Doping in "hobby jogging"

Have you tested low for testosterone? I see a fair amount of guys on TRT forums who are jumping on TRT with normal TT levels, which is crazy IMO considering the cost, hassle, side effects and suppression of natural production.

But if you are low, no shame in experimenting with it. Just educate yourself and use low dose as possible. If you don't like it, usually takes 2 months to get back to normal going cold turkey

I guess he lost quite some weight ? Because the thyroid meds are not directly performance-enhancing.

Doping has little to do with ability. If that were so then it would be confined to the very best in sports. It isn't. It is found at all levels and ages. The driver is the motivation to succeed and that can be found even in recreational athletes.

Like you, bragging about beating younger players at tennis, which you wouldn't be able to do without you mechanical doping prosthetic hips.

Yeah, not always. I just set my half PR (1:29:46) at 62 after running halfs since age 52, albeit with very little mileage my first few years. Pretty much all of my 5Ks since 2016 have been in the 19s, so I'm not really improving, just had a day when everything went right in the half for the first time since 2019, but between more miles, better shoes, better (not harder) training, more protein, beet juice, & caffeinated gels, I'm more or less holding off the decline. I have a feeling there may not be too many more sources of improvement, though.

A ton of men take testosterone that don't actually need it. Most people would be shocked to see how widespread T therapy is initiated when not at all indicated.

Beyond that I think its very rare. EPO is hard to come by. You need to go to some dark corners of the web to get it, and even then who knows what you're actually getting. This includes Mexico where the cartels have a stranglehold on the pharmacies. People have studied how often medications in Mexico reflect the label. It's shockingly inconsistent.

Define "succeed."

I've been on TRT for secondary hypogonadism since 2012. I was under the care of the same endocrinologist from 2012 until 2023 when I moved to a different state. My regimen has been the same since 2012: 120mg/week of test cypionate and 500 IUs of HCG to prevent testicular atrophy. I will occasionally take a small dose of anastrozole once a week if I feel like I'm starting to bloat.

I was a very good HS runner (15:2x for 3 miles) but not good enough to run in college. I picked up running again in my mid to late 40s as I became more interested in my health. My current 5k time is in the low 19s and my HM time is 1:37. I'm hoping to get to 1:30 next spring when I have another HM scheduled. At my level, testosterone isn't moving the needle wrt my running performance; my psoas, achilles, and everything else is the performance bottleneck.

I would suppose I'm a "doper" but I've never thought twice about entering a local 5K or HM. My TRT puts my total T levels well within normal physiological ranges but I do need to be aware of the signs of higher levels of estradiol, especially bloating and water retention. When I stop TRT I can lose 8-12 pounds within a matter of weeks and running definitely feels easier.

Around the same time I was prescribed TRT I also discovered that I suffered from hypothyroidism and I was prescribed levothyroxine (125mcg/daily). If you told me I could only have levothyroxine or TRT I would take levothyroxine one hundred out of one hundred times. I've gone off of TRT 3-4 times in the past because I got tired of injecting myself 4x a week and never noticed much of a difference between being off and on. On the other hand, levothyroxine has been a godsend and i would not be able to function without it.

Happy to answer any questions anyone might have.

C’mon, who would dope to get their 2:47 mar below 2:40!?
a. Lots.

I would quit running first.

Mechanical hips aren't better than natural hips. It would be like you receiving repair on your brain damage so that you could function at the naturally limited level you are used to.

"Success" is what any athlete aspires to. It might be becoming an Olympic champ or just beating the next guy in the pack.

This. You can spot the older guys taking TRT with their jacked chests / arms and barely slowing down as they age into their late 40s..

My wife is a doctor and she gets a steady trickle of people trying to get asthma meds/thyroid meds/trt. Most say they either run marathons or do 'ironmans'.

Can't you just buy asthma inhalers OTC?

you can't just start taking EPO (or any other PED I know of) and not put in the work to improve... most of these PEDs just help you recover quicker and in turn train harder

Mechanical hips are way better than what genetics dealt you. You sound like the also-rans turned champions who justify doping because they are not as talented.

Performances in and of themselves aren't indicative of doping among older hobby athletes. I have a friend who now, at 47, is becoming a remarkably good road and gravel cyclist. He always loved cycling. But 20 years ago, he had one junky 1990s bike and was a party animal. He'd go on 1000km trips now and then, but didn't train, and ate kebabs and candy with no inhibitions. Now he has an arsenal of high end road bikes, no social life, a strict diet and trains obsessively. Obviously, he is going to show massive improvement.

However, it's the obsessiveness that concerns me. His whole life and sense of pride, virility and self-worth seems now to be wrapped up in cycling and his top 10 finishes in regional cycling events. Our discussions now have been reduced to a series of lectures on training and nutrition from the newly-fledged guru. It's compulsive. I jokingly asked him if he's on anything, and he denied it in a nervous way that didn't inspire confidence. Not proof, by any means, but raised my suspicions.

So list the Olympic champions with artificial hips. You have no idea because you are too young to know anything. No one is improved by prosthetic joints; they are simply able to function, at best.

You have explained the psychology that results in the motivation to dope.