Degradation: of one’s own body (with age) and of others…

Workout notes
Weights only: I slept late (until 6:20!) and got to the weight room late.
pull ups: 5 sets of 10, with hip hikes and Achilles and rotator cuff as rest
bench press: 10 x 135, 3 x 185, 3 x 185, 7 x 170 (tired on the last set); ab routine
(sit backs, twist, crunch, vertical crunch; 3 sets each) as rest.
incline press: 10 x 140, 6 x 140 (very tired on the last set)
dumbbell military: 3 sets of 12 x 50 lb.
rows: Hammer: 3 sets of 10 x 210
curls: 2 sets of 10 x 57.5 pulley, 1 set of 10 x 70 machine
pull downs: 3 sets of 10 x 160
Note: I super setted most of the stuff after the bench; I was tired during my last sets.
I felt strong on the bench but didn’t push for that extra last rep.

Degradation with age
In the locker room, I talked to a former university basketball player; he is now in his early 80′s.
I asked him when he started to notice the decline in his physical abilities: he replied “mid 30′s”.

My guess: those who know how to push themselves notice the decline earlier than those who are merely active but don’t test limits often.
Here is how it worked for me:
30′s: I noticed my mile time getting slower; that 5:30 became a 5:40. 5K, and even the weights were roughly the same.
40′s: early 40′s, my mile took a big hit (breaking 6 became VERY difficult, then impossible) and the 5K started to slow: the half marathon and marathon stayed ok until 2001 (early 40′s).

Now: everything is slower and weaker (in my early to mid 50′s). Master’s athletes told me to expect it; in fact the former basketball player that I talked to, who still looks good and still works out, told me that now that he is in his 80′s, getting out of a chair is harder than it once was.

Someone who was (is) fit told me that when he got into his 70′s, he had to quit taking the 4 flights of stairs as it took too much out of him (to be able to teach).

Degradation of others
A friend (who racewalks) was on a plane to a race where she encountered someone else going to the race. She was asked “are you going to run half-marathon X”? He reply: no, I am racewalking it with someone.

Travelling on a plane of race people can be either great or suck. A gal just said “oh you running Nike?” Me: “Race walking.” “Oh” she said with a snotty tone. “You slow walkers better stay out of my way! I run!” Her anticipated time – 3:15:00. And yes I do have her face memorized. I promise to smile when I walk damned strong & proud past. Don’t mess with Shep!

No, that is NOT 3:15 for a full marathon….”I run????” OMG.
Yes, my walking friend passed her easily and had a friendly reminder for her.

But seriously folks: unless this 3:15 “runner” was making a joke ….goodness. What is wrong with people?
Yes, I’d say something about “hey you walker, I hope you don’t slow me down” but I’d be sure and say it to my friends who can WALK a half marathon at 7:45 minutes per mile and a marathon at 8-8:30; I’d say it to people who I knew were way faster than I. (note: an Olympic medal contender racewalker could do 6:20-6:30 for the half and 6:50-7:00 for the marathon).

For the record: since 2010, my walking half marathons have ranged between 2:22 and 2:40; my single half marathon run was 2:01. (power walking; I can no longer legally racewalk as my right knee does not straighten 100 percent of the way)

Bad Arguments Don’t Imply False Conclusions

I admit that I haven’t followed the Steubenville rape case closely. I know that some of the people have posted angry rants about some of the media pointing out that the rapists ruined their own lives (they did) and about “rape culture” (huh)? And much of the reporting from the left wing media has been poor. Here is an example. Most of it is a “jocks are an entitled bunch who feel that they can do whatever they want and coaches should be..uh….

In thinking about Steubenville, thinking about my own experiences playing sports, thinking about athletes I’ve interviewed and know, I believe that a locker room left to its own devices will drift toward becoming a breeding ground for rape culture. You don’t need a Coach Reno or a Bob Knight to make that happen. You just need good people to say or do nothing. As such, a coach or a player willing to stand up, risk ridicule and actually teach young men not to rape, can make all the difference in the world. We need interventionist, transformative coaches in men’s sports that talk openly about these issues. We need an economic setup in amateur sports that does away with their gutter economy. But most of all, we need people who recognize the existence of rape culture, both on and off teams, to no longer be silent.

As for Steubenville, Coach Reno needs to be shown the door, never to be allowed to mold young minds again. Football revenue should go toward creating a district-wide curriculum about rape and stopping violence against women. And “Jane Doe,” the young woman at the heart of this case, should be given whatever resources she and her family needs to move if they choose, pay for college or just have access to whatever mental health services she and her family require. After the trial, testimony and verdict, they deserve nothing less.

“Teach young men not to rape?” Uh, well, our society teaches people not to steal, yet some do. We teach people not to murder, yet some do.
We teach people not to drive while intoxicated, yet some do.

While the campus sexual assault prevention programs HAVE been correlated with reductions in sexual assault rates (I learned this from Steven Pinker’s book Better Angels) and they should be continued, people are foolish if they think that rapes will be eliminated and that an example of an incident can be extrapolated to a whole so-called culture. That is not sound reasoning.

Now, at the college level, we do have some data:

Male athletes in big-time college programs are responsible for a significantly higher percentage of reported sexual assaults than other students, according to the first national study on the subject.

While athletes constitute 3.3 percent of the total male student population, they were involved in 19 percent of the sexual assaults reported to judicial-affairs offices at colleges, according to a Massachusetts-based study released yesterday at a sports-sociology conference in Georgia.

Sex crimes involving athletes are less often reported to campus police, suggesting that women are particularly reluctant to accuse athletes of wrongdoing unless they can do it quietly and efficiently, as the more private, campus judicial-affairs system allows.

The authors of the study are Todd Crosset and Mark McDonald, professors in sports management at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Jeffrey Benedict, a graduate student at Northeastern University.

Without getting into the causes behind the relationship between athletes and sexual assault, the report provides evidence of a problem consistently discounted by coaches and administrators.

“Obviously what it warrants is the question: Is sports contributing to the incidence of rapes and sexual assaults?” Benedict said. “In some cases it’s probably coincidence. But in many cases it may be that being a player in a big-time program makes it more difficult to determine what’s criminal and what isn’t.”

The authors leave to future researchers the question of whether the culture of contact sports creates attitudes that foster sexual crimes against women.

However, what I haven’t seen (and need to see) is correction factors: is there a correction factor for, say the athlete’s IQ versus the IQ of the general student population (low IQ correlates with increased violent crime). Is there a correction factor for socio-economic background? In other words, does belonging to a sports team increase the chances that an individual will commit sexual violence? Or, is there a correlation between the person who is good at sports (especially the violent ones) and the ones who are prone to commit sexual violence?

Remember it has been shown that there are genetic factors to behavior.

Also from the above study:

But, the authors warn, “even here, reports were not uniform from school to school – suggesting that the social environment of programs may vary significantly and have a substantial impact on the rate of sexual assault.” Rates often jumped after coaching changes, indicating that coaches may have a strong influence on player attitudes, the authors wrote.

Although campus police records also showed that athletes were involved in sexual assaults at a higher rate than other male students, the authors concluded that the difference was not “statistically significant” on that basis.

Police records, however, are the least accurate gauge of sexual assault on campuses, Benedict said. As in any criminal matter, victims must file formal charges against the accused perpetrator and submit to a public, sometimes lengthy legal process.

Victims showed a preference for going through the campus judicial-affairs office, which cannot impose jail time but can offer relief to the victim by such measures as removing the alleged perpetrator from the same class or residence hall. The office also handles matters behind closed doors.

Now some might say: “athletes have a high profile and are therefore more likely to be charged falsely”. But another report talks about this:

Athletes, and some of their supporters, have also contended that because of their notoriety, athletes are more likely to be scrutinized or falsely accused than nonathietes and that no real differences exist in their behaviors. The findings here do not support this contention since the athletes in this sample self-reported higher levels of physical and sexual abuse yet none of the athletes in the sample had been publicly accused of abuse. Further, the victims of sexual abuse in this sample reported higher rates of victimization than perpetrators admitted to, implying that perpetrators do not always acknowledge the sexual abuse they commit.

So the study (the one with the data) is an example of a reasonably good article; Dave Zirin’s The Nation article is pretty much junk (one reason I quit subscribing to that rag; I mostly agree with their conclusions but their arguments tend to be terrible; it is “Newsmax for left wingers” caliber stuff).

I also looked at the Boston University hockey case and read an article about a “task force” recommendation. I found the following to be interesting:

A six-month assessment by a special task force appointed to examine the culture and climate of the BU men’s ice hockey team has found significant deficiencies in the structures and processes that are designed to provide oversight of the program. These weaknesses, in turn, resulted in the supervision of student-athletes’ conduct falling disproportionately and inappropriately to the coaching staff, whose oversight was also lacking. The task force also found that a culture of sexual entitlement exists among some players, and that this, combined with the absence of sexual assault prevention training and education, led to risky behaviors.

Hmmm, ok…but…

The report concludes that the hockey team’s disciplinary history does not show a pattern that is significantly different from the undergraduate population as a whole,

Emphasis mine. Of course, in this case, “n” might be too small to make a conclusion.

Anyway: there is SOMETHING going on here even if it isn’t the “cultures” that some are talking about. I have to remember that many “know” things because they construct a model that “makes sense to them”, which, of course, is NOT evidence. This may be a result of their thinking or the data that they have access to, or their own life experiences.

I know that I am sometimes guilty of this: I’ve played sports in high school (and, ok, I sucked) and didn’t find any “rape culture” in the locker rooms. I know some elite athletes…who are….well, let’s just say that racewalkers aren’t a representative sample of athletes.

So, I haven’t been in these locker rooms; then again, neither have the ranters who think that they “know” so much.

My conclusion I am not sure as to what is going on; there is a problem but I am unconvinced that it is a “culture” problem.

Misconceptions

Superstition This has an interesting part on how living things (with brains) really operate on a “correlation equals causation” program: Skinner’s pigeon experiment:

Multitasking
You hear this a lot. But in reality, you really can’t; if you split your attention you will do a poorer job at everything. That might not be a problem if you are blogging with a game on, but if you are in a classroom, if you attempt to “multitask”, you will miss a LOT and possibly distract others around you. Now there is evidence to bolster my claim.

Pakistan
A Pakistani argues that Pakistan has more of a “reality” problem than an “image” problem.

The South (in the US)
They can’t wrap their heads around the fact that they were in the wrong during the Civil War.

Seen on facebook

Not true for me but that is because my workout sessions are competitions of sorts, and I regularly test myself. Hence I can see the bench press getting weaker (4 x 225 is now 4 x 180), pull ups getting more difficult (sets of 10 instead of 15), and the 5K taking longer to complete (just under 20 to just under 25).

But, on the other hand, I am still doing those activities and the degradation of my performance is really a “numbers” thing. Ok, it is an appearance thing too; the muscles just aren’t as tight as they once were. And, I don’t notice much of a difference during my “day to day” activities; only in the gym, at the race, and in the pool (which I need to return to).

Exodus, Broken Toes, Teaching the Controversy, Budget Hocus-Pocus, etc.

Workout notes part II
Weights: due to crowding I did the bench/incline presses last, and they didn’t go so well: 10 x 135, 3 x 175, 5 x 160, 5 x 160 bench, 2 sets of 5 x 135 on the incline. The stuff prior: pull ups, rotator cuff, rows, pull downs, curls, military presses (machine); all of these went really well. I also only did 4 sets of 10 sit ups (varied incline) and lots of different types of stomach crunches; my back has been chronically sore.

I am willing to work to improve athletically. But I am NOT willing to do this:

Would you break your own toe to win a Paralympic medal? Would you sit on a sharp object or strangulate your testicles? It’s cheating, but a scientist who will be monitoring athletes at the Paralympic Games says a third of competitors with spinal injuries may be harming themselves to boost their performance.

The practice, called “boosting”, is designed to increase blood pressure and enhance performance.

It’s banned by the International Paralympics Committee (IPC), but some researchers say these are the desperate acts of athletes trying to compete on a level playing field.

“There have been times where I would specifically give my leg or my toe a couple of really good electric shocks” says Brad Zdanivsky, a 36-year-old Canadian quadriplegic climber who has experimented with boosting in the gym.
Continue reading the main story
Common boosting techniques

Overfilling the bladder, by clamping a catheter
Sitting on a drawing pin
Use of tight leg straps
Twisting and/or sitting on the scrotum
Cracking or breaking a bone

“That would make my blood pressure jump up and I could do more weights and cycle harder – it is effective.”

One British journalist with years of experience covering the Paralympics says he has heard of athletes using small hammers to crack or break a toe.

The point of these activities is to raise the athlete’s blood pressure and heart rate.

High blood pressure causes millions of deaths each year around the world, so it may come as a surprise to hear of athletes deliberately “boosting” theirs.

But a raised heart rate and blood pressure are advantages during exercise, as they help deliver more oxygen to hard-working muscles, enabling the athlete to keep going.

For most people, heart rate and blood pressure rise naturally when physical activity increases. But this is not always the case after a spinal cord injury, meaning competitors could tire sooner.

In the world of elite sports, “boosting” could make the difference between winning and losing. But it also boosts the chance of a heart attack or stroke.

When able-bodied competitors engage in hard physical activities like running or swimming, blood pressure and heart rate increase automatically. Athletes with spinal injuries do not get that response.

Yikes! I suppose the way that I could “cheat” would be to take performance enhancing drugs ….but why? Improvement for means placing 1853′rd instead of 2014′th. Big whoop. It is times like this that I am glad that I suck!

Images

This is interesting and true…

So does this means that the the exodus story is pure fiction? Of course the woo-woo stuff was, but was there any truth to it at all? This scholarly paper (PDF) deals with this question.

Unfortunately, I lack the historical knowledge to have an informed opinion; my “gut” tells me that there may have been some kernel of truth somewhere…but that is uninformed, untrained intuition.

Politics
A guy who later became President of Ireland OWNS a tea party type:

Liberal Hollywood? Rambo think “not”.
Sure, you CAN find liberal-leaning movies but they are hardly the norm, especially for the big box office draws.

Texas Judge: wants to raise taxes to oppose President Obama’s One World Government. No, I am NOT quoting The Onion or some other satirical site.

Mike Huckabee: doesn’t understand why some Republicans have told Todd Akin to stand down.

I want to drive this home: these idiotic responses are coming from TOP Republican officials and spokespersons and not from fringe bloggers. Why a Republican wouldn’t die of embarrassment is beyond me.

So, I suppose that Paul Ryan is “more serious” by comparison, though his budget proposals are fraudulent. Heck, even I could propose a budget that eliminates the debt and lowers taxes if I don’t specify how I am going to do that!

Quackery in the Fitness Industry

Ok, anyone who reads my blog knows that I work out very regularly and that I continue to participate in endurance sports, weight lifting and yoga.

But look at the above photo.

I find this downright insulting.

Why? Well, I certainly agree that working out regularly can increase one’s odds of being healthy as an older person. But that is all one is doing: increasing one’s odds.

An untimely disease can easily lead one to the left photo; since 2007 I’ve had three 50-60 year old friends die of cancer. ALL were fit for most of their healthy lives; one even ran a sub 3 hour marathon at 50 years of age…all had finished multiple marathons.

All were slender and stayed with it as long as they could. But this idea that someone who ends up on the left is certainly to blame for not doing things right is sheer nonsense…in fact it is insultingly stupid.

Spandex Butts that Tell a Story….actually three stories.

Workout notes Ok, no spandex butts here. I did sleep in until 7:30 (late for me) because I was up late watching the men’s 50K racewalk. More on that later. Then I caught a couple of boxing matches prior to getting out there.

My walk: 2:17 for 10.1 miles; I did the Cornstalk 8 mile course (two 3 mile out and backs on the hills) in 1:48 and finished with a flat 2.1 mile “out and back” down Moss in 28:30. It was cool and overcast….very pleasant and not much traffic. It wasn’t much but it was better than zero. While I was heading out two university cross country runners (male) just blew right past me; I may have well been standing still.

So, what about the stories?

Story One
This ad popped up on Daily Kos:

Hmmm; the data mining software must have picked up that I am a male that likes to run. I wonder if the fact that this is a butt-shot (panty lines too) is a coincidence. Of course, she is probably at least 20-25 years younger than I and I probably couldn’t stay with her anyway.

Even if I were single, the women I would aim for would have a bigger ass and a whole lot more lumps, bumps and cellulite. It isn’t as if my middle is a six-pack; my middle has the consistency of a Shar Pei dog.

Story Two

Yep, here is another cute spandex butt. But the story here is the message. At this time in my life, this message is FALSE, FALSE, FALSE.

It wasn’t always so. I remember ballooning up to 320 pounds. I reduced to 230 pounds and started to “run” again; it took me 24 minutes to “run” 2 miles (3.2 km). Yes, now-a-days, I frequently walk that distance faster than that (though it is an effort) and I remembered how it felt when I worked from 24 minutes to 12:45 (as a runner).

But that message is simply false for me now. When I do a 5K race these-a-days, I tell myself “ok, you’ve run from 24:35 to 26:10 on your “normal” days, so pace yourself”. But deep down I think that I am going to “finally shake this malaise off” and pop off a 22 or a 23 minute 5K. You know what? It isn’t going to happen…at least not this year and probably never. My mind still says (19-20) but my body says “no”. The reality is that my accumulated injuries has put me in a position to where I have to limit my training.

But…I can still train some…and I can still run and many people my age can’t.

Now about the Olympics
Here is story three
I watched the women’s 20K race walk. (you can see it here) I can say that the women AVERAGED 42:30 per 10k….WALKING. The race itself: watch, or at least watch the last 5 minutes (say from 40 minutes on the video onward). I didn’t have a clue as to who would win until the last 100 meters or so.

What does it have to do with spandex butts? No, not this (which I DID enjoy)

Not this either (note the yellow warning paddle being issued)

But rather this one:

Notice anything?

And this one:

and though this isn’t a butt shot:

In the last two photos, at least one walker is getting lapped (laps are 2 km long, or 1.25 miles long). Can you guess which one it is?
In the first of these three, neither walker is a medal contender.

The story here: at this level of walking (or running for that matter), only the skeleton-skinny athletes have a chance; being close to “normally slender” puts you at an insurmountable disadvantage.

Oh yes, there was a men’s 50K walk as well, which I also enjoyed (3:36 was the winning time!). You can see that here.

Racewalking commentary
First of all, I know that this is a demanding sport. Its future in the Olympics: though I don’t know the ins and outs of international athletics, I’d say that as an event in “athletics” (track-and-field) I’d say that its future is secure because China and Russia do well at it. Those are two large, powerful countries that have influence.

But the United States will never be good at it (our lone 50K walker finished TWENTY EIGHT MINUTES behind the winner). That is a bit like our top marathoner finishing 16.5 minutes behind the winner…or finishing in about 2:25. Note: our top marathoner actually finished in 4′th place overall. My point: we probably shouldn’t even send racewalkers to the Olympics as we are not competitive.

I don’t see that changing. For one, race walking is NOT an NCAA Division I sport. So where would the talent come from? It won’t really catch on with spectators either. Why? Well, I remember one comment from the race; the main announcer said that he couldn’t see the difference in technique between the winner and one of his early chasers (someone who won a silver medal in the 20K walk). His opponent got DQ’ed; two of his red cards were for “bent knee” violations. I had to slow it down to a still to even get a hint of what was going on; it turns out that the DQ’ed walker WAS locking his knee…but doing so just a tiny bit late. Only a top race walk judge or expert would have caught that. The difference was too subtle for the casual fan to catch.

Another thing: the technique is too difficult for the average fitness person to master; only those who have some natural flexibility and who are willing to do hours of technique work have a chance. So there simply won’t be large fan base from “casual” race walkers; this is unlike the marathon where thousands of 4-5-6 hour marathon “runners” have at least a little interest in the competitive sport.

Sure, *I* like it, but I am a failed master’s racewalker who has an appreciation of what is going on, and I’ve always loved to walk.

(winning a half marathon powerwalk in 2003; time was 2:17; the previous year an Olympic caliber walker won it in 1:41)

Olympic Contest: beach volleyball vs. track and field

Oh goodness; heptathlon vs. beach volleyball. Whew…..

Ultimately…….I need more data.

Olympic Water Polo…..

Move over beach volleyball!!!

Ok, ok, our women’s water polo team doesn’t compete nude.

And yes, the suits ride up (from 2004: Greek team)

And yes, there is still beach volleyball:

What was I going to say…oh….I forgot.

Onward to the Olympic Games!

Workout notes Because the knees were slightly sore today, I decided to do some running inside (on the treadmill/track)
So, 2 mile treadmill run (20:30); I started at 10:50 mpm and gradually increased the pace.
Then: 2 miles on the track (16:28); 8:35/7:52. The 7:52 was a hard-ish effort.
Then: 1 mile walk on the track followed by 2 miles of walking outside (to get used to the heat).

I might take a yoga class at 6:30 this evening.

The Olympics are coming!
So, of interest to me:
1. Boxing
2. Track and Field: the 1500, 5K, 10K, marathon, and the walks (20K, 50K)
3. Swimming: personally I am most interested in the women’s 800, men’s 1500 and the open water 5K and 10K swims.
4. Basketball. Ok; this won’t be much.

Of course, though the women’s beach volleyball teams won’t be wearing bikinis all of the time, they’ll wear something tight. Then we have swimming, diving, and those little bottoms that the women’s track runners and jumpers wear.
I hope the cameras are warmed up….

Noooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Workout notes
Weights plus 2200 yards of swimming. The swim: 10 x 200 on the 4, then 200 of fly/back. Well, the first 2-3 200′s were on 2:10, then 2:00, then walked the next few back to get to 19:50 at 1000, then on the 3:50 to finish at 38:55.

Weights: same old; highlights: only one set of 15 x 45 dumbbell military press (left forearm pain), pull ups were routine, bench: 10 x 135, 4 x 180, 4 x 180, 6 x 170, incline: 6 x 135, 5 x 135 (exhausted by then).

Politics
Mr. Romney held a “you built that” rally (e. g. built your business all on your won without that-there government help or interference… ) but…

So here’s the latest absurdity from Romneyland: Mitt Romney spent the early part of the day pushing his lame “you didn’t build that” attack against President Obama … while surrounded by business owners who depend on government contracts to make a living. Even better, he held the event, which was billed as an ode to rugged individualism, while standing in front of a banner blaring the collectivist “We did built it!” slogan. (“We,” not “I”?)

Hey, that is exactly what some of my Naval Academy classmates do: they do defense contracts while saying how they aren’t “dependent on government”. I wonder what it is like to live in such a bubble of self-delusion???

Olympics
Noooooooooo!
It appears that some of the women’s beach volleyball teams might not be playing in bikinis due to the cold weather!

What will we do without women having their bikini bottoms ride up only to have to tug them down and “out”?

Oh well, there is court volleyball:

and there is swimming:

and athletics (aka “track and field”)