Sunday, Rainy Sunday

Woke up this morning to a gray sky, wind and rain. I had thoughts about going for a nice mountain bike ride today, but I may not head out in the interest of staying healthy. I don't really have to do any training today, so why risk slipping on wet leaves and getting injured. At the same time, I live for everyday I get to spend outdoors, so it's a hard call. I'll probably still go out, but I'll take it super easy.

I was just watching a piece on ESPN's OTL (Outside the Lines) on genetic testing in athletes. The focus of the piece was to shed light on the genetic testing done on various athletes in order to discover what injuries they were predisposed to. interesting to say the least. When I was involved with bodybuilding, I used to love all the science involved with making the human body react in a certain manner, or manipulating it in some way to get a specific result. While I never did steriods or other enhancers like so many I knew, I was still fascinated by the changes such chemicals could impose on the body.

In other reports on genetics and athletics, they've mostly focused on changing the make up of an athlete, making them something they're naturally not. In this case, though, I think it can be very beneficial. There's no cheating going on, no doping to control, only finding out more about your own body using science. Afterall, I think that's what we do with sports anyway-endurance sports in specific. We all play, race, and compete to see what we're capapble of. We signed up to see if we "can do it". Finding more about what we're made of is the esssence of sports and through this new type of genetic testing, we can learn even more about what makes us tick. The only advantage we're gaining in doing it is staying healthy and happy, something we all may need a bit more of in our lives, both athletically and otherwise.

Gonna go head out on the mountain bike to see more of what I'm made of.