travel – Life of an old goat

Until we meet again…road trip ends

Ok, it has been a while.

Workout notes:
1 January: hotel 2 mile run walk, dumbbell weights
2 January: off
3 January: t shaped walk and light dumbbells and machines (Omni)
4 January: Omni to Mabel Davis: 3 loops 1:06 (5.14 miles) run
5 January: Omni to Mabel Davis 2 loops walk 4.2 m 1:07 after weights: machines (pull downs to 160, rows, flies, dumbbell presses, dumbbell bench, goblet squats
6 January: nothing..equipment in the hotel didn’t work.
7 January: am: 2 mile run 20:20 (11:40 mile 1) pm: Bradley Park; easy 5 mile hill walk (Cornstalk 5.1)

What else went on from day 3, 4 in Austin to present:

Dinner; caught the movie Bombshell at the Alamo Draft House (good event), books (picked up 4…Frum, Pinker, yes, Sowell on Cultures and Biden’s latest.
Sunday: lunch at Hyde Park Grille; dinner in Woodland with Lynnor.

On Highway 59: accident. Heading north from Lynnor’s house.

Austin, day 1

Workout notes: walked 4.5 miles at about 16 minutes per mile: basically from St. Elmo to Todd, back, then to Terri, back, then back via St. Elmo. Then weights: dumbbell presses, pull downs, rows, goblet squats. The gym is a bit different than it once was.

Dinner with the daughter:

The umbrellas on the ceiling were interesting.

In Austin

Jan 1: worked out: 2 miles on the treadmill..tough run walk (out of breath easily), then light weights: 3 sets of dumbbell overhead presses, shoulder presses, rows, goblet squats.

Then on the road to near Eufala Oklahoma.

Then on Jan 2, drive to Austin.

I’ve been eating only 3 meals a day, but I am used to one tiny meal, one brown bag and one meal out: not 3 meals out. I’ll have to work out well tomorrow morning; perhaps run one of my old courses and hit the weights hard.

Navy 20, Kansas State 17, Liberty Bowl

This was quite the game. We got there early to walk around, and there was a great deal of energy and an announced crowd of 50,000 which LOOKED like an honest number.

The prelude: we got to see both teams leave their buses. Navy had fans waiting for them; Kansas State didn’t. But both teams had some big guys…and the spirit in the stadium was great. Fans were in a good mood.

I love bowl games for that..especially when both fan bases are well represented.

The game: on the first possession, Kansas State moved it a bit but blew two potential touchdown passes; one ball was under-thrown and one potential td pass was dropped.
Navy got it and drove it for a field goal.

The teams then exchanged punts in which case Kansas State returned its punt for a touchdown; a spectacular run.
Navy got it back with a long drive. Kansas state answered with a field goal drive and it was 10-10 going in.

Navy got a nice drive to go up 17-10 but then K State got a big return. But on a 4’th and 1, they made it but got a dead ball unsportsmanlike. That was key because a sack and a fumble drove them way back.

Navy appeared to take control but missed a field goal after a long drive from its 10.

Kansas State tied it with a drive based on a long pass and it was tied with just over 5 minutes to go.
No problem for Navy; a drive burned clock and got it to about midfield. But with 30 seconds to go, Navy ran an halfback option pass off of a sweep on 4’th down that got the ball down to the 5 with 20 seconds to go. Navy clocked the ball and kicked a field goal with 2 seconds left in the game; K State’s desperation pass failed.

What a game! The stats were lopsided for Navy, but K State got a lot of return yards to even it up.
Total yards were 420 to 170 (deceptive due to the return yards) Navy had 323 yards on the ground with the quarterback getting 213.

Before the game

Game action:

In Memphis

Report on the Liberty Bowl to come.
Yesterday: walked 3 miles
Today: 1.4 miles on the hotel treadmill, hit the stop by mistake, 2 miles in 17:54 (9:36, 8:18), .6 IN 7 minutes, total 4 miles in 41 minutes.

