Training and other observations of the summer

Olympic Trials passed and I transitioned over to a two week strength cycle. I think it did me a lot of good. I felt really beat up by Olympic Trials, with all the national meets jamm packed together. My wrist was killing me, finally, I found a decent pair of wrist wraps, flexible enough for performing snatches. (Yes, as you may have guessed, my wrist wraps are Stefan Botev brand... I was using APT ones, before, too stiff...athletic tape loosened up to quickly)

Anyhow, after my two week cycle, I started in early June a complete cycle for the university worlds. We are doing 80% strength conditioning and 20% technique. Its brutal. Lots of reps and the weights gradually increase. The summer heat and humidity do not help either. Who needs Air Conditioning anyway?!

Overall, training is awesome. I only need to keep the momentum going.

Being its July, I already turned in my USADA forms. After hearing of all the recent positives, I am left with a certain feeling of... ehhh.... "Je ne sais quoi" . Basically, filling out the USADA forms, you give detailed info on where you live, train, work; day by day, what hours, cell phone, home phone numbers....etc. It's like the Patriot Act, talk about Big Brother. I'm paranoid about my protein bars and protein powder.

Still, I am not complaining--It makes one feel like US lifters really are clean.
My husband, who has trained and competed all over the world, reports that an elite lifter (230 kg @ 90 kg bdywgt) once told him, "It is not a sin to do drugs, it is a sin to get caught".

Also, interesting is that the US has very good access to high quality protein and permitted by USADA supplements. For example, outside the US, its difficult to find inexpensive and of good quality protein bars ...to think I eat them like candy. In this stagflated economy, soon it will be cheaper to eat US beef than bread or rice. Seriously, beef, a good protein source, is much more expensive in most other countries, except for Argentina.

Now, looking back at what I just wrote, where am I going with this? Not sure. I'll just stick to fillling out my USADA forms, eating lots of beef, and protein bars ... =)

Another hot topic is Olympic slots, countries potentially losing and gaining slots due to drug positives. Some questions which have been popping into my head are:
1. Why are women limited to a max of 4 slots?
1a. In that case, why are men and women both limited to less than full teams for the top countries
2. Why do women have fewer weight classes than men?
Honestly, being from an engineering and Six Sigma background, I am always tempted to do a statistical analysis correlating bodyweight, gender, and lifting results.
.... Another reason I love weightlifitng--- the numbers tell you everything.