Olympics

I love the Olympics. I love everything about them. I could sit for two weeks and just watch nothing besides the most talented people in the world swimming, running, and tumbling.

Most of all, it is motivational. I love watching people achieving really great things after having dedicated their lives to an arbitrary fitness skill. With my limited experience swimming, I understand how much of an accomplishment it is to hold your breath and pump out that last 25 meters just under the world record. I love seeing the most talented gymnasts and swimmers in the world burst into tears because they've won, or lost, and I realize that they are just like any other teenager. It makes me feel like I could do something really good.

I will never be an Olympian. I like to think that if I had decided to pursue figure skating when I was 12 I might have had the chance, but I know, deep down, that it never would've happened. I will definitely never compete in swimming, cycling, running, or triathlon. But, I think I could be that good at something. There is something out there, I don't know what, that I can master. I can be a world champion in something, even if I don't get the chance to showcase it in front of a billion people. It might be teaching; I don't know. I'll keep working at it. I know it's definitely not a lot of things, but teaching is still a possibility.

In other news, I have beaten some personal goals in athletics. I ran my best 5K of the year in 32:06.  I'm still looking to break 30 minutes, like I did once in April 2011 (I still think it was a fluke, or a short course). I've run over 12 miles per week for the last 3 consecutive weeks. I slogged through a seven mile run on Sunday, even though I didn't feel like it. I was sore and had stomach cramps, but I totally aced the mental game. I split up the run into bits, focusing only on jogging two more minutes, and then two more minutes, and then two more minutes, for a total of 90 minutes. I was proud.

Last week, I accidentally did two long bike rides. My first ride was on Monday, but thinking it had been on Sunday (and therefore counting for the previous week), I did another one on Friday. I could have looked at my log, but forgot. Instead, I ended with my best week this year (possibly ever), with total mileage approaching half ironman (HIM) mileage. My first goals are always achieving triathlon distance spread out over a week, before I can aspire to completing the distances all within a day. A HIM is 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. Last week, I completed 1.1 miles of swimming, 52.1 miles of swimming, and 12.1 miles of running in about 8 hours of training. Definitely my best training week ever.

As the training gets harder, I'm getting a couple of aches, but nothing overwhelming. My knees, especially the right one, get a little sore as my long runs and bikes get longer. I've reached the point where my long run is making up more than half my weekly mileage, which is actually a terrible idea. It means that I'm not building up strength by longer runs. After doing or not doing the Olympic tri on August 12th, I'll step back and build up smarter, but putting more mileage into shorter runs and building up weekly mileage rather than only  weekend long runs. I've also developed shin splints in my right leg, but the pain goes away pretty quickly, as the muscle soreness subsides. All in all, one of my most successful and least painful summers.

This afternoon, I'm planning to do a nice long brick, which is a bike-to-run workout. Bricks are terrible. It'll hurt. I hope to do 1 hour of biking followed by 30-40 minutes of running. But, to get myself psyched up for it, I will watch the women's gymnastics team finals!