I have been obsessively watching the Olympics.  Even the sports I didn’t think I cared about.  I don’t know if the NBC commentators have been throwing in subliminal messages or I’m just enjoying the actual sport.  But seriously, weight lifting?  That shouldn’t be interesting to watch.  And yet, I’m hooked.  I watched the marathon yesterday.  Marathon.  People running.  Sure, they cut in with other sports, but it was mostly a lot of running.  By the end, I was cheering for the woman in the lead to not fall and end up losing.   Did I know anything about this woman before the race started?  No.  She’s from Romania, not a country I usually find myself cheering for (though apparently, she lives in Colorado).  And yet, I had to cheer.

Of course, I’m also watching swimming and gymnastics and diving, sports I always love watching.

Which reminds me – has anyone heard anything about Rhythmic Gymnastics this year?  I feel like we used to see that on tv at least occasionally.  Does the sport even still exist?

I am also a little concerned with how China trains their athletes.  It sounds like kids are shipped off to training camps by the government and don’t get to see their parents.  I was saddened to hear that a number of athletes didn’t even have their parents at the games because they couldn’t afford to be there.

In non-Olympics talk, I’m almost done going back through my beginner running program.  Going back to a beginner program after being sick for so long was definitely the right plan.  It’s amazing how much I’ve progressed and how much easier it feels now.  I was really struggling when I first started back up.

Randomly, I think I bruised my thumbs assembling shelves the other day.  I think I should call in sick for a week so I can heal.  My job would totally go for that.

The strange thing about the Olympics being in China is that it means most of the events are happening overnight, so I always know what’s going to happen when I sit down to watch in the evening. Well, not always. Some events are broadcast live. But I still watched women’s gymnastics last night, even though I knew who was going to fall and when, and what the end result was going to be. I think knowing that falls were coming made it even more stressful.

I recorded the opening ceremonies on my DVR, and I’m in the process of watching it. I just didn’t have a 4 hour chunk of time to sit and watch the whole thing. So far, I’m really impressed. China really likes having large groups of people doing things in unison, don’t they. I can’t imagine the rehearsals for an event like that. I’m also a little bit horrified at the money that had to be spent for that event and can’t help but think of all the other things that money could have been spent on. I’m sure that people are still struggling after the earthquake, for example.

On another sporting note, I’m still running. I finally feel like I’m getting back in shape. Coming back after 2+ months off was a real struggle at first. Running for five minutes made me feel like I was going to collapse. I’m still following my beginner’s training plan, but in the past week, it’s gotten a lot easier to make progress. I think I just had to get my body used to the running motion again. I’m going to continue to take it incredibly slow, with walk/run patterns, so that I don’t end up sick or injured again, but it’s nice to be able to run again. No 10 milers in my near future though.

I’m disappointed that I’m getting back into running as the days are getting shorter though! I’m going to have to figure out a solid alternative to running outside once winter comes. At least for the weekdays. While living in STL, I didn’t mind running before the sun came up. I was one of probably 30 people out, and things were very well lit. I can run on the sidewalk along a fairly major road here, and there are a lot of cars out, but it just doesn’t feel safe, and I think I should go with my instincts on that one.

I guess that means back to the treadmill. Which feels like a hamster wheel sometimes. If only it looked like one too.