Olympic Loafing

I will miss the Olympics. I've watched more of them this time than all other years combined. For some reason, they have been very enthralling. However, it will be nice to catch up on sleep!

I am still watching the men's marathon, sort of...the tv coverage has ended, but the live feed is still showing. Looks and sounds like a great crowd; I just saw some guy from Luxembourg come in 70ish, and he was waving and smiling, and the crowd cheered for him. Now there's a Japanese guy; he just finished and bowed to the crowd in all directions. Yes, they didn't win, but the conditions seemed punishing, and a whole lot of people didn't finish at all. To enter a stadium with tens of thousands cheering, after enduring two-plus hours of racing, must still be a thrill.

As for the other end of the race...well, wow. That was pretty gripping. I can't imagine the mental fortitude required to start off so fast in such heat and humidity, never mind hanging in there for over two hours. The gold medalist slowed down a bit, but managed to look pretty fresh throughout.

The weather was probably similar to the afternoon weather here, and I had no inclination whatsoever to run. I'd thought about it, but it is a recovery week and I'd decided I'd be happy with anything over 40 miles. 43.44ish is good enough. Plus, my main reason for running today would have been to exercise the dog, but it was way too hot for him to run. So I rested. There are three tough weeks ahead and then the army run a week after that. That will be fun and give me something to look forward to, help me through.

But, yes, I can't help but compare my aerobic effort today to theirs. lol

However, I did get at least an hour's worth of stretching during the marathon. My yoga has slipped this past week, and between that and the low sleep, I'm feeling tighter. I still haven't quite hit upon the right stratagem for hanging through those 5-6-7 minute poses, apart from going to class. However, watching the marathon coverage was very inspirational. It wasn't so much the distraction as knowing that whatever discomfort I was feeling, they were feeling ever so much more, so I had no excuses.

Now I have to keep that in mind during these next few weeks. Tomorrow is a short long run, lol, just about 2 hrs, and then the real test comes: an 8-hour work shift.