Best to take this discussion elsewhere and leave the Kona thread for the pretty pictures.
I’m always reminded on an article a journalist wrote about a year ‘experimenting’ with PEDs
Probably the most striking paragraph: It wasn’t until I added EPO to my diet, two weeks later, that I began to notice serious differences.
“You have to be careful with this stuff,” Dr. Jones warned after explaining the routine: three injections a week of 1,500 IU each. I was expecting a lecture on the dangers of thickened blood, but he meant something else: he wanted me to take it easy while racing, lest people catch on.
“One of my bike racers who isn’t really a climber went on a training ride and dropped the best climbers on his team,” he said. “They were like, ‘Um, what are you taking?’”
Now HGH is expensive, or was in 2015, the guy who took it was a really good friend, it honestly wasn’t me ( I’m too tight) he put 2 stone of muscle on, got fitter and actually looked younger!
After 20 months or so his back became covered in huge spots so he stopped.
It was really effective, but quite scary, I work with a guy who really can’t understand why we don’t take EPO and win races.
Compared to a 5 k bike which is 60 seconds faster than a 2 k bike over 180 kms, bang fir your buck I guess
The guy in the article loved HGH, said he would have kept it if he could afford it: After a few weeks of the HGH, I began to notice subtle changes. My skin started getting… better. Sun blotches that I’d had on my arms for a year faded away. One morning I woke up and a scar on my forehead—which I’d gotten from a mountain-bike endo two years earlier—was more or less gone. Even though I was training like a madman, I looked more rested. Younger. A little fresher.
Then I started to realize that my eyesight really was improving. I’d been thinking about getting glasses to read fine print on maps, but now there was no need. The glasses I used for night driving stayed in the glove compartment, unused, unnecessary.
I think the key is getting proper clinical grade HGH; I’m pretty sure there’s plenty of suspect rat-derived growth hormone from China on the Internet. I don’t know how you’d get hold of it in this country without it flagging somewhere or creating breadcrumb trail. You’d need to be connected.
I think it was HGH that some guys got done for buying, maybe @Mungo2 met them? They were buying it from China but were only getting distilled water labelled up as HGH
What are the technicalities around that then; getting ‘sanctioned’ for buying placebos? I’d have thought a good lawyer would get them off on a technicality? A bit like buying a bag of scouring power mixed with talc
Should be banned, it’s one of my pet hates about doping. It is generally only the athletes that pay the price but the coaches, doctors and teams get back to it.
Definitely got it on your mind @Mungo2 haven’t we had this same conversation 2 weeks ago?
Although this was my turbo watching the other day:
Estimated that 1-5% of adults worldwide have tried anabolic steroids. Seems crazy high to me but repeated studies finding similar numbers.
Majority say they’ll do it for one event/one summer beach holiday. 30% become dependent.
Users rated doctors knowledge about steroids as 4/10 and said they wouldn’t trust information from them. Vast majority get all their information from word of mouth or YouTube reviews of products.
Anabolic steroids are the leading use of needle injections in UK, with increasing rates of HIV/hepatitis etc in this population.
A third of people surveyed believed it would be very easy to obtain. Reality is a lot have been manufactured in people’s spare bedrooms, makeshift labs. See Operation Bloodthirsty for UK raids on some sites.
I met an old cycling buddy at Bannatyne gym the other day, he’s given up cycling & taken up lifting as he wants to get ‘bigger’. He spent his first 4 months at a local weights only gym, said it was great & they were really nice & helpful, taught him a lot but ultimately moved gyms to be away from the PEDs.
They were buying it from China but were only getting distilled water labelled up as HGH
haven’t we had this same conversation 2 weeks ago?