Dunbar

The article said he tested positive for a steroid and a stimulant. I thought steriods simply allowed you to recover faster. Which means they don't do anything for FTP except that they allow you to train harder. I think you need EPO to actually boost you power output significantly pharmaceutically which I doubt average joes can get ahold of without spending a small fortune. I think a lot of these average joes dope just to feel like they have an advantage.

Yep

This will sound like I'm excusing the guy, and maybe I am a little bit, but he easily could have been popped for prescriptions to address low T (steroid) and ADD/ADHD (stimulant).

revchuck 

A four-year suspension implies a non-accidental infraction, IMO.

Enthalpic

Seriously? Increased muscle mass and strength, decrease fat mass, increased bone mineral density, increased hematocrit, etc.

Effects of testosterone on body composition, bone metabolism and serum lipid profile in middle-aged men: a meta-analysis. - PubMed - NCBI
Androgens and erythropoiesis: past and present. - PubMed - NCBI

carpediemracing 

I hate water when it's where it's not supposed to be.

Supply line for washing machine gave out. Luckily someone was home and went to investigate how the washing machine started on its own.

The other night I went for yet another trainer ride, saw something shadowy on the floor in the next room over (the furnace room). I step into a wet room. Water came down the furnace chimney, built up, and leaked. Sooty water everywhere. When we first moved in I had a fan in there blowing air 24/7, just to circulate air around the basement. I happened to put it near the furnace chimney so that the heat would blow around (because when I put the fan there it was winter). The fan died maybe 4 or 5 years later. I noticed dried water marks on previously blemish free sheet rock, like someone poured water into the fan blades. I think it took a couple years for water to build up in the pipe before it overflowed.

I have two fans running 24/7 now.

I need to get a couple more of these things. Water alarm, when the surface under the gadget it wet it completes the circuit and sets off a very annoying piezo alarm thing. About $12-14 locally. I want to put one everywhere there's a supply line - toilets, fridge, washer, furnace area.


From here

big john

A friend builds custom houses, all the weird/difficult stuff. At Newport Bay,(where they park yachts at their houses), he was adding a basement to a house to gain square feet. Since this basement is below sea level you have to construct a waterproof vault, and water is oozing in during construction and must be pumped out.
He took a weekend off and the pump motor caught fire and quit so the thing filled up with sea water. Giant pain.
After that he hired someone to watch the pump 24/7.

Homebrew01

Looks like money well spent.

Can't put one by my garage doors though. It would beep every time it rains. Some genius previous owner had the driveway paved so it's above the floor of the garage, with a .0000000001 % slope away from the house.

Driveway needs to be dug up and repaved, but can't seem to find $7000 under the mattress no matter how many times I look.
Can I use my daughter's college fund ?? She's not using it. Driveway paving must count as some type of education.

carpediemracing 

Ideally it would be tied to some app that alerts me through my phone. Now that I think of it I'm sure someone's made an app for that, for smoke detectors and the like, like a Home Overwatch kind of thing.

merlinextraligh

Thermocoupler on a gas water heater prevents gas from coming out when the pilot light isn't lit. I believe all gas water heaters have them.

It would still be a good idea to shut off the gas to the water heater.

And hey, this is an opportunity to go tankless!

TMonk

Is that like going tubeless with your wheels?

I'm a few years behind you guys here.

himespau 

I've always thought that tankless in parallel with a 5 gallon tank sounded like a good way to go (because you don't have to wait for that initial heat up, but get most of the energy efficiency of a tankless), but I know very little on the topic.

gsteinb

I have a 5 gallon tankless for my meditation studio, not sure how it would work with a much higher volume of water.

misterwaterfall

I've heard good things about them as well and will likely be going this route in the near future. I like the idea that you aren't keeping a large amount of hater heated 24/7 for no reason and there is a limitless supply if you have a large soaking tub or something.

TheKillerPenguin

Euro cars break if you look at them funny, but they can also be fixed by jiggling wires. The Saab lives on!

Dunbar

Yes seriously, it won't raise your FTP. You need EPO for that. Cycling is an aerobic sport. Extra muscle mass could help anaerobic efforts at the expense of power to weight ratio. Notice how the doper didn't go from medicore results to podiums from these drugs.

EPO in comparison can raise VO2max something like 20-25% in a matter of weeks.

Ygduf

so testosterone doesn't help with muscle recovery which would allow for harder/more frequent training?

Enthalpic

From first link provided: "Testosterone treatment produced: (i) a reduction of 1.6 kg (CI: 2.5--0.6) of total body fat, corresponding to -6.2% (CI: 9.2--3.3) variation of initial body fat, (ii) an increase in fat free mass of 1.6 kg (CI: 0.6--2.6), corresponding to +2.7% (CI: 1.1--4.4) increase over baseline and (iii) no change in body weight."

From second link: "Androgens stimulate hematopoietic system by various mechanisms. These include stimulation of erythropoietin release, increasing bone marrow activity and iron incorporation into the red cells. Before the discovery of recombinant erythropoietin (rhEpo), androgens were used in the treatment of anemia associated with renal disease, bone marrow suppression, and hypopituitarism."

Doge

Do you have more information on that? I don't see VO2max going up much without increased muscle activity - or weight loss.
No question EPO increases aerobic ability, but that is somewhat different than VO2max - I thought.

Dunbar

The guy in question tested positive for the anabolic steroid Stanozolol. It's not the type of drug your doctor prescribes for low testosterone levels. In fact, it has the effect of lowering testosterone levels according to google. Bone denstiy and iron won't increase the amount of oxygen you can transport to your muscles which is how you raise FTP.

Dunbar

There's an interview with Greg Lemond somewhere on the internet where he talks about how Michael Ferrari testified in court that he raised a professional cyclist's (can't remember who it was) VO2max from 70 to 90 in a matter of weeks using his doping protocol. EPO works by increasing the red blood cell count. Red blood cells are what transport oxygen to your muscles which is how you increase aerobic power.

rkwaki

Stanozolol is also known as Winstrol V or Winny V. It is known to lower T levels but sheds water from your skin and gives your muscles a very hard appearance. Also wreaks havoc on your joints as it tends to dry them out. Normally you would stack it with Deca Durabolin (Deca) to keep the squeaks out
I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express one time so I learned about it...

Enthalpic

I don't care about the guy or what he was taking. You wrote "steroids" and I responded to that.

One more time... feel free to use a dictionary:

"Androgens stimulate hematopoietic system by various mechanisms. These include stimulation of erythropoietin release, increasing bone marrow activity and iron incorporation into the red cells."

topflightpro

And according to Wikipedia, they stopped selling stanozolol in the US in 2014. You have to go to a compound pharmacy to have it specially made.

Duke of Kent

VO2max is the measure of your ability to use oxygen in the production of energy.

That energy is directly correlated to power production. As power production goes up, either efficiency (the .20 to .24 that people talk about) has to go up, or the overall ability to utilize oxygen to produce muscular power goes up.

Think about it like a woodburning stove. You can have a big pile of wood (fuel) in there, but if the airflow is restricted, the wood can only burn so fast, and so hot. When you increase that airflow (EPO), you can burn that wood faster and produce more heat (energy/power) per given unit of time.

rkwaki

Problem is in the real world guys buy stuff that is expired or old all the time.
THere are also underground labs that produce the compounds.