Three Things Thursday

1.  How About Them Women?
As much as I love the Olympics, I'm almost glad that it's over...pretty much every night I'm blubbering my face off and I can't take the rollercoaster of emotion!  The latest reason for my latest bawlfest...the women's soccer team bringing home the bronze medal after that crushing defeat by the US.  As much as I love sports, it's seeing how people fight against adversity and give it everything they've got on any given day that really makes me verklempt.  I guess ever since I did the marathon, seeing these athletes do what they do means even more...not because I'm some fantastic athlete (because I'm so not), but their dedication amazes me.  Training for a marathon required a lot of time and discipline...hours out on the road, early mornings when I didn't feel like it, always feeling achy...not that much fun some days.  Well, this is nothing...it was a short five months out of my life...these people have been training for years for their sport and it is their life.  So amazing...and definitely inspiring.

2.  Lean Mean Running Machine
As I was looking at my calendar today, I realized that I'd started Operation Lean and Mean seven weeks ago and things are going awesome.  Back when I posted that entry, I was ending my long run of debauchery and getting back to eating properly and exercising.  I've been logging my food faithfully to keep me on track and to make sure I'm eating enough (working out hard really kills my appetite!) and I've been working out a ton with all the bootcamping, running and clinic work.  I'm feeling really strong and can really tell the difference in how I'm running - lighter on my feet and running feels easier. 

3.  Spartacus
OK...I admit that I've been bad and jammed out of bootcamp for the last two weeks, but the good thing is that I've found out how much I really like the Spartacus training program!  It's been really awesome for getting my heart rate up and getting in a really good workout in a short period of time - basically if you did a 20 minute bike ride or treadmill run with four sets of the circuit would only take an hour.  Doing this program has really inspired me to look for something else in the same genre...circuits of intense work with short rest periods.  I'm still looking for a strength training program for the period after the Fall race, so maybe something similar to the Spartacus program is it.