets of 10 x 99 shoulder (better depth)

Heavy snow on the way

10-15 inches expected.

Covid is dropping rapidly; still a high rate but the trend is in the right direction:

The last time we saw numbers like these: Hospital, Dec 8. Peoria: early December. Things are getting better.

Workout notes: 5 mile (fake) cycle, some rehab (with bands), 20 mile (fake) afterward.

How: 2.5-2.5-0 warm up, 0-17-3 afterward.

Adios to January 2022

I did not dream that we’d still be masked up, but it is necessary. Oh yes:

Yes, deaths..mostly from the previous surge. But ..at the store today, only one wasn’t wearing a mask. How about that?

Today’s workout:

pull ups (not that bad) 2 sets of 10 singles, 2 sets of 10, 4 sets of 5 including 2 wide, 2 chins

push ups: 30 sissy, 30 feet elevated, 15 deficit, 25 regular

stretches

bench: 10 x 134, 5 x 154, 5 x 154 both easy (butt on the bench this time; hips cramped a bit…need to work on flexibility)

rows: 3 sets of 10 each arm with 60

curls: 3 sets of 10

shoulder: 3 sets of 10 x 99 (so so)

Day one: in the books

Well, positivity is 20.66 percent, way down from 29.x percent, though cases and death toll remain high (179K population)

Yes, these would have been terrible numbers a month ago. But these represent an improvment.

Social media;

Workout notes: glute tingles are still there. But no real pain.

Weight gain? Maybe; pull ups aren’t that bad but I feel my waist.

pull ups 5-5-5-5-5-5-10 singles-10-5-5

push ups: 2 sets 30 sissy, 20 feet up, 20 inside (cold)

deadlifts; 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224 low

10 x 260 8 inch.

Almost free

I have one medical deferred final yet to grade. Legs: kind of dead. Back: much better but still some tenderness.

Today; pull ups: 40 singles, nice set of 10, 2 sets of 5 chins.
Push ups: 30 sissy, 25 feet elevated, 20 feet elevated, 10, 10 deficit, 10 normal.

Deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224, 10 x 240 (slightly too much) which is a rep PR.

bike: 32 minutes, plus some rehab; some “stand on one leg”.

COVID: we are in hot water here. Last week: positivity was 8.6 percent and that appears to be heading up, up, up.

Back tweak but

I am feeling ok now; I could climb over seats as usual.

Deadlifts plus easy 30 minutes bike (10 miles; low resistance)

10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224

on the 3: 3 x 275, 3 x 275, 3 x 275, 3 x 275, 5 x 274 (switched bar, to be sure) all on 3 minutes

1 x 314 low handle (best since 1995 or so); that is what did the back in. Then 30 min. bike.

Later: academic work; Bradley game; easy 80-55 win over SIU-Edwardsville. This was their worst loss this season.

COVID-19: we’ve had a troublesome spike locally; went from less than 10 cases a day to about 100 ..the jump was 10 to 24..to 50 to 100. So, I noticed more (not all) are masking up; even in stores.

Workout

End of the Semester

Ok, time to catch up a bit; no posts for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. I did write up exams and the like.

Workout wise: Wednesday: did the bike after pull ups: 10 singles, 5-4-3-2-1, 5-4-3-2-1, then 4 sets of 5.

Pushups: variety: 30 sissy 2 sets of 10 flat/extended, 30 sissy, 2 sets of 10 flat/extended, 20 legs elevated.

deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224 low, 10 x 251 4 inch, 10 x 275 8 inch.

Thursday: yoga, slooooow 5K walk. 16:30 ‘ish pace, breaks at 20, 30, 40 minutes

Friday: pull ups, included some sets of 10; 60 total reps, lots of rehab, push ups: did two sets of 10 sissy, 10 feet elevated, 10 full extensions, 10 flat, then 10 full extension, two sets of 5 flat (exhausted)

downstairs; one armed rows (3 sets of 10 each arm), curls (3 sets of 10), then shoulder presses: 10 x 88, 10 x 98 (not quite the quality), 10 x 93 (better)

Went to the Civic Center for a COVID test (long story; B had a positive rapid test (lab), took a second which was negative, but she wanted a lab test so I went with her.

I took a rapid home test: negative; I’ll take one tomorrow as well.

Also: watched the Bradley Men beat Northern Iowa 71-69 with the winning basket coming with 4 seconds to go. BU lead early, but hot shooting got UNI back into it; they had one player with 20, another with 30..rest..not so much.