
Oh yeah? How was that experience?
Let’s start with the night before any of this. Actually, we can go back a little further, because I already said I pulled my fitness tracker out of retirement and as such, made at least a small commitment to addressing my declining health. I’d been walking pretty regularly, maybe 2.5 miles a day, weekdays. Then, I decided to address the issue with my bike and get road tires so that I could use the bike on a stationary stand and get some higher cardio benefits. And then I agreed to at least try exercising with the GF on the weekends I was over there. So, in my mind, I was committing to one day a week of a real workout.
The night before the first workout, I was hit with anxiety. I don’t get anxiety, but that’s just another “don’t” that was destined to fall this weekend. I woke up in the middle of the night and my heart was pounding. Like pounding so hard it was making my breathing stutter. I did eventually fall asleep again, but had a poor sleep and woke up the next morning little unchanged.
Normally, I don’t worry about things. I have a “just do it” mindset and just go, ignoring whatever consequences there might be. This time was different. This felt like going to the dentist, where I just disassociate and become a zombie. (Although my current dentist is pretty amazing and although I’m over the fear of most procedures, some are still unknown.) So, we get to the gym (a “box” in their terms) and I’m just sitting against the wall staying away from everyone. I had no idea what to say, do, or behave. I wasn’t sure if I would be guided or just left to figure it out on my own.
We start out with a warmup – running. The only time I can ever remember running was doing track events in summer school, like 30 years ago. But running is instinctual, so I just did it. I got winded pretty quickly. My mouth dried out and that was it for me. But that wasn’t it for the workout. That was the “warmup”. There was also stretching and some other stuff I don’t even remember anymore. Oh yeah, ring rows in place of pull ups. Couldn’t do ‘em. I think I was on my third set when my body gave out. I was near passing out and every time I mentally set myself to expend the effort to do a set of rows, nausea welled up in me.
So that first day, I figure I was only able to do half a workout. Pathetic. I was assured that the first day is always the hardest. And after resting and getting all calmed down, I wasn’t yet done for the day. I don’t get anxiety. I don’t run. I also don’t puke.
But today is full of firsts. It’s a pretty raw memory for me, back in 1995 or so, when I last hurled, barfed, upchucked, chunderspewed, vomited, or puked. And that night I swore I would never do it again. I would do anything to keep that from happening again. But today, after thinking I had dodged the possibility once again, when everything was calm, the warning hit me. It’s strange how you instinctively know how to run and also strange that you know when you are going to throw up. Your body actually preps you for it by coating your throat with mucus to protect it from the coming tsunami of acid. And that taste and sensation is unforgettable, even after decades.
I made my announcement and swiftly, yet calmly, went to the bathroom, whereupon I did the deed. My unbroken streak was now broken. All in the name of some sort of health benefit. Cruelly, the gym makes you sign and date a puking man mural on the wall when you fail to keep your fluids. But I was assured (again. Lots of assurance here) many times that people only sign the wall once.
So, that was fun. Sounds fun, right? Let’s do it again tomorrow! Fuck yeah! More running, more stretching, more things. Jumprope, throwing medicine balls, pushups, weights. Again, I failed about midway through, but that was also because I knew when that nausea feeling arrived, it was not something to fuck with.
So, that was fun, too, right? Except for the fact that my muscles really fucking hurt. So, tomorrow, then? It’ll just be a private workout at a friend’s house. What’s to say about that? More of the same, more failing halfway through. Much more pain in the muscles, especially the legs.
It’s hard to say where this is going to go, but it’s not fun. I’m assured that it’s going to get better. The first day is the hardest. The second day is better. In a week or two it will start feeling good. I am not sure if people that work out have a different definition of what “feel good” means. This is probably the most radical change I’ve made in my life, just in the span of three days. I can’t evaluate it yet.
Watching The Races
I’ve been keeping an eye on the COVID race for a few months now. The players I watch are all standout players: FL, TX, PA, and GA. Those are the places that have people that I know, so I watch their progress.
I remember when FL was the star, I seem to recall it was in the top 5 for a while. But PA put forth a massive effort and shot right up the charts. TX was a slow starter, but it’s been doing pretty well lately. GA has always been mediocre, which I suppose is a good thing, honestly. But FL is recently finding its mojo and is climbing in rank again. Go, FL! Obviously, no one is going to take the crown from NY, and NJ is probably always going to be second to NY (in everything), so there’s only so far you can go.
For three of my players, I watch their personal progress dashboards. Two of them, FL and TX, use the same software, so it kind of gives some equal comparison of the numbers. But in both cases, they use graphs that are misleading. Well, they aren’t if you understand the data, but for casual observers and those that don’t want to put the minimal effort into understanding, the response could be either, "this isn’t so bad", or "this is great" when the reality is neither of those sentiments.
Take a graph from FLs dashboard:
Wow, that’s impressive. Deaths are falling, and dramatically at that! This is all behind us, let’s go party!
But there is a small disclaimer below the chart, for those that care to read: "Death data often has significant delays in reporting…". That means that those low numbers in the near term are low because there’s no data yet. Those numbers will rise as time goes on, but that’s just fine, because there will be newer, lower numbers to report as time goes on as well.
Here’s a graph from TX’s dashboard.
This is just dumb design: plotting two values, one that will constantly increase, and one that will remain relatively constant on the same scale. This will have two effects. First, the number of deaths per day (in blue) looks like a really small value. And comparing 20 to 1,698 does make 20 seem very small. But as the total number grows, and it will, every day, the scale is going to eventually have to be adjusted, and the daily value is going to be insignificant.
TX does the same charting with the number of cases, with the same effects.
Maybe its incompetency that made these charts, but in the current political climate, and judging that these two states have pushed very hard to justify their reopening plans, it might not be a stretch to think this is just propaganda. The numbers don’t lie, they’re not telling you anything false. It’s just being presented in a way that looks most favorable.