Improving the driver. Good and bad.

Sorry about that.  We tend to circle the wagons quick around here.

Appleseed said:

Sorry about that.  We tend to circle the wagons quick around here.

it's all good---- we appreciate the self-moderation of this board.

Yeah sorry. I thought the post didn’t quite make sense to the conversation at hand. I now see the correlation. 

This is an interesting topic re: performance enhancing substances in high-intensity activities.  I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and prescribed Ritalin for most of my childhood, but decided probably 20 years ago that ADD meds and their ilk make me feel lethargic, terrible, and somewhat out-of-body, so I wouldn't be taking them anymore. 

These days, I have found the wonders of enduro mountain bike racing and big mountain snowboarding in addition to autocross and track days and there are only 3 things that I personally have found to measurably enhance my performance:

1. Meditation/yoga/breath work-Teaches you to become strong and stay calm in your body. I have met many bike racers that you can audibly hear them holding their breath or breathing erratically on the GoPro, and it completely baffles me how they can even survive one run...

2. Medical marijuana concentrates- definitely affects everyone differently, but keeps me from trying to fight my equipment and get very "in the zone"

3. Microdosing psilocybin- something something dopamine function, but honestly I found this by mistake. It's not a regular thing by any means, but to me, it has helped me read terrain and how I react to that info at an incredible speed. 

Before everyone gets all wadded up, there is no way I could think of that would get me behind the wheel while I'm using #2 or 3. I've found that for some reason I care way too much about the lives of complete strangers in this world to put them in the way of my experimentation.

In reply to sobe_death :

 I went off Ridellan for the same reasons, that stuff made me feel like I was going to puke gave me a headache and like I was on some sort of drug overdose. Of course that was back in fifth grade when everybody was handing out Ridellan as a cure for bad children, which I was .

If you're feeling like a zombie the dose is way to high.

As for ADD; as people go we are the Jack Russel Terriers, you'd better give us a job or we'll find one for ourselves and much like said Jack Russel it's probably not going to be good. Look if you take these to pool chemical tablets, rubber band them together then flush them in the boys room toilet...............Kabam!!!!! It's splits the bowl like a knife through butta.

To avoid the above scenario we had our son running cross country & track as well as having him autocrossing a Kart. 

If only my parents had known why I thought it was normal to try 70 mph handbrake 180s. My wife sends me out to ride my dirt bike when I get antsy.

As with all things there's no one size fits all. Back to non ADD racers doing Adderall, they're kidding themselves if they thinks it's an advantage. The hyper focus benefit is going to be more than offset by the negative effects. For non ADD people I'd question there feedback, tweekers aren't known for there stability or recall...........taking a low dose for non ADDers still makes you a tweeker (if you don't believe that your kidding yourself). Even though I take a really low dose I'd happily give it up, the side effect are low for me but there still there. The dry mouth and need to eat loads of fiber are not exactly a thrill.

In reply to Tom1200 :

Wow, your situation  sounds almost word-for-word like my adolescence 

In reply to jj :

And the taste? How do you get around that taste? Vodka?

jj said:

Believe it or not it tastes VERY good!  Add a bit of lime juice also.  Well, the vodka might be counter productive to lap times.

My buddy and I have an ongoing theory that we’ve tested extensively. Our evidence actually shows that a few sips into a beer improve lap times. But a whole beer does not. Strange, I know, but try it (on a simulator of course!)

Trackmouse said:

jj said:

Believe it or not it tastes VERY good!  Add a bit of lime juice also.  Well, the vodka might be counter productive to lap times.

My buddy and I have an ongoing theory that we’ve tested extensively. Our evidence actually shows that a few sips into a beer improve lap times. But a whole beer does not. Strange, I know, but try it (on a simulator of course!)

https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/drunk-motorcycle-we-try-alcohol-addled-ridingand-crashing#page-10