Blood Doping Research

     My research question is how endurance athletes are effected by blood doping, endurance meaning cycling, cross country, track, soccer, etc. The reason I chose this topic was because I really enjoy running and watching pro track and cross country in the Olympics, so I wanted to learn more about the scandals and the science of doping. Also in the book I am currently reading, Pre, the story of the American running legend, the runner who beats Pre in the Olympics was later found to be blood doping and that is the reason Pre lost. So far I have found that doping can have a very bad effect on athletes. It can cause cancer, heart disease, and even death. If athletes do get caught doping they will be stripped of their medals and be suspended or banded from the sport.
     How does blood doping effect endurance athletes? Blood doping is considered cheating and they're many consequences if you decide to dope. I requested to research on this topic because the scandals interest me and many professional runners over time have either doped themselves or knew/lost to another athletes whom had an advantage from doping. When athletes blood dope or use other performance enhancing drugs they will have to know they have a high possibility they will be facing health issues or criminal charges later in their life.

Reading/Working Times:
 Pre-
Mon. 20 min, 14 pages
Wed. 33 min. 27 pages
Research-
Wed. 45 min. The Science of Doping
Thurs. 2 hours Doping in Sports Timeline, Doping in Sports Timeline, and Testers Gear Up for Sophisticated Dopers 

Reading Times

Pre By: Tom Jordan
Monday- 10 min. 6 pages
Tues.- 45 min, 31 pages
Thurs. 10 min. 8 pages

Research Sirs Database
Wed.-  30 min.
Thurs. 56 min.

Dogs

     At home I have two huge yellow labs that I am absolutely obsessed with! Their names are Big Dog and Jack. Yes we actually named our dog Big Dog! About three years ago we found Big Dog and no one ever claimed him, so we called him Big Dog because we didn't know what his name was and it just stuck. We have had Jack since he was a baby and he still is our baby.
     Their day consists of sleeping around the house and eating. They are very lazy and never want to go outside. They hate outdoors the only time they go out is to eat or go to the bathroom. Sometimes I'll go run around the yard with Jack for avocation, but Big Dog never wants to. Jack is also very skillful at adroit at finding any thing that is ours and running around the house with it. But other than that the dogs have great demeanor. I love my dogs because I can snuggle with them all the time and they are really cute.  I don't know what I would do without them!

Research Update

     My topic that I am researching is how blood doping and the use of performance enhancing drugs effects endurance athletes. To research about this is very interesting to me because I have gained an interest in blood doping especially with the Lance Armstrong case. So far I did all my reading and research from sources on the SIRS database. SIRS has had the best information and sources and it is also easy to cite the source on Noodle Tools.
     I have done six sources and I still I have four to go. I think I am going to look for some more primary sources on a different database because right now I only have about two. I think once we get all of our bests sources together and cited the rest of the process should run smooth.

Reading Response: Pre

The book I am reading is Pre, The Story of America’s Greatest Running Legend by Tom Jordon. The author describes Pre’s life and his races from what people thought about him, what he thought about running, and the greatest races in history. I was very interested in this book when I got for Christmas because I’ve seen many documentaries and movies on the running legend and I really wanted to learn more about Pre. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that enjoys running and the history of the sport.

At the begging of the book I starts off talking about when Pre just started running in high school and he wasn’t very good but as time moved on and he progressed he turned in to this legend. I really like this story because it shows that if you love something and you have what it takes to work for that something you can do it, but you have to earn it. 

 

Christmas Break

      My Christmas break was not very exciting this year. The first weekend of the break I didn’t really do anything because I was mostly just sleeping and relaxing after all of my exams the previous week. Once it was Monday I realized Christmas was actually tomorrow and got into the spirit and watched a bunch of the Christmas movies we watch every year with my family. After all the Christmas festivities I went back to boredom. Also the weather was pretty bad so I just laid around the house doing nothing.

     My new year however didn’t really start out great because the next day after New Years I had surgery  on my foot and that was not a fun way to start the year. The whole rest of the week I wobbled around in my crutches not really being able to do anywhere with my foot. Overall my break consisted of boredom, Wanelo, and foot surgery.

Reading: Semester 1

     This semester I have read a variety of books for outside reading and in class reading. From most challenging to least, In Defense of Food, Nation, Lord of the Flies, Carrie, Dear John, A Walk to Remember, and Pretty Little Secrets. All of these books are really different. They vary in genre drastically. Some are love stories others horror, survival, and manifestos.
     This semester in English I have learned a lot about myself as a reader. I learned that one of my weaknesses is not being able to read and see the symbolism in words and phrases in the text. For example when I read a description of colors or something the character says I don't know if it is symbolizing something with a deeper meaning or if its just what it says and nothing to it. I learned this from reading Lord of the Flies. However my strengths come in reading books that interest me. I can read a love story or another book that might interest me and never stop reading it. However this can also be a weakness because I never read anything else of other genres unless I am required.
     Next semester I want to try and read books I usually would never pick up to read. I want to try and read genres outside my reading comfort zone. I could try reading a documentary about running or another non-fiction book. Another goal of mine is to turn my weaknesses in the previous paragraph into strengths by the end of the year.

Lord of the Flies:
Chapter 6- 31 min.
Chapter 7- 54 min
Chapter 8- 1 hour
Chapter 9- 27 min.
Chapter 10- 1 hour 7 min.
Chapter 11- 32 min
Chapter 12- 49 min