Exhibit A: Tour de France winner Floyd Landis failed a drug test. Shooting yourself up with testosterone. Bad.
Exhibit B: World Anti Doping Agency considers banning rooms that simulate sleeping at altitude. Debatable.
Exhibit C: Paula Radcliffe swears by an ice bath after every race. Good.
Drugs don't make you faster. Even if I riddled my body with needle marks and someone else's EPO enhanced blood I'd be lucky to ever break 15 minutes for 5000m. Drugs do help you recover quicker from hard workouts though. So do icebaths. If you haven't discovered the icebath and are training for a marathon, really, now is the time to start before they ban them too. In fact, I'd say that sometimes the icebath after the hard workouts seems to be the difference between 2 and 3 workouts in a week, because it seems to cut my recovery time by up to 12 hours.
I don't think they're going to ban icebaths anytime soon, but my point is that where you draw the line on unacceptable aids to athletic performance is not clear. The rationale that drugs are bad because they may cause harm to athletes is one basis for discriminating between drugs and artificially simulated altitude, but even here it's a matter of probabilities and proportions, not absolutes. Jack your altitude settings all the way up to 30,000 feet and you'll cause some harm to the athlete. Stay too long in an ice bath that's too cold and you could kill yourself. It's harder to do than overdosing on drugs, but still just possible. And once you're dead, what does it matter?
This is to say nothing of the probably even greyer area that you reach when athletes have legitimate medical conditions that may require drugs that also have recovery-enhancing benefits. Or, the difference between "natural" and "synthesized" products. Getting protein, carbs and liquid within 15 minutes of a workout is also a significant boost to recovery. It's significant enough that you sure notice the difference when you don't replenish straight away, and then try to run twice that day, or do another moderate to hard day the next day.
No-one is ever going to be worried about what I'm doing in between workouts, but I'd wager it's a good deal easier for me to get in the icebath and the full meal after my morning run than someone with children and a job that expects them there promptly. You could extend this contrived example of inequity to more accomplished athletes, the sponsored runner who only works a 20 hour job because they have a shoe contract versus the person 20 seconds slower than them over 5km who doesn't quite have the sponsorship and works full time. But where do you stop with inequity as a basis for banning recovery-enhancing substances and techniques? We can't sponsor everyone, nor could we really level off the playing field by making everyone wait four hours after working out before getting anything to eat.
Drugs are bad, I agree with that. Icebaths are good [for you]. But in between them there's a lot of grey and the ethical basis on which we draw the line is not that clear.
Posted by eroberts at July 27, 2006 01:00 PM | TrackBackLet's see, the value of a shoe contract? 20hrs a week of salary? I hardly think so, it takes more than shoes.
IRT yesterday's rubber sidewalks, thanks for the link. I think the residential brochure leaves something to be desired. Do you know of anyone who has set these up for a playground area?
For running, the US Air Force had about three miles of shoreline sidewald repaved with a rubber composite surface down at MacDill in Tampa. This turned out being an awesome surface to run on, especially after putting in six miles leading up to it on the concrete sidewalk of Bayshore Drive.
-mark
Depends on the shoe contract, don't it? A friend of mine runs for a running store team in the Minneapolis area, and he has a shoe contract that gets him 40% off of Adidas shoes. Al Culpepper has a shoe contract with Adidas that gets him free shoes (and a giant check every month).
I tried the icebath thing last week, and I have been doing the carb/protein bolus within 15 minutes of finishing hard workouts, and I am recovering with less soreness and stiffness, but not a lot faster. I guess I need to start taking testosterone. The icebath thing just seemed to stiffen my legs and cause me to cramp up.
Posted by: Eric at July 28, 2006 01:03 PMWho knew my hasty estimation of how much a shoe contract is worth would generate more comments than my moral relativism on drugs?
It does depend on the shoe contract! If you're literally just getting shoes for free or at a discount you ain't giving up the day job.
If you have a comfortable retainer from a shoe company many runners seem to choose to have some kind of flexible half-time job for extra income, mental stimulation etc.
To put numbers on it, perhaps my 20 second differential was too small: If you're out of college and regularly running 15:00 for 5000m, you can get discounted shoes from local stores. If you're running 13:30 somewhat regularly you'll probably be getting some form of retainer.
Posted by: Evan at July 28, 2006 04:53 PM