Get Fit, Stay Fit, Feel Good - 2026

[SFMCjohn]

Like showing up on the grid without checking the bike over. Results end up being the same anyway....unless your suspension guy extends the wheelbase and forgets to lower the rear down ...

yeah, I was always “the suspension guy” in my little club racing career … we could get away with a lot of foolishness in the less competitive classes, I found.

in any event, I guess it’s all about being willing to accept the consequences for one’s behavior? idk.

 

[Holeshot]

Racers always bitch about the consequences of OTHERS behavior!

 

[Sharxfan]

If your not so depressed you are unable to get out of bed and your test levels are in the range of normal, I doubt you are going to miss that scintilla.

If you want to blast your hormones to the moon, by all means exercise that free will too. Just be honest about it, don't throw shade at doctors and don't try to impress everyone with how awesome you are. Food for thought.

You do know that normal test levels for men are from 1-whatever. If you have any testosterone in your system at any age you are normal especially as you get older. I had mine tested to see what it was and it was super low and my primary said I was in the normal range. There is no bottom to the normal value for them to say you know what it's too low you need to do testosterone therapy.

 

[stangmx13]

You do know that normal test levels for men are from 1-whatever. If you have any testosterone in your system at any age you are normal especially as you get older. I had mine tested to see what it was and it was super low and my primary said I was in the normal range. There is no bottom to the normal value for them to say you know what it's too low you need to do testosterone therapy.

That’s a weird use of “normal”. Ya someone that has had their gonads fail to produce T would normally have levels that low. But that’s like saying it’s normal for people to get cataracts. Normal but shitty, and we can do something to fix it. World consensus for morning serum T seems to be that <200 will cause or contribute to other health issues.

Testosterone deficiency in adults and corresponding treatment patterns across the globe - PMC

The global prevalence of testosterone deficiency (TD) ranges from 10–40%. The actual diagnosis of TD is controversial, as a wide range of total testosterone (TT) thresholds are used for diagnosis (200–400 ng/dL), and physicians differ in their ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Male hypogonadism: Symptoms and treatment - PMC

Male hypogonadism is a condition in which the body does not produce enough of the testosterone hormone; the hormone that plays a key role in masculine growth and development during puberty. There is a clear need to increase the awareness of ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Holeshot]

Normal but shitty, and we can do something to fix it.

Right. This forum has been a beacon of support for everyone in their quest for fitness, performance, and health. Blasting people who post the personal details of their programs is antithetical to the beacon of support. It gets under my skin. TRT is a real thing for most guys as they get older, especially when their performance starts to drop off. It's motivating to see how others are able to perform at a high level later in life, IMO.

 

[stangmx13]

Right. This forum has been a beacon of support for everyone in their quest for fitness, performance, and health. Blasting people who post the personal details of their programs is antithetical to the beacon of support. It gets under my skin. TRT is a real thing for most guys as they get older, especially when their performance starts to drop off. It's motivating to see how others are able to perform at a high level later in life, IMO.

Shades of gray man, shades of gray. One man’s “fixed my brain and stopped my osteoporosis getting worse” is another man’s “roid rage and prostate cancer”.

 

[Holeshot]

Truth. But all results are personal anyway....so long as people own their decisions, still the beacon.

 

[Sharxfan]

Shades of gray man, shades of gray. One man’s “fixed my brain and stopped my osteoporosis getting worse” is another man’s “roid rage and prostate cancer”.

I think roid rage is associated more with steroids versus direct testosterone. So Google say steroids are used to super dose to levels way outside the normal range and are synthetic while TRT is supposed to keep you in the normal range and matches the T your body normally produces.

Truth. But all results are personal anyway....so long as people own their decisions, still the beacon.

True. I have talked to SV outside of this thread and appreciate his honest responses and how his choices have affected him.

 

[stangmx13]

Truth. But all results are personal anyway....so long as people own their decisions, still the beacon.

“As long as people own it” isn’t the end of the story though. One important part is that no one makes health decisions in a vacuum. Any review of TRT (or lack of it) here will impact anyone that reads it. We’ve got “1000 T” and “low T” experiences posted here. Who’s to say either of those are best for a reader.

The same is true for many of the topics we talk about. My experiences with injuries and broken bones may be risky for others. Same with many ppl’s lifting experience. Hell, even my sugar intake is not recommended for nearly everyone else on BARF . It’s hard to convey risks and actually help as often as possible.

 

[stangmx13]

The final race of the year for my local MTB series was last night. I finally fucking did it... 2nd place!

I did a mini taper for this race, skipping Monday's lifting and doing an actual Opener ride on Wed. I also warmed up super easy. For long aerobic workouts, I like a solid 20min warm-up that builds. But I think I've learned over the past month that for short anaerobic efforts I want far less. I did like 4min of hard riding during this 20min warm-up and actually felt pretty good on the start line.

I gridded on the 2nd row and actually got off the line ok. Around the first turn I passed a few and managed to be in the top 6. I stayed in the group and out of the wind all the way up the climb and onto the ridge - probably the first time I didn't feel at my limit. On the ridge there's a tiny rock garden and someone crashed it, blocking the whole trail. Me and my buddy Austin stood there for 12sec as he got up, dropped his chain, fell over again, swore a bunch, got up, and walked out of the rock garden . Apparently I had a 12sec gap to the group behind which would have been nice to keep .

