28 September 09 (am)

Workout notes 2000 yard swim. 9:55 for the first 500 (!), then drills (500 with fins), 10 x 50 (alternate paddle, free), 4 x 100 IM, 100 side. I was horrible! Part of the reason is that I woke up at 3:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. Part of the reason is that yesterday’s marathon took more out of me than I’d care to admit.

Posts

Beware of swallowing those studies that say “we showed a group of X photos of Y and took brain scans“.

Also beware of statistical studies, especially if you are prone to agree with the conclusions. There was a well publicized study purporting to show how ill informed Oklahoma high school students were. I found the results to be shocking, even for Oklahoma. Well, there may be a reason for that. Note that this “study” (the one that Nate Silver is commenting on) was run by a group which advocates for private education.

In Canada, some Christians were offended by a statue of Ganesh. Ok, not having religious symbols on public property: sure, if it applies for one religion, it ought to apply for all. Fair enough. But this isn’t what this person said:

If the zoo wants to keep the statue and “[embark] on teaching the public about world religions, Blake suggested that the facility also erect the cross of Jesus Christ, the Ten Commandments and Noah’s Ark

“The display of foreign gods is offensive and does not reflect the views of the majority of Canadians,” he continued.

Foreign gods? What an idiot. Note: this quote is from an article linked to by the blogger Friendly Atheist.

Quad Cities Marathon 2009

Background I’ve been dealing with a chronic “behind the knee/upper calf” problem; over the past three weeks I’ve walked only 4 workouts (and had two easy runs during that time). But I was signed up and decided to see if I could do it.

I did a 5:14 in Rockford this past May.

My last marathon finish on this in this race (slightly different course) was in 2005; the report is here.

Yes, I did take a couple of Naproxyen about 3 hours prior to the race.

Weather: cool at the start (spandex season! ) and it warmed up into the high 70′s toward the end; it was also somewhat windy/breezy.

Here is the quick and dirty from facebook:

Ok, I’ll admit it: the last “real” training walk I had was three weekends ago; I had a chronic “behind the knee/upper calf soreness” that was getting worse. Hence I did the racewalk clinic two weeks ago and three very short (3, 4, 5 mile) training walks otherwise over the last three weeks.

But I had signed up in advance and wanted to try the marathon.

For those who are unfamiliar: I walk these 100 percent of the way, though in this race I took a few breaks where I street walked (to protect my tender spot)

Note: I had walked a 5:14 at Rockford, but I was well prepared for that race.

Upshot: my first 5 miles was at my normal pace (56:36), I was slowing at mile 10 (1:55:36), slowed some more (mid way at 2:34:36), 2:57:15 at mile 15, slowed way down in the next 5 miles as my calves started to swell (4:01:21 at mile 20), and the next 6 were done in the just get it done with mode (5:10:45) at mile 25, and 5:28:36.

That was an ugly positive split (2:34:36, 2:54:00 for the second half). But I didn’t get passed that much during the second half; most people slowed.

More details:
I really didn’t notice all that much difference early on; though the few hills that there are come early (miles 1-5) I was maintaining my pace rather easily (low 11s); I did take one “cheat break” where I did some street walking. I was taking succeed tablets every 2 miles or so; that kept the nausea away. But today my body didn’t like Power Ade Zero; I often like this during less strenuous walking.

Again nothing seemed wrong until mile 10 (I was chasing a lady in pink shorts). But then my 11s turned into 12s; this happened as we passed from Davenport into Rock Island.

On Arsenal Island (where we were from miles 13-20) those 12′s migrated into 13s and there wasn’t much I could do about it. My calves just plain lost power and I started to walk very “stumpy”.

I did a mile with Beth (who was to finish 1 minute ahead of me) and was going back and forth with some walk-joggers who got away from me.

By the time we left Arsenal Island my legs were shot and I wasn’t able to push off or use my feet. I felt the effort but I’ve felt much worse in other marathons. But my pace migrated into the low 14s.

