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@pauldimeo2 @clarelobster @stevechapman65 Yeah, so which test is going to pick up an athlete who intelligently micro-doses to get Hb up from say 14.6 to 14.8 (within normal variation), or who recovers 5% better (“I’m just sleeping amazingly well, coach”), and thus improves by 3% to go from 6th to 1st? No way.
@pauldimeo2 @clarelobster @stevechapman65 So to be precise, there are many staff who *COULD* notice any changes, but unless that person is doping with a blunt instrument like an axe, it’s not happening. It’s a scalpel these days. Five scalpels, 5 bio-plausible excuses - I’m sleeping well, eating better, lost weight etc.
@pauldimeo2 @clarelobster @stevechapman65 So in my daily feedback report, thanks to my EPO & T use, & my friendly doping doctor, my recovery is 9 / 10, instead of a previous 7 or 8. I say it’s early bed times, ice baths & no food after 8pm. Everyone monitoring it goes “Shit, Ross is doing great, he’s really disciplined"
@pauldimeo2 @clarelobster @stevechapman65 My weekly groin squeeze is up 5%, drop jump up 7%, flexibility is the same, but it’s all happening gradually. These drugs are not fireworks, more like slow cookers, so I’m getting 0.5% better per week, like the old frog in boiling water. Nobody will notice, except to say “Ross is
@pauldimeo2 @clarelobster @stevechapman65 …adapting pretty well, the training is doing its job, let’s push it up a little, 5% more volume, 5% more intensity. Sure enough, I cope with that too (“Thanks Doc, EPO & T & cortisone are great!”), so my coaches all think “Shit, the training is taking hold big time, keep going!"
@pauldimeo2 @clarelobster @stevechapman65 Now I start losing fat (I’m training 15% more than before, and harder), and so I see a “compound effect” on training, and I’m doing even better, flying. My tolerance to load is unreal, but it didn’t happen overnight, I “earned it” from months of “nudges”. Nobody any the wiser.
@pauldimeo2 @clarelobster @stevechapman65 The ONLY way this jumps out is if I’m actually a 28-year old journey man athlete, who’s been stuck on level D for 5 or 6 years. Then within a few months, I’m on B, a year later, I’m A, then I’m king of A, on the same training method. Then anyone with a brain should say “Huh?"
@pauldimeo2 @clarelobster @stevechapman65 Or, how about this scenario: I’ve been stuck at the back, or near it, for years. Once in a while, I’m OK, but never great. Then I absolutely explode. Forgot “slow cooker”, this is a rocket firework. I reach a podium, I win a Grand Tour, I win many of them. Dodgy? Yes, meet Chris.
@pauldimeo2 @clarelobster @stevechapman65 Or Mo. I’m not proven doping, but the transformation is suspicious. But point is, there’d be no grounds for suspicion in a young athlete who is on a trajectory whose precision is unknowable, & who dopes small enough to improve in increments that “compound” one another in time
@pauldimeo2 @clarelobster @stevechapman65 Oh, just to add, I have it on good authority that an early sign of “blunt” doping is when training partners notice a difference. “Man, how is XYZ handling this, we’re all stuffed?”. But XYZ is doing 3 high quality sessions in 2 days, no worries. That’s where a coach’s alarm...
@pauldimeo2 @clarelobster @stevechapman65 …should start ringing, if the athlete has gone “rogue”. But again, if you bring it to boil slowly in a ‘new’ athlete, it’ll stay hidden, because our "crystal ball of expectations" isn’t precise enough to notice a change. We then choose the bioplausible “marginal gains” instead
