Weekly Rundown- Wait… What Happened?
Hello! Once again I’m linking up with the esteemed Kim and Deborah for this weekly rundown. Boy, if I thought I had brain fog LAST week… this week doubled in craziness. Getting my son ready for college, preparing for our road trip (he and I will be driving to Texas on Tuesday!) and, oh yes, I still have a daughter who has her own needs- she started seventh grade this week and had all sorts of extra things going on, like a trip to the orthodontist and before-school band rehearsals. I’m so frazzled that my memory literally doesn’t extend back as far as Monday, but luckily I wrote it all down, so here we go: Monday Monday used to be my day off, and someday might be again… but this morning I did Kristen McGee’s 30 minute Morning Yoga Flow class on the Peloton app. I liked it much better than getting up and doing nothing on a Monday! Tuesday I did a 40 minute pool run in the morning, and another 30 minute yoga class in the afternoon. Strangely, I haven’t done a yoga class in years, and here I am suddenly doing it every day. I just need something different to calm down my brain. Wednesday 3 mile run!!! Ah, running… how did I ever survive without you. Thursday I did Matt Wilpers Strength for Runners class, again. Followed up with Runners Touch exercise. This is such a great exercise- it works your glutes, hamstrings, and it’s single leg so is good for balance. At night I did Chelsea Jackson Roberts’ 30 minute Evening Yoga Flow class, hoping to clear my mind before bed. In spite of all my best intentions, I still didn’t sleep enough this week. But I tried! Friday Another 3 mile run. Funny how that used to be a short run, but after not running much this summer, and in this heat, running for thirty minutes seems like a nice workout. Saturday I did Matt Wilpers Strength for Runners class AGAIN. I know- this is getting insane. I literally have hundreds of classes on the Peloton app to choose from, and I keep doing the same ones over and over again. I just don’t have the time or energy to find another class and figure out what weights I need… I will at some point, but not this week. Followed Matt’s class with Becs Gentry’s 10 minute Core for Runners. I’ve also done this class before (of course. ) These two classes combined tired out my muscles perfectly, without making them too sore. Maybe I could be challenging myself more, but once again this was perfect for this week. Sunday 5 mile run, hooray! I’ve been missing my long runs so much, so I took a route I normally use to go long- I just turned around much earlier. Two things made this run hard- one, the water fountain I planned to stop at was turned off (darn!) and two, because my eyes have been itchy lately, I’m wearing my glasses today instead of contacts- which means I had no sunglasses. I wore a visor, but when that sun came out from behind the clouds, it was BRIGHT, and made it seem much hotter. But that’s okay! I wanted the last mile to feel hard. I have a crap-ton of laundry, cooking and cleaning to do today, but I’m planning to squeeze in another yoga class later on. Ah, such an exciting time!!! I’m trying to appreciate every day now, even though they’re busy, because it’s my son’s last week at home. I’m excited about our road trip, but every time I think about the fact that I’ll be leaving him in Texas, my eyes fill with tears. But no time for crying now (I’ll save that for the long drive back by myself.) Onward! Anyone else have kids start school yet? Was it an easy transition? Is it cooling down at all yet where you are? – We’ve got quite a while before it’ll cool down here.
So, What Did We REALLY Think of the Olympics?
