Of course, doping allows you to train more and harder, since it can facilitate recovery. Training more and harder can contribute to increases in technical skill, not to mention adding fitness that forestalls a breakdown in techique due to fatigue.

And it's not like hitting a baseball takes any kinesthetic ability, which is why all those hitters like Bonds, Sosa, and McGwire didn't dope.

Justin Gatlin wasn't a distance runner, either.

But Phelps is a great American athlete, so there's that.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

On the topic of substances that may be in an age groupers system, should Marijuana be on the banned list? Is it performance enhancing? Is any age grouper truly using it in some type of performance enhancing way? How did it get on the banned list?

it's also released in 2 boluses in the body. You get an initial dump then another one 12h later.
Hmmm I think it's 12h anyway, been a long time since I was selling antihistamines. If you look at the drug level curve for the pseudo component it looks like a sine wave.

If someone is concerned they might be better off with Allegra D or Zyrtec D, both are dosed BID. Claritin-D is dosed QD

One could take an Allegra D, which has 120mg pseudo and then 12h later take a Allegra 180 or 60mg. If you exceed 10mg of claritin you can get anti-cholinergic side effects. Allegra does not cross the blood brain barrier (BBB) so no worries on that.

You could also do the mixed dosing with Zyrtec D. Zyrtec crosses the BBB and can cause both sedation and impairment. At least for me, Zyrtec is as effective as Ambien for knocking me out and much worse for next morning residuals.

Anyway kids that's your antihistamine lesson for today.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Doesn't it help you eat more?

Probably in the banned list because its illegal in many states?

Here's the official explanation: https://www.usada.org/...ances/marijuana-faq/

My theory is that 35-40 is an outlier in terms of performance because it's usually when most people have young kids.

In 30-34, there's enough people without kids that the pointy end is faster. By the time you get to 40-44, the kids are a little older and you get more time to train.

It obviously doesn't apply to everyone, but the effect is enough to make 35-39 seem slower than it should.

N=1: I'm 35 and have 2 kids under 3. Was significantly faster at 31 and plan to be faster again as 40 approaches.

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/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

Add in the fact that at 40 you likely have more disposable income than you would have had at any point in your 20s and 30s. Translation: now you can burn cash on all those things that are supposed to make you faster

Like HGH and T?

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/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

Yeah, I think the AG doping thing is real at the uber-top competitive realms (like KQ+ guys), but for most local AG-type races, I actually seriously doubt it.

I say this because I'm as middling/poor as genetics for triathlon as you can get, and I'm not burning up the racetrack anytime soon, but I've been winning my AG at the local non-WTC events frequently in M40-45, and I'm not even hitting USAT 90. There's no way most folks in tri are doping - if so, I should be getting my rear blown off the map in every race. I'd say it's a very small minority unless you're including a lot of substances that have *May* assist performance that one might take otherwise for aging, etc.

Now once you're talking the top guys winning big WTC events, ok, I'm getting my tail blown off the map against those guys, and doping control should take a look.




I do think triathlon is great for us 40+ guys in that as an AGer, triathlon is one domain where you can eminently get faster well into your 50s assuming you weren't a superstud 20 year old.

- More money: Better gear, and for me, better training gear at home (Kickr, Vasa, treadmill - I got it all and I use it all!)

- More balance - I don't have talent at all in any trisport, but I'm also not super NONtalented in any 1 trisport. You can be FOP in 2 of 'em, be FOMOP in another (swimming) and still win your AG in these local races just on the strength of your lack of big weaknesses. Takes some time to get that skillset.

- More knowledge - Training knowledge counts in triathlon. I'm learning more and more about how to rest better, train less, but make the good workouts count, and squeeze out more performance from myself that way. ALso takes a long time to get it right.

I think you are spot on.

It seems to me that sprint and Olympic distance is very clean just by looking at the speed/pace the guys are putting down. Obvously their are exceptions. Now the guys going the same pace for 70.3 or 140.6 as the rest of us for Sprint or Olympic, that seems a bit fishy.

I do wonder about some of the times the 60+ guys are putting down.

You wonder? I have to race against them

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

Boom Nutrition code 19F4Y3 $5 off 24 pack box | Bionic Runner | PowerCranks | Velotron | Spruzzamist

Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

this is tough. i've had the privilege to meet and talk to an olympian. she was very game to answer all my questions. she was at the last 2 olympics and has recently retired from olympic competition (track and field). i asked about doping etc, if she thought bolt was doping and it was really interesting listening to her responses.

she truly believes that there are not as many cheaters as the media makes it out to be. but she was also realistic that it's always a cat and mouse game and wada is generally a step behind. talking about how often she was tested (not a podium athlete) i'm surprised how anyone could get away with doping. i guess if you have the money....

lets not lump every athlete as cheaters. i can't imagine working my whole life towards a goal, putting in blood sweat and tears, and having people label me a cheater.

the limit for THC was just raised pretty substantially for 2017. It used to be quite low. Low enough that even a very recreational user could get popped for marijuana. They raised the level like 25x. It's now at a level that unless you are basically getting high in the 24hrs before a race, you're **unlikely** to get popped.

As to the question of whether or not it is performance enhancing, there is SOME evidence for that for endurance racing it can be a benefit. In particular, the group that was looked at was ultra-runners. For those guys, who are on their feet for just so long, pain - rather than fatigue - is a huge limiter. So something that deadens the senses a bit is a possible PED.

I could see the same logic applying to Ironman. In the late stages of a marathon, the hardest part is simply to keep moving. This is part of why I am so reliant on my GPS watch for pacing. It doesn't actually hurt that much more to run, say 4:10/km v 5:10/km. They are both extremely painful. Just running at all hurts a lot. So could I see a performance enhancing benefit to something that took that "oh my god I've been stabbed in my quads" pain away? Absolutely.

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

" There's no way most folks in tri are doping - if so, I should be getting my rear blown off the map in every race."

A couple of things about that:

1. Doping does not work in a vacuum. LA is absolutely correct when he points out that he still had to train his ass off to get the results he got. You don't take T, HGH, or EPO, then only train like a weekend warrior, and still bury all the local heros. Which brings me to:

2. As previously noted here, doping can be intentional (think the pointy-end guys and gals), or "unintentional" via ignorance, neglect of the rules, or otherwise just lackadaisical approach to what someone is putting in their body. Lots of weekend warrior dudes are buying into the "aging" docs' myths that they need to supplement...and then don't think anything of toeing the start line at the local tri. Lots of people would be shocked to compare the ingredients of their favorite OTC concoction against the WADA list of prohibited substances. Some might just not care that their Claritin contains pseudoephedrine and reason they're ok to take it because they are just competing for fun and fitness.

Long story short...50% is probably not far off the mark for AGers who are at risk of positive test, should they ever be tested for competition. If anything, it may be a bit low.

Education would go a long way to shoring up that issue. But it still doesn't get at the real problem....the people who dope with every intention of improving their performance and garnering superior race results.

^ THIS ^.. The best Performance Enhancer I've experienced is my kids hitting their pre-teen/teen years and discovering "sleeping in" on the weekends.

If you feel this way at 40, you're in for a really rough road ahead. I noticed no changes at all in my "recovery ability" and speed until maybe age 46, and even then it was hard to say with certainty. Just go ahead and kill yourself now and save yourself the agony of getting older.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I agree. I'm definitely not a great athlete and am as clean as you can get unless there's something banned in Diet Coke. But I train quite a bit, and I find myself FOP most of the time. If 50% of the old folks are doping, then they're sure not following it up with training. There are plenty of people who are completely out of my league, but I believe most are just good athletes -- people who train as much or more than me and started out with more ability.

There is doping and then there is competing while having a banned substance for medical reasons. In that case and given that TUE for AG is dealt with retrospectively, most AG are not doping.