Originally Posted by berner

Some years ago I read an article in a magazine about the effects of doping. The author, as part of his investigation, found an MD who specialized in aging and how to ameliorate the inevitable decline. He began taking a cocktail of substances over a period of some weeks. What he found was that he got stronger and experienced a weight gain. After riding a century, on the following day he felt completely fresh and would do another with the same result. What he found was that doping improves performance but the principal benefit was a much better ability to recover and that in turn allows a competitive cyclist to train harder which further improves performance. He eventually stopped doping because he did not think it was a healthy thing to do. I wish I could remember where I read the article because it is worth rereading.

I ride 3000 to 3500 miles per year and would ride more if it were possible. Sad to say but I can only ride about 100 to 120 miles per week before needing time to recover with a space of several days rest after a long ride of 50 or 60 miles. That longish recovery period being the situation for myself, I spend time thinking about recovery and how to speed it up. All in all, no complaints as I'm healthy with relatively few aches and pains and certainly no more than when I was a lad of 50.