Drove to Memphis, had some good Mexican food along the way, listened to Illinois losing 35-20 to Cal; this time Illinois had more yards but got beat.

Huge hotel room

Lots of Kansas State fans in the lobby.

Efficient Illini upset Wisconsin 24-23

What to say about this game? Wisconsin came in as a 31 point favorite. I had picked the Illini to cover the spread, given that the last couple of games in Champaign ended 24-13 and 24-10. But I did NOT pick the Illini to win.

Not many others picked the Illini to win either, and only 37K showed up, despite excellent football weather.

Wisconsin at Illinois, favored by 31. @EmptySeatsPics pic.twitter.com/JHk2lD61yv

— onanyesfbb (@onanyesfbb) October 19, 2019

Yes, the following is hindsight, but Lovie Smith’s defenses do a good job vs. classical attacks…struggle with read options and lots of play actions:

Defensive breakdown is cooking. Some observations:

I don’t want this to be the takeaway, but I can’t not talk about how Wisconsin’s lack of read/playaction was a tremendous gift. Our worst feature is overreaction/inability to pick up fakes quickly. WIS playbook hid that.

— Illinois Football Breakdown (@ILLFBBreakdown) October 20, 2019

But you know what? Wisconsin’s vanilla playbook has been steamrolling all sorts of teams this year. So give credit as well.

To combat the jumbo looks without sacrificing pass defense, we put in 3 DTs at times. Why not? DEs haven’t been great anyways. Good adjustment.

— Illinois Football Breakdown (@ILLFBBreakdown) October 20, 2019

And so we go to the game itself. Yes, total yards favored Wisconsin 420-315 and both teams missed makable field goals. But the Illini won the turn over battle 3-1, and got two HUGE turnovers in the 4’th quarter; the fumble thwarted a Wisconsin drive that might have iced the game, and the interception lead to the game winning field goal.

And yes, the Illini had a 2’nd quarter TD called back because of an “lineman downfield” penalty.

How it went down: first drive, no problem; 7-0 Badgers. But they started to sputter a bit; it was only 10-0 in the second quarter; the Illini were hanging around. Then game a slant pass and a spectacular touchdown run after the catch; the Illini repeatedly burned the Badger secondary when they tried man coverage.

Another drive ended in a Badger field goal and it was 13-7 at the half.

Second half: exchange of punts; then an Illinois fumble after a catch. Badgers cash in and it is 20-7; students start to leave.

20-7 Wisconsin and Illinois students head for the exits. @EmptySeatsPics pic.twitter.com/CPBIJlspdh

— onanyesfbb (@onanyesfbb) October 19, 2019

But the Illini would not roll over; a drive followed by a spectacular 43 yard run (up the middle no less) kept the Illini in it; it was only 20-14.

In the 4’th quarter: that is where the “don’t give up” play happened…still it was 23-14 and I thought Wisconsin would ice the game.

Devon Witherspoon & the D saves 4 points early in the 4th quarter. 1st & goal from the 3, Badgers had to settle for a FG pic.twitter.com/5gNJ8wYj49

— IllinoisLoyalty🤨 (@IllinoisLoyalty) October 19, 2019

Nope: though the Illini were stuffed on a 4’th and short at midfield, the Illini got a fumble at the Illini 25 and that lead to a touchdown drive capped by a nice pass.

Then came the final Wisconsin drive with just over 6 minutes to go. On 3’rd and 5, the Illini intercepted and drove to get the ball in field goal range, where the Illini kicker calmly nailed it.

Photos: Harry and I went to this; we are in Indianapolis awaiting the Colts vs. Texans.

Pretty fall day.

Workout notes: Saturday: 2 mile walk. Sunday: 5K run on the treadmill in 33:20; 32:26 at mile 3; varied the pace. It was warm and “pre-coffee”.

