Olympic stamina

With only 20 days to go until the Opening Ceremony for the Olympic Games I've already given up on my first training schedule.

Last week I visited the Samsung Olympic Experience truck when it stopped in town as part of it's nationwide tour.  It's 18 metres long and features an interactive digital experience using the latest technology.  Very impressive; we browsed iconic New Zealand Olympic moments spanning more than 100 years of Olynpic history and chose to watch Jack Lovelock's 1936 1500m and Valerie Vili's gold medal shot put throw.  Even the film from 1936 was quite clear, probably as clear as ever it has been.   

I always love watching as much I can of a variety of sports from the Olympic Games.  I realize that, with the 11 hour time difference between here and London, some things I want to watch this year will be on telly in the middle of my night or early hours of my morning.

I also love watching tennis.  Last week we got pretty good coverage in the afternoon of the highlights from Wimbledon.  I didn't have a lot of interest in the Women's Final assuming that Serena Williams would be far too strong for her opposition.  But I decided I could not miss the Men's Final, even if it started at 1 am on Monday morning.  I reasoned it would be good practise at being awake in the middle of the night and a test drive for the Olympics. 

When the game was halted because of rain I told myself, that's it, I'm going back to bed - and did.  But could I sleep?  No!  I thought Federer was in trouble and just had to know if he could fight back after the break.  I'm not too old for a bit of hero worship and Federer is one I keep on a pedestal.  I felt he had not been playing well.  Silly thing to say, he's brilliant even on an off day but he was having an off day.  If ever Murray were to win Wimbledon or any other major, he had his chance while I should have been sleeping.  Andy Murray was great, he just wasn't the best.

I must have been buoyed by Federer's victory because I didn't curse the alarm when it sounded and I felt surprisingly good at work.  

But....You knew there was one of them coming, didn't you?  Around 4 pm I sat down to read and promptly fell asleep.  Woke about an hour later with a crink in my neck, thought bugger this sitting and sleeping lark - and went to bed.  Yep, at 5 pm.  Slept till around 7.30 pm, got up and had some dinner and was back in bed by 8.30.  

This morning I woke with the alarm.  Back to normal.  But it took much more sleep than I lost to make up the deficit. 

I'm thinking of practising going to bed the minute I get home from work, and getting up and doing something (?) in the middle of the night.  If I kept at it I might have my body accustomed to it in time for the Olympics.  You think?