Jank’s take on Operacion Puerto

So, in keeping with the doping scandal raging through professional cycling, I’m doing a little experimentation on my own. This weekend, I contracted a massive, and I mean like scary massive, case of poison ivy, and spent most of Monday morning trying to not claw my skin off in the office of a clinic in Newport waiting to get steroids. The doc took one look at me and prescribed a massive dose of Prednisone tablets. Truthfully, I was kind of let down – they used to give a big injection for poison ivy, which absolutely rocked ’cause the itching was gone in like 30 minutes. But instead, I get to dope for about 10 days total. Woo Hoo!

To make things better, it’s toasty out here. I promise it was scratching 90 degrees today at lunch when I strapped on the Nikes to go hit my 5 mile lunchtime loop. Wouldn’t be extremely bad, but the humidity is up around 90%, too. But, I went anyway – got to get the green, squiggly line for the day on my log.

The run started out pretty well. Nike+iPod told me that it was only 2.55 to the Gazebo that I’d measured at 2.6 with both the Forerunner and Gmaps-Pedometer, but who’s going to quibble with the sultry voice that whispers in my ear whenever I push her button.

The back was awful. I’m not sure, but I think that the ‘roids have got to be doing something negative to my cardiovascular system – I just couldn’t catch my breath at all. Sure, the heat may have played a role, but even when I slowed way down, it was tough. Which must be why the cyclists topped up on EPO while taking steroids. Strength and endurance.

I took a couple of walking breaks on the way back, but still managed to drag in at a 9:30 something pace overall. Not bad for a doper.

No real new notes on the iPod gizmo. Well, maybe one: I wish that there were a setting where you could request automatic updates from the woman in the ether. I’d like to get my info every half mile or mile without having to think about pushing the button.