I Love Steroids...

[pitboss]

More, Burly, this is a fun read!

[burlyman30]

Part 6.

After getting through the past week, I was still able to eek out a bit more weight and size gain, even though the lethargy and the lack of appetite didn't put me in the best circumstances for this. I was able to put on another 4 lbs, bringing me just shy of 190. Strength had continued to rise, albeit slower than it had advanced earlier in the cycle. Progress was still being made in the gym and was visible in the mirror.

I reduced my Anadrol dosage to 50mg/day for this coming week and maintained my test dosage at 300mg/week. It was my hope that the lower dosage would allow me to get my appetite back and reduce or eliminate the lethargy.

I had never been a good bench presser. Even with great technique that I learned from the powerlifting guru who owned the gym, I was just never well suited to the lift. However, it was about this time that I was able to finally hoist 3 plates up for a single. It was a short-lived ego trip, as the powerlifting team would come in the next day, and I would see the "weak" team members bench press in the 400s. Watching this team always fascinated me.

Doyle, the aforementioned gym owner and prior world champion was an extraordinary coach, with the ability to train others to become national-level champions. His enjoyed notoriety in the PLing community (as well as the wrestling community). One day I was in the locker room and I saw a short and stubby guy as he was dressing and about to leave. As I looked up, I saw his face... this was Dr. Fred Hatfield, the first man to do a 1000 lb squat.

I didn't know it before, but it turns out Doyle and Fred were friends. Some of you may or may not recognize the name. In the mid to late 80s, Hatfield was the editor in chief and a major contributor for Muscle and Fitness magazine. Some of the magazine's best and most scientifically backed articles were written in that magazine during this period. Mostly by him. Very smart guy.

I usually trained a little after 9pm, because I knew the PLing team would be just finishing up their workout. When the PLers in the gym would see me enter they used to yell things like "Here comes the 'bodybuilder' " or "Nice quads. How much can you squat with those?" I just laughed. It was a good group of guys there. All except for one. I'll have to leave him for another chapter.

Though the PLing team never really understood why someone would be into bodybuilding over strength competitions, they really didn't realize that I trained fairly heavy too. I trained as heavy as my body would allow, anyway. It's just that size was the end goal and strength training was used to achieve that goal. At this point in my training, I was doing stiff-legged deadlifts with 425 for sets of 12. Not breaking any records, but not too bad for a guy who just trained "for looks" and weighed under 2 bills.

I had actually cut my leg training down during the cycle as their development had always been ahead of my upper body. I began to train squats/quads only once every two weeks and stiff-legged deadlifts/hamstrings on alternating Wednesdays. Wednesdays has historically always been my leg day. Just one day a week. My philosophy was to blast them to oblivion and let them recover. Alternating my leg days worked very well, and allowed my upper body to catch up during the cycle.

The lower dosage of Anadrol helped my lethargy and appetite a bit during the week, but I think it had to do with overall cumulative load on my system over the previous weeks. I figured I would have to detox a bit from the methyl before I would feel better. Nevertheless, I trudged on. I still had to force-feed myself. I wouldn't feel as nauseous while eating as I did the week prior. So at least there was some improvement there. I still had a hard time removing myself from the couch, though. I just generally felt a bit crummy. Until I got in the gym. That's when everything went well and I would really feel good.

I think feeling a bit crummy also affected my mood, or at least amplified a bad mood when it would occur. I experienced this during one of my off-training days.

I had a black '78 Datsun 280Z and I had been pulled over and ticketed numerous times with this car. The black sports car seemed to really attract the eyes of the law. It just so happened that I liked to drive on the edge of lawfulness/lawlessness. I had gotten a notice from State Farm stating "...if you receive any more citations, we will suspend your insurance coverage". So I needed to lighten the pressure on the accelerator, obviously. But this was easier said than done.

One dark night I was driving through my town on a stretch of road that has a 40mph limit. Well, my little car really preferred to go faster and I obliged. She and I were traveling about 70mph when we went through a yellow left turn light and onto the adjacent road. Just as I made the turn under the yellow light, the nearby streetlight cast a glare on the road behind me and as I looked in my mirror, I saw that a car was following me. With it's lights off. It's no wonder I didn't see him in the dark. It followed me through the light, which by then was certainly red. I saw him behind me, running with no headlights or parking lights and I kept my speed at the speed limit. Well, I only made it about 1/2 mile down the road when red and blue flashers went off in my rear view mirror.

I pulled over and promptly exited my vehicle and began walking toward the police car. I was met midway by an officer who asked me to step back over by my vehicle. That was just fine, so I complied. He asked me how fast I was traveling down the road I had been on before. I told him that if he was asking, then apparently he didn't know and "let's just keep it that way, shall we?" Well, that sort of pissed him off. He wanted me to admit to speeding, but he had neither a radar reading, nor was he able to pace me to confirm a speed. I wasn't going to do his job for him.

