Doping in "hobby jogging"

Pretty sure it happens more than people think. But only serious runners can spot it. It's the guy whose been running for 10 years in then starts setting PBs in their 50s or 60s. They say it's better training but you can't recover from harder training at that age without help. also after 10 years of running, you don't set PBs in your 50s and 60s.

But the hobby joggers are all "You are amazing!"

Doping ad a hobby jogger is fine if you're not violating the rules of any race you enter. It's actually kinda cool. What's not cool is not being transparent about it.

Probably Rampant , I still use the age graded tables from 2000;)

The track data at

mastersrankings.com

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is an easy way to look for suspicous improvements more racing faster times. Yawn.

USADA is a joke when it comes to catching 40+ runners doping.

They caught Robert Qualls a few years ago , the retired professor was using all kinds of banned peds. What a Joke.

If WADA legalized most of the PEDs after 40 it would be interesting.

I play by the rules as this is my nature. But I can see why many would cheat. Even if stuff like micro dosing epo and trt and human growth hormone and what ever else were legal for old farts I would not take any of them just to run faster.

I do confess to using super shoes!

It’s likely people who go on HRT “for health reasons.” Note that the vast majority of people who do this don’t actually have hypogonadism, but they justify that it’s totally natural since it’s just testosterone(which the body naturally produces) and thus they can say that they don’t take “steroids”.

I ran through much of my 40s and set my masters-age PBs at 50 (not faster than HS, though). Clean. How? It was easier to train more and sleep more when the kids went off to college.

Just read the Running Professor's take on Qualls. He covers many of the National events that Qualls made the podium. Great Read. I wish RP would also took an depth look at the problem in general. His perspective is to focus on the runners who were cheated which was satisfying .

https://www.runningprof.com/2024/07/

I just started HRT (female) but am unsure what the athletic benefits are. I have seen some good benefits noted on Reddit, but right now I’m just bloated and getting better sleep. Don’t notice any running benefits yet

Women in my age range are also encouraged to use DHEA by menopause shills, even tho it’s banned in competition. Personally, I don’t need the acne, and I think clinically the results are iffy.

Tried super shoes, but they messed with my knees. I see all the serious hobby joggers from 5k to half marathon wear them at races.

I’ve seen people use inhalers. Are they asthmatic? Who knows.

Any dude 50+ who’s ripped is def using T.

The way you catch dopers, as with anyone cheating, is by

1. living with them.

2. inside information (look up Liver King emails exposed 2022)

3. Baiting them

I actually set my 10K PR at 50 (because I never ran that distance until I was in my mid 40s, didn't make it my A race often, and then caught a day with perfect conditions), so I know late PRs are possible for some adult runners, but it takes particular circumstances. Otherwise...

One case that looks very suspicious to me is someone who trained and raced as a decent hobby jogger for 7 years, then made a sudden huge leap in terms of VDOT/AG%, and then continuously improved a ton even beyond that over the next 5-6 years, going from an excellent hobby jogger to a world beater over 17 years of regular improvement, while aging into his 50s. If I could pay for one person to get tested, I'd test him.

I would guess a fair number of regionally competitive but not elite people dope under the auspices of 'age related health therapy' and a HGH-TRT type supplement also has a more profound effect on older runners. So it skews the age grade tables a bit.

Any and all doping is embarrassing and inexcusable. I don't give af if you're transparent, you should be deplatformed and laughed at if you use PEDs.

Yeah sometimes it's blatantly obvious, for example if someone had a lengthy pattern of consistent age grading and then progressed a few levels up out of the blue.

For example a decade of 70-80% and then all of a sudden hitting the upper 80s or higher. This is extremely suspicious. I'm aware of a few (similar to Qualls) who have yet to be caught.

Dr Dennis Villareal out of Baylor College of Medicine has done some studies on DHEA supplementation with older individuals. One study involving both men & women over 65 engaged in a structured weight training program showed DHEA increased lean muscle mass & strength above & beyond the placebo group. Another study with overweight/obese individuals showed a significant reduction in subcutaneous & visceral fat loss with the DHEA group vs placebo.

The "I Am Longevity" guy, an over 60 yr old fitness influencer, who has a YT channel, takes DHEA & said it helped him get "ripped." He's also reviewed studies on DHEA:

That's not how age grade tables work. It's a comparison of world records for a particular age vs. the overall world record. So what skews them are the extreme outlier athletes that are decades ahead of their peers (i.e., running times that no one else reaches for decades). Likewise, when someone smashes the open world record that no one can touch, the age grade records take a hit.

Doping in hobby jogging happens but probably isn't rife. They aren't going to get tested unless they win significant money after all.Every now and then someone really does pr late in life, it doesn't instantly make think someone is a drug cheat, but it raises suspicions if someone in their 40s or 50s goes on a tear after decades of training and racing.

Let's get clear that many hobby joggers who are NOT looking to improve performance and win awards are inadvertently technically doping just because many common rx and over the counter drugs are on the banned list, and no casual hobby joggers are cross referencing the banned list because they aren't even aware of that.

Then you also have the anti-aging drugs where most who take them are NOT doing it for racing enhancement simply because most taking them aren't even running races, so the technical cheating is a side effect if they happen to walk a charity 5K.

A smaller group than the two above are the intentional cheaters which is what the OP is focused on, but I wanted to point out the sport's rules makes a large portion of people who enter races technical cheaters, just like everyone exceeds the speed limits by at least 1 mph at least momentarily once in a while.

I think with all the new sarms, peptides, and pro hormones available to buy legally there is quite a large number. Especially suspicious of the “hybrid” athlete who is jacked and running 15:30 out of the blue.

If you think about it doping in hobby jogging has less negative effects on others than professionals doping. At least hobby joggers are only effecting themselves

I know some 50 years who're more 'ripped to shreds' than any 20 year olds ive ever met and even with like 50lbs of extra muscle they can run like a 2:35.

But totally clean....