The out and back was oh-so-long (10 K) and I was in the “finish this” mode.

Spandex notes evidently one of the elite runners (female) missed the start; I saw her blow by us and weave in and out in the first mile; she had the little hiked-up spandex bun-hugger.

From mile 4 to 5, there was one of those “oh, can’t I give it just a little rub just this once” types (black half-tights and purple spandex top) I think that the most attractive marathon runners are the 4:30 to 5:30 finishers! The faster ones tend to be too skinny for my tastes.

Stats Geeks: Place: 673/746.

mile	time	cum time
1
2		22:35
3	11:32	34:07
4	11:29	45:36
5	10:59	56:36
6	11:31	1:08:08
7	11:36	1:19:44
8	11:45	1:31:30
9	11:47	1:43:18
10	12:18	1:55:36 (still ahead of Rockford)
11	12:00	2:07:37
12	12:26	2:20:04
13	12:19	2:32:24 (about 2:34:36 at half)
14	12:17	2:44:41
15	12:33	2:57:15
16	12:39	3:09:55 (Fell behind Rockford pace)
17	12:40	3:22:35
18	12:31	3:35:06
19	13:00	3:48:07
20	13:13	4:01:21
21	13:14	4:14:36
22	13:28	4:28:04
23	14:06	4:42:10
24	14:23	4:56:34
25	14:10	5:10:45
26	14:51	5:25:36
26.219	2:59	5:28:36

Other marathon reports:

Andy Payne Marathon (2008) 6:16

Quad Cities Marathon 2007 (DNF mile 23).

Quad Cities Half Marathon 2008.

Football weekend 26-27 September 2009

Yes, I did see a couple of stinkers; I was happy that Texas beat UTEP but the score was 64-7; it was 47-7 at the half. So I switched to Illinois-Ohio State; that one ended 30-0 Ohio State.

But the Notre Dame-Purdue game was excellent. ND was up 17-7 at the half and into the 3rd quarter. But Purdue stopped ND’s running game and came back to take the lead 21-17 with 3:40 or so left in the game.

ND drove the ball and scored on 4′th and goal at the 2 with 25 seconds to play.

Notre Dame’s last three games were decided within the final minute; they aren’t an elite team but their games are entertaining.

They are also well followed; I found this comment to be, well, weird:

5 MOST OVERRATED
[...]
Notre Dame: We still are waiting, Charlie Weis. Where is that signature victory? It probably won’t come this season with a schedule that’s packed with middling teams. ND already has lost to a Michigan team it had no business losing to. And it nearly lost to Michigan State. Still, don’t be shocked if the Irish get another undeserved BCS bowl bid – where, of course, they will get blown out like they did in Weis’ first two seasons.

I agree that Notre Dame isn’t an elite team that that its schedule isn’t as hard as it usually is (though many of the teams are not that easy…) But “overrated”? I don’t seem them in the rankings (and they don’t belong there); people are realistic about them.

Nuts and bolts:

Here is a synopsis on the “spread punt” formation. I note that I haven’t seen this in NFL games. I wonder if this is because the NFL interior linemen can’t leave until the ball is kicked.

Professional:

I picked up the Bears-Seahawks game when the Bears were down 13-0. It appeared that the Bears fumbled on the Seahawk 2 yard line, but the Bears challenged the ruling. It turns out that the Bear pass receiver WAS down prior to losing the ball; the Bears ended up scoring. They took the lead in the second half 14-13 and extended it to 17-13. A pair of Seahawk field goals pulled them to a 19-17 lead but the Bears Rallies to go up 25-19 with 1:54 left; the touch down came on a quick slant pass against a blitz which designed to take the Bears out of long field goal position.

The Seahawks got the ball to the Bear 30 (or so) but failed to convert on a 4′th and 2.

Note: I didn’t watch this game, but I love the photo (I played offensive tackle in high school)

(photos from Yahoo)