Olympic wrangling

I think the new iron/protein pills are working because I had tons of energy at work and was able to push through a bunch of stuff quickly for the first six hours without a break.  I was trying to time my supper break with the womens' 10000 meter race, and not knowing the exact air time, I worked like blazes in between periodic TV checks.

Well, it wasn't aired at all because some African winning a race, and other Africans placing 2nd-3rd-4th-5th, means pitiful advertising dollars for NBC even though Tirunesh Dibaba won the 5000 meter and 10000 meter races in Beijing and ultimately is a joy to watch because of her breathtakingly fluid running form.   Hopefully she gets to run the 5000 meter race this year: apparently, there is still some wiggle room in the Ethiopian team selection.

Anyway, buoyed by my successful selection of a new non-buggy server (hello, BBC!), I got on the TM and ran an amazing first 20 minutes.  Not only did I slip into an efficient form right off the bat, but I was able to shift slightly within that form and experiment without losing it, while maintaining an exquisite economy of having to move only a couple of tiny little scraps of hip flexor.  Everything else felt weightless.  Even my footfalls were airy.  At times I felt a connection with my core.  Usually it takes me at least 15 minutes to warm up, and I cannot hang onto good form more than a few minutes or so.

Unfortunately, my treadmill doesn't have a water bottle holder deep enough to be practical, and I try not to go more than 20ish minutes without water in this weather, and so I stopped to drink and it took me at more than 20 minutes afterward to get close to the form I had before--finally, I was close (endorphins helped by this point) and I decided to see how it would feel to run 7 miles, if I could improve my form, regain the one I had at the beginning, etc, etc, and I did.  I floated to 76 minutes exactly.

I would like to try to run at least 75 minutes once a week, as a not-hard run, meaning that one of my other workouts will be tempo intervals, and if I do a real long run, that won't count either, maybe.  It's time to regain my relaxing 80ish min runs.

Afterward, I did resistance workouts.  My left hamstring was starting to feel tight and I find that deadlifts can loosen up that sort of thing, plus I should do these resistance exercises at least once a week.

Another successful week done!