At a more practical level...

I have one popular Strava segment.
I picked it up on a day when there was a 30 mpw tailwind.
That's not cheating!
But it means very little that I got the segment!

I also have a bunch of less competitive segments.
Sometimes I lose bike segments to people in cars.
Sometimes I lose run segments to people on bikes.

Nobody cares!!

I would look stupid if I were to complain.

Honestly -
I don't see the difference between epo, roids, low T treatment and eBikes, motorcycles, or cars.

Technological assistance, is technological assistance.

There are undoubtedly segments that lots of people care about.

Careful Baysically!!

It wouldn't surprise me - if you were to get doxed (or became the victims of what we used to call a "twitch hunt") - if you now go on to take one of these segments using augmented T.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

What you take now, you must pay back later.

+1

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Move on. Keep training. Be an adult.

You sir are absolutely entitled to this belief, but do you really think Lance might as well have driven a car up Alpe Duez? Is he really indistinguishable from Rosie Ruiz? Come on, now. Everyone was on drugs in the peloton, but that doesn't mean they were taking a bus to the finish line.

A runner is a miser...

You've had your 15 mins of trolling ST fame. What's your decision - clean, sanctioned triathlon racing (granted, self-enforced to a large degree) or T-fueled Strava KOM/ego-driven navel gazing? If you choose the latter, share your Strava profile so those interested can track your progress at capturing desired Strava KOM segments. (NOTE: share desired KOM/s prior for reference)

My $0.02 prediction - your KOM achievement/s will fail, measured against your shared KOM segment goals.

Prove me wrong. Man up - let's do this.

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tinman

I think I'm going to sign up for Texas 70.3 and then make a decision after that depending on how I do and feel about my return on fitness investment without TRT

This troll isn't even a good one - anyone who's complaining that 36 is OLD is doing a terrible job at trolling. 36 is like getting-started years for age groupers in triathlon, and your performance is theoretically near-max, with minimal slowdown.

Work harder. You sound really soft...

Just flag it if you get a bike KOM stolen by an ebike or car, or a run KOM stolen by a bike. That’s the point of flagging, and most times it’s just an honest mistake. You would not look stupid if you were to complain, it would look
stupid instead if the leaderboard has a MOP athlete “running” a sub-4 pace and not getting autoflagged because they are a slow cyclist overall and had to ride up some hills on the rest of the route so their average speed looked “run-plausible”.

Better to finish in 17 hours clean than to be a shitty-ass cheaty doper with such a lack of a moral compass that they can kid themselves into thinking they’re not cheating.

<3, supportive Reddit “fathlete” who understands the natural ability of her body and works within it instead of trying to pretend to be something she’s not.

lol, why limit yourself to some unknown local KOMs. You got the money, go to France and light it up in dem Alps

Bumping this thread so the folks in the Laidlow thread can come here to vent their anger at you and not derail that one.

Edit to add, I am not about to join this conversation but want to keep the speculative doper discussion and the want to be a doper discussion separate.

Fair. Let's keep this in the right thread. Lolz compared to the forums I mod on Reddit you guys obsessively keep threads in line. Respect

As a coach that has taken single sport collegiate athletes into their early pro careers, and I read your last post in the SL thread. One of the real struggles that strong runners don't realize is just how hard it is to overcome a poor swim and then oh no their run can't "save them". So I think just based on your history, would that lead you down a potential negative rabbit hole of decision making? Hell I think even Ari Klau (sorry if misspelled) has done a really good job of showcasing just how hard it is. It's almost more about getting punched in the face and just showing back up monday morning at the pool, than it is anything else...oh yeah and then do that over and over for 2-3 years and then see if you actually can make it.

I still think the greatest "runner" turned triathlete who's story really shows the real "grind" of it all- Matt McElroy.....he posted his 1st ever swim on IG like a year ago and went through an progression video of just how far he's improved.....you would have told him "don't even try it" with as ugly of a swim stroke as he had. But that dude just showed up every single day grinding. Of course I'm afraid he's going to miss out now again on another Olympics, even though he's the best ranked American in ITU (Pearson has too many dumb results / injuries as he's the only one with true top 5 ITU talent left for US men).

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Thank you for this reasonable post. I don't know how exhausted I will be after a half mile swim but I know I was a star swimmer until the age of 13 until I quit because I was much better at running. I can swim easily 1:20s on 1:30 all day. I'm not great, but I'm good.

I'll see your McElroy and also check you a Sean Jefferson. I was an IU recruit as a junior in high school and had a good time with those star Jeffersons. But I thought it was absolutely mad that dude tried to go into this game as an AOS. for the mods, I learned that acronym here, it means adult onset swimmer.

In my view, triathlon is a sport dominated by the fastest runner that is a competent swimmer OR by the guy taking the most drugs. Or both.

Ah yes Sean Jefferson, he truly showed up in ITU 10 years too early. He would be a killer MTR athlete with that closing world class run speed, just couldn't get that swim down for hte olympic distance.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

As I told the Hausers, Sean did the right thing going triathlon, even though he's terrible at it, simply because of what else he won in the pursuit. She's also a fast athlete