Tired, but worth it

I did not get to bed until after 1am this morning and unlike the old days it was not because I was out tying one on (truth me told in the bad good ole days the night didn’t even start until 1am, pretty sure that would probably kill me now).

But I digress, I was up watching the dying days of the Olympic games, women’s 5000 mtre final, the men’s and women’s 4 by 100 relays, the men’s 10 mtre platform diving prelims and finally the men’s Pole Vault final.

The women’s 5000 was OK and although I truly admire the ability of little Tirunesh, especially as she managed the 10,000/5000 double, but to be honest it was a little meh, it pretty much felt like a fore gone conclusion. It’s a shame we just don’t have any Aussie girls who are competitive at that level.

The relay’s were exciting as usual and I was sorry for the Jamaican girls when they stuffed up the last baton change, but that is the nature of the event.

The men’s, WOW, they smashed the world record, but with Bolt and Powell running 3rd and 4th it was always a chance. Damn that was an exciting race, I reckon I held my breath for the whole 37.10 seconds and my pulse was racing almost as fast as they were. Stoked that Asafa will be going home with a medal too, he is a real sweetie and he ran his guts out last night. Bolt was just phenomenal as usual and I swear if it ever turns out that he is on the juice I will cry bitter tears and take to my bed for a week.

The Jamaicans also have my pick for the best uniforms too.

Without resorting to the tired puns that have been trotted out by the press this week let me just say, how good is Jared Tallent? The little fella won Bronze in the 20km walk and then backed up for Silver yesterday in the 50km walk. Sure I am in the “why walk when you can run and damn don’t that look a little bit silly” camp but have nothing but respect for the athleticism, I certainly couldn’t run 50km in 3 hours 37 minutes, let alone walk it.

Last but definitely not least congratulations to Steve Hooker, GOLD in the mens Pole Vault. He was always going to be in with a chance but was far from a certainty, but it seems that he has got his head right and it paid off for him. Again I was holding my breath as he ran up and lifted into the air, I even found myself unconsciously getting up off the couch as if I could help him get some extra lift after he was a cert for gold he went on a cleared 5.96 for the Olympic record.

No shots of the ceremony because they are not holding that until tonight.

Funnily the Olympics have been quite good for me while I have been injured, watching all the athletes has helped keep me motivated and focussed on my recovery and has definitely kept those competitive fires burning.

The men’s marathon is on tomorrow morning, I had a dream about it last night which is a bit sad really, aslo our men qualified for the 4 by 400 relay which is being run tonight. Go Troopy, go Boys!

This morning while they were showing replays from last night I jumped on the bike for 46 minutes and churned out a tempo session, average HR 82%. While I was watching the mens 4 by 100 replay my HR jumped to 90%

Afterwards I spent about 30 minutes doing some core and strength work, crunches, some Pilates stuff, planks and lunges with 3kg hand weights. If anyone (Jo) is looking for some good core stability exercises here are some that I use (just click on the core stability link)

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