Aggravated by my response, he asked me why I went through a red light. I told him "I didn't, but you did." Now, the light may have turned red once I was under it, but certainly not before. I was going way too fast to go through a red, anyway. Well, apparently the officer was not well pleased with my witty remarks. He began to yell at me about how unsafe it was to be driving too fast (unproven) through red lights (unconfirmed) at night. I reminded him that he and I were the only ones on this road at 2am. Well, as you can imagine, that didn't go over too well, either. His anger continues to escalate and now I am getting pissed because he's chewing me out for crap he can't even ticket me for.

At this point he tells me to give him my license and registration. I was standing a couple feet away from him and I began reaching into my jacket's inside breast pocket. The officer grabbed my arm while my hand was reaching for my wallet, pushed me against the car pretty hard, and drew his gun on me. Adrenalin spiked. Heart was racing. Without knowing what to do, I finally told him "Do you want my license or not? It's in my pocket!" I was at the point where I thought I might change from mild-mannered Bruce Banner into the Hulk at this point. Anger for the whole situation was welling up in me and this guy just pulled a gun on me. I was furious inside and trying to keep my composure on the outside. I was sweating like mad under my jacket. I was in fight or flight mode. But I couldn't do either.

Well, eventually he allowed me to slowly retrieve my wallet while his gun was aimed at me. Nerve wracking, to say the least. I pulled out the wallet slowly and couldn't help myself from saying, "Is this what you were afraid of?" He holstered his weapon and finally took the license and registration from my hand.

He was about to walk back to his car, and I was pissed, so I said "I think we need to call your supervisor out here." His response should have been "I will get him on the radio." Instead, he said "Why?" I said, "Because if you plan on ticketing me, I think he needs to know that you broke two laws while coming after me and that you assaulted and intimidated me without cause". My heart was still racing. I didn't know if he was going to arrest me, intimidate me more, or what at this point. But I stood my ground. Pissed off as can be. Seething, really.

Well, apparently he looked up my license and saw I was a law abider, except for a few traffic tickets. And somehow I think that as much as it may have pissed him off, I was right about his tactics and was smart enough to relay all this information to a judge in court. Or I would be talking to his boss in a matter of minutes.

After making me wait about 15 minutes (I think for the sake of spite), he returned my license and registration and I asked if his supervisor was on his way. He said "theres no reason to have him here if I don't ticket you." "But I asked to talk with him", I responded. "He's on another call and cannot respond, so I am sending you on your way". My B.S. meter was going through the roof. And I was livid that he, once again, defied protocol. But, at the same time, my feelings of anger were mixed with relief and gladness for not receiving the ticket that would certainly have gotten my insurance cancelled.

So I drove off, and practiced relaxation breathing to calm my nerves. To this day, I'm not sure how I held my composure. One of life's little mysteries, I suppose.

Getting back to the cycle...

As I went through this week, I knew I only had about 16 Anadrols left by the end of the week. I was getting afraid that I would lose a lot of my size as I dropped my dosage completely. So I came up with a plan...

End of Part 6.

[Scope75]

It finally pays off to be up late!! Lol
Thanks for posting this at this hour.

[Coolazice]

Another awesome chapter in this saga! I'm pretty surprised there wasn't a stronger verbal or physical reaction to the way that officer was 'performing his job'. Glad to hear that you held your composure though and made him look like an idiot in the process. He was likely sweating bullets too once he realized you weren't some random loser out looking for trouble that late at night.

- - - Updated - - -

It finally pays off to be up late!!

Or this early in my case. lol

[Scope75]

Yeah I'm up early to early!!
Can't sleep so I'm doing push-ups.

[h2s]

Wow crazy update. I understand the frustration with the gun draw. I have very strong opinions on law enforcement and their use of intimidation. I had one similar situation with multiple guns drawn on me (a story I would prefer not to share publicly), and I remember a very similar emotional blend of anger and frustration

[Scope75]

I've had the cops pull there guns on me twice for no reason other than I was bigger than them. Lol
Once when I was 14 and another time when I was 24. Crazy thing is I'm more than easy going and polite to the cops no matter what.

But yeah you handled that situation very well and I can't wait for part 7!!!

[Cobalt]

Never had a cop pull his gun out on me, but I had one unsnap his holster and ready to draw once.
I almost just dropped straight on the ground when it happened, LOL.

[Scope75]

Never had a cop pull his gun out on me, but I had one unsnap his holster and ready to draw once.
I almost just dropped straight on the ground when it happened, LOL.

That's what I did when I was 24 because it was 3 cops and guns puts me on the ground without them telling me. Lol

[Rulk]

That is funny to hear how cops handled and did things back then. Driving with the lights off? LOL, real clever there gumshoe! It was easier to become a cop back then too, so you could have bumbling idiots like the one Burly had to deal with.