Chiefs win; Bears and Colts clash in preseason

Ok, this is very belated. On Thursday evening, the Chiefs clinched a 3 game series with a 2-1 win vs. a good Bandits team. I got there late (3’rd) and sat with Vickie and Harry.

Very good pitching; QC tied it but the Chiefs got a run in the bottom of the 8’th and held on.

Then Saturday: Bears and Colts.

Oh..the Bears won 27-17 on the strength of a strip/fumble return and a sack fumble return; they also had a 58 yard field goal and controlled the action in the second half. The first half, aside from the strip fumble return off of a completed pass, belonged to the Colts. Kelly and Cain looked sharp in the first half; Bray looked good in the second for the Bears.

But really, the game was secondary to the news that went around on social media that Luck had decided to retire.

That lead to a rather unfortunate situation where he got booed as he left the field (in street clothes)

Oh my…I understand being upset..but come on..stay classy Colts fans.

Back in Peoria

But I did run in Cincinnati first; 7.2 miles in 1:23. Not a great pace. I did see one large group of women running (younger women), one small group of 3-4 (one with a bun-hugger) and a young woman in brief, rolled up shorts blew past me as if I were standing still.

There were other runners and cyclists and walkers, many of which were friendly. Not quite as standoffish as those on the Chicago Lakefront or Austin, but not quite as “homey” as here.

Yeah, I have stuff to say; I’ll do that later.

Cincinnati: final day

Workout notes: am: easy but deliberate 4 mile walk (across the bridge). PM: about 30 minutes with weight machines, dumbbells, planks. This was to “keep the motion”, so to speak.

Today: I attended the 3 hour Math and Sports session and really enjoyed it. Oh yes, I talked too (about NBA free throw shooting streaks).

Later, I made the final talk of the day: it was about recreational math (which has some serious, non-trivial problems and fun interpretations.

Here are some photos and my comments:

Yes, I often buy a book that I’ll end up not having time enough to read.

I do find good food.

Recreational mathematics: how quickly can puzzles be solved?

Yes, the solution is NP complete. My mom bought me one of these.

Yes, checkers IS completely solved..as of recently.

A list of some of the stuff the speaker covered. The art made from straight strings was fascinating.

Sports and math: talk 1. I am intently listening.

Is there a way of seeding a tournament so that no higher seeded team would want to swap places with a lower seeded one?

Ice skating and the mathematics of solving the associated physics problem

Some baseball strategy. Yes, the “new school” works better than the “old school.”

How does one rank teams, especially if there is a tie in record and you have round robin results such as: Illinois 55, Minnesota 31, Minnesota 41, Purdue 10, then Purdue 46, Illinois 7? (yes, this happened in 2018).

So did this: Minnesota 37 Wisconsin 15, Wisconsin 49, Illinois 20 and, well, we’ve been through that.

One method: introduce a new node “oracle” and use eigenvectors of the adjacency matrix of the associated directed graph.

This was my audience for talk no. 3 of the session. I enjoyed myself.

Cincinnati: first two days (running and social)

I got in late Wednesday night; slept in a bit. There was a Trump rally near my hotel but I decided against going; I did see his motorcade go past my hotel.
I attempted a run/walk along the hotel’s suggested route, but much was cut off and it was HOT..and I had not drank enough water. So I jogged about 22 minutes and walked it back for about 40-42 minutes worth and had a leisurely dinner of mac and cheese with brisket meat. It was good.

Today: I drank a lot of water and felt better. Jogged 5 miles in the morning (56:43; 28:33 out, 28:10 back) and felt ok. Walked 5 miles (same route) in the evening and took photos.

Photos:

NOT the run:

After this morning’s run

Day one.

Day two.

Lots of empty seats for the second part of a 3 part lecture series. Math just isn’t that popular at MathFest…it is all about trying to make math more popular and the nuances of teaching, course planning, etc.

Now for the run: