For August, September and October I averaged a shade over 4 miles an hour on my treadmill workouts. That is, of course, a mile about every 15 minutes. (I also averaged a bit more than 60 minutes per workout.)
It seemed as though at that pace I was pushing myself to the limits of my durability. As the calendar turned to November, I decided to change the pace to a mile about every 16 minutes. I don’t like to extrapolate from a sample size of one, but yesterday’s workout was a relative “piece of cake” by comparison.
Of course, if I hadn’t pushed myself the previous three months then yesterday’s exercise would almost certainly not have been as easy. I may still have to mix in a few workouts averaging a mile every 15 minutes. Still, as I am not training for any competitive event, just trying to stay in shape, I think 4.1 miles in 64 minutes (all uphill), as I did yesterday, will do the trick if I stay on my (almost) every other day schedule.
There is NO substitute for regular exercise. No pill, no diet, no surgery can provide the same benefits. Among all “wealthy” nations, US citizens exercise the least, by far. All US citizens pay the price.
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Even though the game was tied 14-all at halftime, yesterday’s computer football league championship game was, indeed, an anti-climax after the incredible “NFC” championship.
After committing five turnovers in the conference championship, Texas began the game by driving 50 yards and then losing a fumble at the Las Vegas 25-yard line. The teams traded touchdowns to reach the aforementioned 14-14 halftime score.
On Texas’ first possession of the second half, Joe Burrow threw an interception. Despite starting the ensuing possession in the red zone, Las Vegas could only get a field goal.
The game turned from there. On 1st-and-10 from its own 25-yard line, I called the favored play: a bomb to Cooper Kupp. The computer put Las Vegas’ defense into keying a run, not a pass, and played zone coverage. 75 yards later Texas had regained the lead and would never look back.
Las Vegas turned the ball over on its next two possessions, which Texas turned into 10 points and a 31-17 lead. In the fourth quarter, the Tornadoes kept the ball for almost nine minutes on a drive and added a field goal to finish the scoring and win the championship game 34-17. (This was the same margin by which “NFC” championship loser Phoenix had defeated Las Vegas during the regular season, although that score was 27-10.)
The Lightning committed four turnovers, three in the second half. The one thing the Texas defense did well, rushing the passer, manifested itself in five sacks of Josh Allen. Just like he was in the real Super Bowl in February, 2022, the computer named Cooper Kupp MVP of this championship game. He was targeted 10 times, catching 8 passes for 202 yards, 3 touchdowns and, just as important, 7 first downs.
Just like that, five months of computer football games are over. I am a little down over the end of the season.
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A week from today, the US mid-term elections will be a thing of the past. For that, I will be grateful. The vile, vitriolic political ads turn my stomach, even though I almost always mute the sound.
Arizona is a most polarized place with the candidates for both parties sounding like they’re from different planets. I have been criticized for not voting. My answer is always that I have no one to vote for. Neither party speaks to me; neither party speaks for me. I am not going to offer my views on any particular issues, certainly not in this blog post. I will only write once again, the only solution is dissolution.
#AMinuteCanMakeADifference
#ComputerFootballSeason
#TheOnlySolutionIsDissolution
#somanyCARSjustonelife
#disaffectedmusings
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Disaffected Musings 
I lost my taste for anything in the political arena after seeing it from the inside over 20 years ago. I was a volunteer lobbyist and also a volunteer on a gubernatorial campaign back then. Looking back, Mark Twain was correct: There are 2 things you don’t want to see, hows laws or sausage are made.
The only difference I see in the 2 major parties today, is what lies they tell the electorate about what they are going to do. If they told you straight up what they were going to do, all would likely be run out of town on a rail (at least I would hope for that). Voting today is a matter of holding your nose and voting for the lesser of 2 evils (at least you hope the lesser).
If the only solution is dissolution, it’s going to get ugly. It won’t be north against south, it will be state against state, and even neighbor against neighbor. Worse than it is even now.
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Thanks, DDM. I believe you once wrote that if a candidate needed to say that the sky was brown and water was dry in order to get elected, he/she would do so with the zeal of an evangelical preacher.
Dissolution would certainly not be easy, but I see no other solution. Give every state, maybe even every county, a one-time opportunity to align itself. Of course, how “national” highways, defense and maybe Social Security and Medicare would be funded, administered is an 8,000,000-pound gorilla. I am not so naive to simply believe that “where there’s a will, there’s a way” will win out. I just think the status quo is untenable.
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Several elections ago the Congressional district we were in then, the election was decided on less than 200 votes out of over 300,000 cast. Every vote counts. Yesterday, I hand carried our mail-in ballots to the County Recorder’s office and deposited them into the ballot box therein. Yes, we vote every election.
I have restarted my morning walks through our neighborhood after more than a year of not completing them because of my knee problems, (read pain). I used to walk 1.5 miles in around 28-29 minutes. I am only completing half of what I used to walk as I have not yet built up my leg strength after my knee replacement surgery, so the less than half of before in now completed in about 20 minutes. I will eventually get back to my former 1.5 miles in a couple of months. I know it is 1.5 miles as I counted the steps and my engineer brain had me calculate out the distance. I still have my PT exercises to do daily as well as at least one session on the exercise bike. It takes a long time to recover from surgery where they literally beat the crap out of your leg. I took pictures of the bruises on my leg to remind me later.
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Thanks, Philip. Yes, on occasion an election is decided by a handful of votes. However, that wasn’t the point I was making. Neither party appeals to me and voting for the “lesser of two evils” is still a vote for evil.
Continued success on your rehab.
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