First things first. I love the Olympics! I really do. As always, there were some incredible moments from the 2020 summer games. My top favorites were Molly Seidel winning bronze in the marathon, MyKayla Skinner winning silver in the vault (so glad she finally got a chance!), watching Caleb Dressel swim and Athing Mu run. But there were just a few things I wasn’t too happy about. Let’s start with the obvious one… What is the deal with women’s beach volleyball??? Okay. They were great! They won gold! But did we really have to see every single game??? Nothing against beach volleyball. But there were so many sports we didn’t see any of… like boxing, handball, table tennis… not that I necessarily wanted to see those, but I also didn’t want to see hours of beach volleyball every night. What in the world would make it so popular that it was on prime time coverage all the time? One article I read claimed that it’s popular because it’s a fast-moving, action-packed game. Okay, fine- but then why didn’t we see any men’s beach volleyball? I didn’t even know there was such a thing as men’s beach volley ball until I looked it up. Guess what the men wear- CLOTHES! Shorts and a tank top, while the women wear bikinis. The women are not required to wear bikinis, but they claim it’s the most comfortable outfit. I seriously, seriously doubt that. Every time they went diving to the ground, I thought how uncomfortable that sand must be against their sweaty skin. I would love to know how many people actually liked ogling the women while watching volleyball, and how many were bothered by this. It does seem like we see it every Olympics, so apparently not enough people are bothered enough to change it. Another explanation, besides the fact that they didn’t make a spectacle of themselves in skimpy clothes, of why we didn’t see any of the men’s beach volleyball, is that the US men’s team didn’t medal. Which brings me to the next point… The NBC coverage was too gold medal-centric. I remember watching the Olympics as a kid with my mom and sister, and hearing all different countries’ national anthems at the medal ceremonies. If an American won a silver or bronze medal, we would see their medal ceremony, even if it involved an athlete from another country winning the gold medal. We loved hearing the different anthems, and commenting on how some were pretty (Canada) and how some sounded strange (China.) I remember my mom explaining to us that Chinese music sounds different to our ears. Seeing athletes from all different countries getting their medals was a normal part of the Olympics for us. I get that NBC can’t cover everything, but I wish we could have seen more medal ceremonies. Can we really not bear to see another country’s flag flying higher than our own for a brief moment? Or is it that we don’t think winning a silver or bronze medal is worth televising? It would have been nice to see some of our athletes receive their hard-won medals, even if they weren’t gold. Just think! If they had shown the US gymnastics team getting their silver medals, we would have seen the Russians win gold and hear the stirring notes of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto fill the air… Wait. What? If Russia was banned from the Olympics, why was Russia at the Olympics? If you watched the Olympics, you’ll know that Russian athletes competed under the name “Russian Olympic Committee” instead of “Russia.” Russia was banned from competing because they were caught in a state-sponsored doping scandal. What did that involve, exactly? WELL… For the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia (the host country) was determined to dominate. They implemented a mind-boggling scheme where they provided banned substances to dozens of athletes, and then drilled a hole in the wall of the testing facility, allowing them to pass tainted urine samples through the wall in exchange for clean samples. None of the Russian athletes were caught doping, and the Russians achieved their goal of winning the most medals. When the story came out, Russia received a ban until December 2022- until that time, no athlete can represent Russia at the Olympics or World Championships. Seems pretty fair… but Russian athletes proven to be clean (supposedly) can compete for the “Russian Olympic Committee.” Instead of their national anthem, Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto was played at their gold medal ceremonies. So much for the “ban.” I’m not sure what the solution is. On the one hand it’s not fair to punish all the Russian athletes. Some of the gymnasts were just kids in 2014, so clearly weren’t part of the doping scandal. On the other hand, is it fair to athletes like Ryan Murphy, who said he believed he was swimming in a race that’s “probably not clean” after winning silver to Russian athlete Evgeny Rylov’s gold in the 200 meter backstroke? The “ROC” was just Russia, thinly veiled. Maybe certain athletes could have been allowed to compete as a “neutral” athlete? I know that many, many athletes participated in races that weren’t clean, and it’s not just the Russians. Plenty of US athletes have been busted for doping, and those are only the ones who have been caught. I like to consider everyone innocent until proven guilty, but it’s hard after what happened in Sochi. In conclusion… This post could go on and on. I haven’t mentioned Simone Biles, how weird it was to have no spectators, or the fact that I had to search and search to find out how Jacob Riley and Abdi did in the marathon… it was a strange Olympics with mediocre prime time coverage. But I’m pretty sure we can say that every four years. It was still fun to watch, and now we have the Winter Olympics coming up in six short months! In the meantime, I’m enjoying a much, much
