SwissRX Synthesis - Week #4 Update

Another week in the books...

I have a few more days worth of Synthesis and then we'll be to 30 days. I have been making small increases in training stress over the last few weeks and, in general, have tolerated it well. I'll continue through this weekend and get a final read on fatigue and recovery. If the weather cooperates I'll try a couple full-gas efforts before any major fatigue sets in and see if there are any notable improvements.

I'm starting to focus on where I go next with this experiment. It looks like my riding schedule is going to get a little inconsistent for the next couple weeks so it probably makes sense to end this experiment and see if I can track any negative outcomes during a washout phase. This will probably be a challenge to pin down because there will be so many new influences. That said, I'll try to subjectively feel any differences over the next month or so.

I have been feeling pretty good on the bike, so I am not ruling out that there has been some positive effect from Synthesis. It is most likely that any benefit has been marginal to small (subject to anything that reveals itself during the washout phase). While there is nothing wrong with "small" benefits, the marketing hype surrounding this product suggested much more substantial benefits.

I am considering a second experiment with a few supplements all at the same time and a more specific testing protocol for measuring performance changes. I've done this in the past with measuring my altitude acclimatization timeline (San Diego to Boulder) and the data was quite informative for my own progression from unacclimated to fully acclimated (approx. 4 weeks).

I'll pick a few that have the best evidence-backed results and go from there. I'll probably include nitric oxide and creatine.