MAYEROFF wrote:
Regarding Sun Yingjie's TRIPLE of Marathon, then 10km then 5km, yes I think that she could do this, without drugs.
The strength in the muscles and connective tissue that Sun Yingjie has developed over the years of hard training and racing would allow her to do this. Keep in mind that her 10km the day after her marathon was more than a minute slower than her PR (30:07). Could Gebresalassie run 27:30 the day after a 2:08 marathon? hell yes.
Jason
that is nuts. It is almost impossible to run 2:08 without doping and the next day you feel like you have died, you don't feel like taking a shot at a track 10k.
Speculating who might be on drugs or what they could do clean is ridiculous. It's been shown (by runners and cyclists who were caught) what EPO can do for you and it makes a significant difference. I am not going to speculate how much because that has not been proven with research. But athletes wouldn't risk getting caught if it only made a 5-10 second difference in a 10k. It makes a bigger difference than that. A big enough one that it can't be ignored.
You should know first hand that a 2:08/27:30 double is impossible without drugs and maybe impossible with them. Years ago, the only people tough enough to try such things were guys like Salazar (tried to simulate a double with a 27:30/2:08 double - nine days apart - but the order was reversed) and Treacy (actually doubled in the '84 Olympics with a weak 28:34/super 2:09 Silver - but again the order was wrong).
If Geb could pull off a 2:08/27:30 back to back so easily why didn't he ever run the MUCH EASIER 5k/10k double?? Why didn't he attempt the MUCH EASIER 10k/marathon double?? He would have been able to fully recover from the 10k and then tackle the marathon? The guys that have won the championship marathons in the last several years were not the super-champion that he is ... it would have been easy pickins for him.
S***, if the marathon is always last and he can run 2:08/27:30 one day apart ... well, why didn't he run the 10k/5k/marathon triple that Zatopek actually pulled off, and Viren almost did?
I'll tell you why: the EPO makes it too hard to beat every one in every race.