The next two laps were tactical AF. My group was now like 12 guys. I stayed in the top 4 the whole time and pulled maybe 20% of the time. A few times I had to drop the watts and pull over so someone else would pull. We did get into lap traffic really quick and someone behind shoulder checked a small girl . Thankfully he stopped. That dwindled the group to 6 or so. Those bobbles are the main reason why I wanted to be in the front of the group. But my main rival Adam was still there.

With over a lap to go, Adam put in an attack through one of the small obstacles. I didn't have enough to follow right away and I kinda expected our group of 5 to easily catch him. I think we held a 10sec gap on the flats. But he gained more time on the climb and we weren't working well enough to catch. I thought Adam pulled away for the win, so I just had to beat Austin and Kyle in my group. Turns out we destroyed Kyle up the climb and Austin was cooked heading back to the finish. I did a cool 700w sprint into the finish to seal 2nd and 9th overall.

I'm absolutely stoked that everything finally came together in one of these races to put me on the podium. Ive had too many 4ths and too many things go "wrong" and was just getting tired of it. Sometimes you just gotta put in a little more effort to succeed big time.

Also, i totally marginal-gained this race. I stole the front wheel/tire off Luca's bike because it was 100g lighter and smaller to be more aero. I wore my aero socks and my speedsuit. And i freshly shaved my legs. Maybe the taper helped the most, maybe it was all the margin gains. We'll never know

I have no more races for the year. I gotta build my bicycle business more and make some $$. But I'll keep training. Today is a lifting day

 

[Das MotorRad]

fuck yeah, congrats robert!!!

 

[Holeshot]

“As long as people own it” isn’t the end of the story though. One important part is that no one makes health decisions in a vacuum. Any review of TRT (or lack of it) here will impact anyone that reads it. We’ve got “1000 T” and “low T” experiences posted here. Who’s to say either of those are best for a reader.

The same is true for many of the topics we talk about. My experiences with injuries and broken bones may be risky for others. Same with many ppl’s lifting experience. Hell, even my sugar intake is not recommended for nearly everyone else on BARF . It’s hard to convey risks and actually help as often as possible.

TRT is a doctor approved/ managed treatment. A review of TRT usually involves test levels, etc. as well as consultation. The idea that someone's going to take any sort of comments on BARF and that be the end all of their decision tree is fantastical. Again, all results are personal. It's up to the individual to sort it all out and decide what info to value and what info to disregard. I wouldn't overvalue what is mostly, entertainment talk. on a moto forum.

Congrats on the podium! Effort well rewarded!!!

 

[stangmx13]

TRT is a doctor approved/ managed treatment. A review of TRT usually involves test levels, etc. as well as consultation. The idea that someone's going to take any sort of comments on BARF and that be the end all of their decision tree is fantastical. Again, all results are personal. It's up to the individual to sort it all out and decide what info to value and what info to disregard. I wouldn't overvalue what is mostly, entertainment talk. on a moto forum.

This makes me think you didn’t understand my post. I didn’t say your fantastical exaggerations.

You saying you won’t overvalue some info is great. But you aren’t everyone. Maybe it’s fun the laugh at the person that made a poor decision because they were inundated with bro science and pushed their doctor for poor treatment. But maybe we should also blame the bro science. And the point of the post is to understand that we could be shitty bro science if we aren’t careful.

 

[Holeshot]

There it is. "Bro Science". Whatever that means. I gave it a 60/40 you were on that kinda mission. The thought that people in this thread are going to get onto "bro science" from a BARF thread versus all the other avenues on the internet is "fantastical".

 

[budman]

fuck yeah, congrats robert!!!

Ditto man. Love the smile on your face!!

 

[stangmx13]

There it is. "Bro Science". Whatever that means. I gave it a 60/40 you were on that kinda mission. The thought that people in this thread are going to get onto "bro science" from a BARF thread versus all the other avenues on the internet is "fantastical".

I’ll define what I think bro science is - unsubstantiated claims and misinformation about health that are presented as fact through popular media, especially those that intend to sell you something or get you to join some fad.

This is not a “versus other avenues”. All avenues for misinformation, shitty advice, bro science, lies, etc are bad. BARF doesn’t have the reach but may be more impactful for the comparatively few users here. And you’d be stupid to ignore the possibility that BARF can be an avenue for all that bad. Your posts are just as likely as mine to be bro science if we don’t cite sources. And even unintended bad advice is still bad advice. We aren’t experts, just amateurs on the internet.

I wasn’t actually going there. I was talking about risks with advice and such. But your lack of understanding made me use more broad terms that I thought you’d understand. Seems like I found your trigger term, which likely ends this convo. Oh wells.

 

[Mike95060]

Congratulations on the podium Robert!!! It’s pretty cool to watch all the work you’ve put in paying off. I hope your feeling stoked about it.

 

[Ridley]

I don’t have much of a report but I did finish my race today. My legs feel pretty much like I expected them to. What destroyed me was the constant beating of riding a bike with no suspension over some really really rough roads. Mid distance was an 8 mile descent the was steep and filled with baby head sized rocks. This wore me out worse than the 8 mile long climb that immediately followed. My neck, triceps, back, wrists, and ass hurt way more than my legs.

Did I mention the wind, it blew constantly and it seemed to always be a headwind. Sustained 15mph with gusts in the upper 30mph range. It sucked.

My Garmin says I did 66.4 miles and 5,012 feet of climbing.

Now I am laying on the Placer High School football field watching the lead runners finish the Western States Trail Run. The old record, set 2 years ago, was broken by 23 minutes. 2nd and 3rd also came in under the old record.

It’s been a cool day.

 

[Ridley]

Here is the course.

 

[Ridley]

Here is the elevation profile