On Cycling......

Todays Giro D'Italia stage has a big motherfucker climb and a couple of smaller ones. Riccardo Riccò, aka The Cobra, a new, young, bright, hopeful in italian cycling noted, "We will see how the others are working. In the finale I will try something. I will have lots of fans out there, on the same roads where Marco Pantani trained."

Pantani.

A disgrace to the sport. Thrown out of the giro for EPO, then dying from a cocaine overdose. Why is it these people still revere him as a hero? We saw just how good he was when he rode clean - that is to say, he was quite average. Besides that, in my humble opinion, if your gonna dope, jesus christ, don't brag about how good you are, it only makes you look more like a fool when you get busted.

Anyway, This blog _is_ supposed to be all about me, so here it is.

The prognosis is in and I'm glad to say my rehabilitation is to be taken more seriously. The original 'prescription' was 'rest (in the cast) for a few weeks, the start out slowly, build up a little at a time'. I followed this advice, and as of yesterday I was in constant pain in _both_ achilles. Remember, the injury occurred as a result of riding 360 miles with 40,000 feet of climbing in five days.

The new prescription is for 'aggressive physical therapy', three times a week for 8 weeks.
*Iontophoresis with dexamethasone sodium phosphate
*Therapeutic exercise
*Active and passive range of motion exercise
*Strength training
*Gait training
*Orthotics

All of that is actually written on the 'Rehabilitation Services Order'. I had to ask about Iontophoresis. It's sort of analogous to galvanization, only using drugs on your skin. The drug is ionized, then applied to you skin using a set of electrodes. This link to a wikipedia article seems reasonable. I'm wondering how much fun could be had with various recreational drugs in ionic solution, you know "apply directly to the forehead"? Charge me up baby!!!

Anyways, Since I'm out for doing any real training for _another_ two months, I guess we can pretty mu call this season over.

Not that I don't have plenty else to keep me busy.