To the collective wisdom of what has continually proven to be the best resource on Training around:

I'm staring at a container in my hands. It's a full on packaged item, the sort of thing you might see on a shop shelf for retail sale, so it isn't "sketchy" by any means. But, you see, this container was given to me through a family member while I was in Iran last September. Apparently it can only be bought in one particular part of the country, and it's well known/popular. I was given it after I took a sip of the drink-mix one morning and liked the unique taste. ...but, anyway, getting to the point: What is it?

I'm not sure, actually. My Persian is good but not fabulously great, and I haven't been able to get a good translation of everything on the label just yet. On the cover label is a photo collage of a whole bunch of various nuts: pistachios, almonds, pecans, walnuts, various smaller seeds and pine nuts and so on... and, taking up the majority of the space, blooming poppy pods. Yes, poppy. Luckily part of the label is in English, though poorly translated, and it reads word for word:

"Traditional Ara Ghavoot
A Magical Herb Powder

Properties:
1 - Stregthens nerves, stomach & digestion
2 - Calms down arthrosis and colic
3 - Preven bone hollowness and backache
4 - Strengthen before and after pregnancy also in lactate period
5 - Strengthen youngsters, youngsand & sportmen
6 - Strengthen undersexed
7 - Strengthen memory, sedate . opiate for olderly
8 - Appetizer & allegro"

It then proceeds with the weight content, date of production/expiry and so on.

...but, aside from jokes about "the undersexed" (which I am certainly not at this time) - I'm interested in the claims and willing to take a leap in trying this out as a potential supplement to my riding/training program.

Any insights into this, based off of the possible ingredients and what they can do? Any potential benefits? Opiates in the system? Really?

How would you recommend I go about testing the product? It mixes well with warm milk, but can also be used with cold milk. I'm Lactose intolerant so I'll be using lactose-free milk, but that makes no difference. Should I try it as a pre-ride drink? A post-ride drink?

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Exp001

maybe, opiates simulate natura endorphins, to make you deal with the stress and pain from high intensity trainning. i would suggest as an after trainnig, but i only have limited experience with drugs in sports outside of marijuana and alcohol.

In days gone by such things were used to mask pain involved in max efforts in our sport.
Test it on your cycling buddies, heck they will try anything right? So if they survive and still remember their names your good to go!




Actually I personally would not try it. If you think my suggestion above is foolish then why take it yourself?

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WW Velocipedist Gargantuan

Yeah, and if you test Positive, you can point to your earlier post and say 'look, I didn't know'!

I've decided to try it as a post-recovery drink.
1 'heaping' table spoon... which is ~2 tbl spoons really.

Today was the first run after a short ~60 mile day, mostly flat or very gradual inclines, some headwind. Tomorrow is a team ride that's going to be about 90 or so in total, rolling terrain. We'll see how things progress during the week.

This is the plan for the week ahead:
Monday will be my usual "Morning Tri-fork" in the hills across from my house. It's something like 25mi and 6,000' ascent total.
Tuesday will be a 4 mile run.
Wednesday will be a 30 mile circuit around UCLA's Campus (it has hills).
Thursday will be TABATA intervals (to/from interval place is ~12mi or so each way, mostly flat/gradual hills) ~ or trail running hill repeats, depending on my mood. I tend to get bored with the bike (I need a new bike build to reinvigorate things lately).
Friday will be an easy 'recovery/friendly' ride with one of my other teams.

We'll see if this helps my recovery at all by Saturday.
I'll keep the thread updated, perhaps more towards the end of the week for results.

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Exp001

Or he could just say it must have been the tainted beef in the vegetarian lasagna.

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-For my next trick I will set myself on fire!
-This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.
-Sticky Fingers John Rockefeller
-First one over the cliff wins!

Anyone want to tell him his "test" has no scientific validity? No, let's string him out

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WW Velocipedist Gargantuan

...I hope they were used after training !

Louis

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http://www.ccsalma.com

Yeah, I know!
I just don't have enough of this product to test out over a longer period of time nor in a more methodological approach.

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Exp001

Alcohol was after hard racing and training. Marijuana was before and some times after. For competitions that do not require sudden accelerations pot might help, in smaller quantities of course. I tried it a couple of times in a 6 mile cross country races and came in at 15 out of 200. The second time I just got flat out smoked and came in at 110 out of 200 in the state finals, that was still pretty good for a mid distance runner.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

So besides the urge to listen to Pink Floyd are there any other side effects yet? How many fingers am I holding up?

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WW Velocipedist Gargantuan

I listen to Pink Floyd often (I absolutely love music of all types with very few exceptions, and prog rock is great to work to for certain projects, not as great as African/Nigerian Jazz though) - so I wouldn't be able to tell if there was a side effect there. If I suddenly want to hear some My Bloody Valentine, then there might be a side effect! Hasn't happened yet, but now that I think about it, I could give Loveless a revisit. Such a great album. So, so great. Mmmmm.... I'm feeling a little hungry.

But seriously: I've decided to take this into its second week. I'm running low on the goods now though, so this weekend or mid-week next week may be the end of this short experiment. Perhaps I need to lower the dosage?

Comments so far, positives and negatives:
-Muscles feel a little bit more relaxed at the end of the day. Recovery may have improved a little bit because of this, but I'm not sure just yet. I can't see any significant improvements in my numbers over the course of two weeks and I wouldn't expect to (1), however I do feel more relaxed and less 'wound'(2)
-Stomach has slowly adapted to the substance. At first it didn't take it perfectly(3), but now my digestive system seems to be o.k. with whatever is in there.
-I've had to use a mortar and pestle to grind the powder down a little bit more so it mixes with the milk. Perhaps this is owing to my mixing it with cold milk, not warm milk which would make powders mix easier. I have not tried it with Soy milk or water at this time, perhaps in the future should I acquire more of this.... stuff.
-My appetite has been somewhat lowered. No, really, I'm eating less. I haven't been super methodical about weighing or quantifying what I normally take in, but I do know and can tell that I've been eating the same foods but in less quantities.
-I may have lost two pounds over the first week, based on my standing on the bathroom scale. No clue whether this will 'stay' off once I leave the substance or what. I measure my weight in the morning, after a workout (before shower), and before I sleep at night, always nude never wet. It does vary between morning/night a bit, but the numbers are on the whole down about two pounds since the first week. Riding/workout has not increased significantly. But I have been eating less, however not feeling under nourished.

Footnotes:
(1) I'm certainly not in a 'peak' or 'slow taper' part of my training cycle right now. Next event of significance is in September.
(2) Not wound as in "flesh wound" but wound as in "that coil is wound up"
(3) This is to say that it never made me feel ill, I've never vomited or ended up with diarrhea or something strickening with this. No pains, nothing. Just an 'odd' feeling in the stomach at first. Now it's o.k. but nothing more. The taste is still very unique and somewhat brilliant, undefinable.

I owe y'all some pictures of the container, too. Let me upload them.

and yes, this is a completely unscientific testing... but it's something, better than nothing, no?

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Exp001

Pictures (taken before I started the "test") -

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Exp001

Ghoutou (Ghavout)

This is made of 40 plants including nigella seed, purslane, coffee, hemp, cotton seed… It is brown in color and is very nutritious. Varieties of ghoutou have pistachios and coconut in their make.

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i like people... i just can't stand assholes

Can I have your bike when this "experiment" is over?

I hear crocodile testicles also improve performance. The plus is I don't think they are on the banned list but be careful harvesting them.

Sorry but this kind of stuff scares me. Be careful my friend

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WW Velocipedist Gargantuan