This is a great read fellas - thanks for the responses..
Granted you're taking over a gram of test, has the letro limited the strength gains at all? And has it made the weight gains completely lean?
Was running about 500-750mg EW test prior without the letro and was feeling fine, a bit bloated (fat and water). As I started to clean up diet to prepare for up comming competition I added some letro and lost (along with the dietary changes) about 10 lbs of crap weight, water and fat. I'm 5' 7" was about 228 went to 218 and look so much better, vascular and harder, with quad separation, that many people bring on contest day. I have been training and competing for 20+ years, many of them natural and all out. have dabbled in the gear since the late 80's though, with a long period in the middle natural.
Why the biography? Well even though I have made strength gains and am the strongest I have ever been and I'm pretty strong for my weight, I really don't often test my overall strength. I rarely do forced reps or anything under 10 reps anymore. Although on occasion when feeling extra strong will like to see what I can incline BB press with free weights for about 6-8 reps. I could probably squat some good weights too but keep myself to 400-450 where I can get 10-12 reps or so. Being older now has me being cautious to avoid injury, so great form is also very important.
So has the AI hurt my strength gains? hard to tell maybe a little but a good trade off for the improved appearance IMO. There are other reasons to control E as we know men are not designed to run on the amount of E that can be present on a decent size cycle and the resulting aromatase.