Sleep deficit

The Summer Olympics are over and it's time to get back on a regular sleep schedule. Training has been nice and boring, which is exactly how I like it. No injuries, no problems, just steady progress. I felt very good for a nine-miler on Saturday.

Amy's 26th (Flanagan gets Bronze)

Amy Begley-Yoder ran 26th in 32:38.28, a little over 2 minutes behind teammate Shane Flanagan, who appears to have set an American record of 30:22.22 in the process. It wasn't Amy's best time, but I think she probably ran the race she wanted to, so good for her. Based on what she said about her pre-race strategy and abilities relative to the field (I haven't seen the race yet), she probably had to put out 102% for too long to stay with the top group and then cracked.

I hope NBC shows some of it now that there's a US medal winner. Amy's bib number was 3140, I think. An interesting note for the future is that Shane's first Olympic appearance resulted in a 22nd place finish, so I wonder what the future holds for Amy?

I nominate Amy for fastest Celiac on the planet - I'm proud of you!

Go Amy! Women's Olympic 10K final starts in 15 minutes

NBC Olympics has Amy Begley-Yoder starting the 10K in lane 3. Amy had to find her own cook in Beijing. GO AMY!

Runners live longer and have fewer injuries

I always suspected the findings from this study.

Selected study findings:
Runners were half as likely to die over 19 years.
Runners had fewer injuries of all kinds, including those to their knees.

I've always said that running keeps me young, now I know it's true...

Elite Weightlifter with Celiac

The Boston Globe reported a story about a weightlifting athlete with Celiac. I had a couple of thoughts about this interesting article. She keeps three meals prepared at all times. That really surprised me as an potentially effective way to keep thoughts about hunger at bay.

Another was that her parents pushed her into weightlifting at the age of 12, to help with her swimming. I don't recommend that. I think the chances that kids can overdo it and wreck some part of their body for good is just too high.

Finally, she mentioned that on a road trip she bought bottled water and gained a small amount of weight because there was too much sodium in it. Weightlifters hate extra weight because of their weight classes. That's a real "thinker," because sodium can be pretty useful preventing cramps - but weight can be a problem for athletes such as myself. I guess perhaps we just file this under "interesting, potentially useful."