Doping

I read a couple of interesting articles today.   This one, in particular, I found fascinating, because I am always interested in finding out more about what makes our bodies excel (or not, as the case may be).   The notion of the central regulator, or really just the idea that our bodies are designed to keep us from killing ourselves strikes a chord with me, because with the heart rate monitor I can often see that while my mind is screaming at me, my body isn't working all that hard.   Conversely, of course, sometimes it warns me that my mind is taking a vacation while my heart tries to beat itself out of my chest.   

Anyhow, this all ties into my ride tonight.   In the process of cleaning this afternoon I managed to do a bad bad thing to my back.   If you know me, you know that my lower back is a strange and dangerous place, subject to dark whims.  I've been doing a good job of keeping it appeased this summer, but whatever I did today set it off--spasms, shooting pains, the whole shebang.   Now, I was pretty upset about this, as I had plans to go riding in the evening, but I was terribly afraid that I couldn't manage it (TMI time:  sitting on the stool was enough to set it into spasms, I didn't have a lot of hope for being crunched over on a bike for two hours).   

I had resigned myself to an evening of Supernatural, when I saw Ann had replied to my Facebook post.   It's funny how it just takes that little kick to get me to do something.  So, I went into my cupboard o' meds and pulled out the prescription pain killers.   I popped one, slathered on some Biofreeze and headed out.   Now, I would be lying if I said I wasn't in pain, but it was bearable.   And after a while, when I glanced down at my computer and saw I was cruising along at 19 mph comfortably I realized a terrible thing.

I am doper.   Well, not really.  But, my mind returned to the anecdote regarding Tom Simpson and how he basically killed himself by using drugs to shut off his central regulator and over extending himself.    Now, I've been feeling a little bummed about my riding the last month or so, as it seems like I was doing better in the first part of the season than I am doing now.   It suddenly occurred to me that during the majority of the first part of the season, my back had been in pretty bad shape.  As such, I was taking a lot of pain meds to be able to ride.   Pain meds, that in their own way, alter my perception of my physical limits.   

Of course, I don't really go any faster on pain meds.   My average remains, as always, in the 16 mph range.   But I feel better doing it, which is interesting.   I figure this must be where people start that slide towards injecting god knows what into their systems.    Now, I have no intents of hunting down my local HGH dealer, but it's interesting all the same.

Workout: 39 miles / 16.7 mph avg

Incidentally, my pain meds are not a UCI banned substance ;)