Friday, April 6, 2018

More Improvement on Sarcosine

Day 3 on the Sarcosine-
I woke up in the morning and did not feel half bad.  Still, I took all of the usual pills except for the Sarcosine then headed out the door to Gold’s for more junk intervals.  This time, it was 3x3 laps or (1/3 mile).  I was encouraged by a 2:16 opener (6:48 pace) and figured that it would have been around 3:30 for a half mile.  That’s slightly better than yesterday despite having not taken the Sarcosine for 24 hours.  Next, I took my first scoop and improved to 2:05 (6:15 pace) then a 2nd scoop brought me down to 1:54 (5:42 pace).  That’s a MINUS 33 per scoop!  Pressed for time, I went back home and declared that was it for today.  More good news was that the glutamine, glycine and Vitamin C all appeared to be tolerated last night.  If anything, I may have gotten slight benefits from them. 

Questions to be answered:
How much faster can I go with more scoops?  It’s possible that I see additional gains from a 3rd or 4th scoop but eventually I will level off.  Let’s hope it is not a sweet spot in which a certain dose yields optimal results but anything beyond that will result in losses.  Let us further hope that in that scenario, the magic number stays consistent and I will not face fluctuations.  Judging by the early success and greatly reduced sensitivity to other stuff, I have reason for at least some optimism. 

Tomorrow, I will attempt to run without any pills.  A non-horrible performance would be a great lift for me at this stage.  I know very well that the supplements are needed long-term or else my adrenal and mineral imbalances will spiral out of control.  Before the sarcosine, it was as if a night’s sleep reset everything.  If I took too much one morning, I would be lethargic the rest of the day.  Then, I woke up the next morning horribly overstimulated with the need for the same pill but at a lower dose.  Once again, I could not exceed the “magic number” which fluctuated with time.  OUCH!  Simply getting through a morning feeling halfway decent without any pills would be strong evidence that this is getting under control and I can start living.

Day 4-
3 miles in 23:26 (7:49 pace).  Certainly no cause for celebration under normal circumstances but today, I went straight from bed to the gym without taking ANY pills.  I hoped to beat the Mendoza line and did so by a comfortable margin.  Even pace with a bit left at the end.  Again, if I did this every day, things would go downhill in a hurry but this is a tremendous lift for me at this stage.  It means that although I will always need the pills long-term, if I happen to miss count or forget to take one of the key pills in my cocktail, I will be okay for at least a day or two.  Most people take that for granted but for me, it is YUGE!  If this continues, then very soon I will declare my condition to be "under control" and I can put myself on the dating market.

Day 5- Another junk interval workout.  This time, I repeated Day 3 starting with all the usual pills except for Sarcosine.
Opener- 2:07.1 (6:21 pace)
1 scoop- 1:55.4 (5:46 pace) MINUS 35
2 scoops- 1:48.8 (5:26 pace) MINUS 20
4 scoops- 1:48.0 (5:24 pace) NEGLIGIBLE
Reaction:
Overall, this is excellent news.  Indeed I did level off after 2 scoops but I know that if I accidentally take extra, I will NOT lose anything.  I maintained a 5:24 pace (81 seconds per standard track lap) over a distance about 150 yards longer than a 400.  Gold's has a fairly long straightaway but tight turns which will slow you down at full speed.  I figure that's worth at least a 75 outdoors for a 400, which is probably as fast as I can go with my current fitness level.  I think I can break 6:00 for 1 Mile right now.  The only area of concern is the large gap (nearly 60 sec/mile) as a direct result of taking the Sarcosine.  Hopefully, once my system gets accustomed to receiving it every day, the gap will begin to close and a single day off it won't be as noticeable.  Though the Sarcosine may not make me any faster or add to my natural talent, if it allows me to train consistently, I will quickly realize the gains. 

-Totaled just 9 miles this week.  Time to get serious tomorrow.

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