Weekly Rundown- Brain Fog Edition
Well, hello! Thanks for visiting my weekly rundown. It was a week of running, lots of Olympics watching, and not nearly enough sleep. I’m so sad the Olympics is ending, but I’m looking forward to feeling a little more rested. I’m linking up with Kim and Deborah for this rundown. Here’s how the week went! Monday Usually a day off, but I did some PT exercises on this day. Tuesday Three mile run, hooray!!! I can’t really explain how happy I am to be running again, but anyone who’s been injured knows how I feel. Followed this run with a Peloton class- Matt Wilpers Strength for Runners. Wednesday I’m happy to say this was my only pool run of the week! It was… pretty much the same as every other pool run (other than the one where I didn’t have my headphones, grr!) I “ran” in the water while listening to a podcast. Thursday I did Matt Wilpers Strength for Runners class again, followed by a core class, followed by pushups. Ugh! My upper body has turned to jello this past month. Luckily I don’t really care… yep, I said it out loud. All I really care about is being able to run, so lower body strength is so much more important to me. But I’ll do the obligatory pushups… it can’t hurt. Friday Another three mile run! Followed by a little bit of core work. Saturday And now, for something completely different. I was so tired all week, and it caught up to me today. I was debating between a pool run and another strength class, and I had the sudden desire to do… yoga. I haven’t done yoga in YEARS. Since the Peloton app has tons of yoga classes, I did Aditi Shah’s class to open the hips, and let’s just say my hips did not open. In fact, my entire body felt like it was creaking and crunching throughout the class. But it felt good! I think I’ll incorporate more yoga into my workouts for a while and see how I feel. *A quick time-out* HOW ABOUT MOLLY SEIDEL????????? I didn’t expect that. It was only her third marathon (the Olympic Trials marathon was her first) and let’s be honest… it’s hard for the Americans to hang with the Kenyans and Ethiopians. But she won the bronze medal, which is incredible. Funny thing… after the race and her post-race interview (how touching was that, by the way?) my husband said, “she kind of looks like you.” I had been thinking the same thing! There’s something about her profile and the way she squints up her eyes, that bears a slight resemblance to me. I’ll take that as a lucky sign! My long-lost “sister” Molly won an Olympic medal in the marathon! It must mean something good for my own running coming up. Right? Sunday Four mile run. It was hot- I didn’t get out very early in the morning. But I was just so happy to be running, I didn’t care. I listened to this Strength Running podcast where Jason interviews Brodie Sharpe. One thing they talked about was the concept that there’s no such thing as “over training,” rather the problem is “under recovering.” They specifically mentioned getting enough sleep. If I could have kicked myself while running down the street, I would have. Here I am recovering from all sorts of issues this summer, while at the same time cheating myself on sleep. It’s like I believe in the importance of sleep except when it comes to me. Well, it’s never too late! This week I’m making sleep a priority. Did you watch the Olympics? – I have a post coming up on Wednesday, “So What Did We REALLY Think of the Olympics?” Get ready for a teensy bit of snark- I have things to say! How has your sleep been? Do you think you’re getting enough?
August Coffee Date
Good morning and happy Friday! I’m linking up with Deborah and Coco for the Ultimate Coffee Date! I have a nice souvenir mug from our trip, full of earl grey tea and I’m ready to share- August is already turning into a crazy month! If we were having coffee together, I would tell you that for the eighteenth consecutive year, I will not be getting “Mother of the Year” award. Yesterday my husband said, “Doesn’t Angie need a physical before school starts?” Hmmm? Who? Get a what- GAAAAAAAAAAHHHH! I completely forgot that my daughter has to get a physical before seventh grade, and school starts TUESDAY. Shouldn’t the school have reminded me of this? Oh… there it is. In a voice message I never listened to. A frantic call to the pediatrician confirmed our suspicions that they have no appointments available for two weeks. The school suggested that we call an urgent care center, and LUCKILY my husband was able to get her in for a last-minute physical. Crisis averted. In my defense, I’ve been distracted by the upcoming departure of my son. I’m hoping to at least pull out “Mother of the Week” in a couple weeks when I drive him to Texas! Yes, it will be an epic road trip from Boca Raton, FL to Baylor University. I say that now, but there’s a strong possibility that I’ll be regretting this decision somewhere in Louisiana, especially on the way back when I’ll be by myself. But for right now we’re excited about this trip. Speaking of my son’s departure… last week several bloggers posted about their home gyms, and I was severely envious. Right now my “home gym” consists of me moving my weights and mat from room to room, trying to find a convenient spot. I’m now having the evil thought of turning my son’s bedroom into my temporary “gym” while he’s gone… of course it will turn back into his bedroom for Thanksgiving and he’ll never suspect a thing… muahahahaha. That picture is from my post-run workout earlier this week… look at my muddy legs. And wet shoes. August is a soggy month here. Anyone else feel like it’s extra hard getting the kids back to school this year? For those of you who don’t have kids- how’s your August going? I want to hear what it’s like to have a “normal” month!