Renato Canova wrote:
If WADA wants to know the real effects, needs to invest some money for a serious research, not a bullshit like in the past with 15 boys (kenyan) with average 9'35" and 15 boys (scottish) with average 11'10", and after the most stupid experiment I saw in my life, to consider this as a PROOF that EPO works for top Kenyans too.
To know the effect, the study should have included a control group without EPO.
To it's credit, the study also measured perceived effort (RPE), which highlights one of the major shortcomings. Long story short, unlike the Scottish, the Kenyan boys did not really try to run their best.
These Kenyans, based on equivalences of previous performances at other distances, should have been capable of 8'00" time trials. Pre-EPO they ran half-marathon to marathon pace. With EPO they ran 10000m to half-marathon pace. They ran as fast as the best high school girls from the 1970s.
A better study, is that they should have trained (and incentivized) these Kenyans to their maximum potential clean, and then start the EPO intervention. Would they still improve 5% (5% of 8'00" is 24 seconds)? I don't have faith.