Nick Symmonds Announcement?!

WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) are currently monitoring the usage of caffeine by athletes, as it has been suggested that since it was removed from the prohibited list, its use has dramatically increased. If this is the case, WADA must decide whether to reinstate the ban and if the permitted threshold should be lowered (from 600mg). Of course the other option is to put a complete ban on the use of caffeine, this would however be impossible due to caffeine staying in the system up to 48 hours. Therefore an athlete would not be able to have a cup of coffee or an energy drink within 48 hours of a competition. Random drug testing makes this even less feasible.

People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.

You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.

F*ck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.

– Banksy

wat are you, some wannabe fast runner who is too much of a pu$$y to drink coffee? Aww, you dont like the taste? Poor thing. Grow up, it's COFFEE, and guess what....it's not goint anywhere.

my adrenals hurt wrote:

TLW wrote:

The caffeine limit would require you to drink 60 cups of coffee or something.

You got the "or something" part right. It would take about 600mgs in a 75kg person. A 16oz cup of coffee from Starbucks typically has 300-400mgs of caffeine. Know anybody who has ever had two medium "cups" of coffee in the space of an hour?

I think this is a huge misstep from Nick - he wants to connect himself personally to PEDs and market the product as a PED? This is the image he wants to set for himself?

I don't get this at all.

I think this is a pretty good idea. Chewing gum makes you hungry though, and I hate running hungry. I'll stick with gels.

To call this a gimmick would be a huge understatement. Ri-f'in-diculous

Giant Johnson wrote:

I think this is a pretty good idea. Chewing gum makes you hungry though, and I hate running hungry. I'll stick with gels.

How does gum make you hungry?

Sorry guys I thought this was gonnna be something much bigger -- the gum sounds kinda cool tho

fan of US distance running wrote:

How does gum make you hungry?

It just does. A quick google search yields this: "Chewing gum stimulates the gastric juices, producing saliva. The saliva that is produced while chewing goes down to the stomach and fools the stomach into thinking there is food to be digested, making you hungrier".

Not too many businessmen here, I see. Symmonds is looking to secure his secure his long-term financial future and provide a product to runners. Interesting.

Although I am not sure how much I want to be chewing gum when I am competing.

agip wrote:

I think this is a huge misstep from Nick - he wants to connect himself personally to PEDs and market the product as a PED? This is the image he wants to set for himself?

I don't get this at all.

it's just savvy marketing. they're riding the PED controversy with a fun little campaign sizzle. whatever. all this bullsh*t to hock a product.

How pervasive is using caffeine in competition? I never touched caffeine in 4 years of competing at the DIII level. Was I putting myself at a disadvantage?

What an awful product name. Yeah I get that it rhymes (sort of) but it is too descriptive and limiting.

vivalarepublica wrote:I am not sure how much I want to be chewing gum when I am competing.

I assumed the gum was to be chewed for a short while prior to the race starting. Does anyone know what Symmonds would advise? When do people tend to take caffeine if trying to enhance performance? DOes it depend on if you drink it or take a pill?

Like the high school kids huffing salbutamol before a race,

now they'll be chewing 4 packs of Run Bum.

I'll just stick to EPO, HGH, Roids,Thyroid meds, insulin and a few others, jk. But seriously what would happen if I injected myself with my EpiPen with a mile to go in a race? It is adrenaline.

Next month EPO flavored Run Bum.

Are you saying the gum tastes like ass?

I was surprised to hear about elite runners taking caffeine just the other day in the Letsrun article on the Hansons guys (Jake Riley and Bobby Curtis) in Chicago. It said "We asked both guys what they do for nutrition and Jake said he’s going to use Gu Brew and a caffeine pill around half-way."

The Run Gum website says he takes one before and one after a race/workout. I can see the benefit of taking one before; I also get that weak and groggy feeling before a race. However, once the race starts the adrenaline boost is all I need.

In my day there were DIII guys doing caffeine and even pseudophedrine before races.