According do Mr Canova, Kenyan top athletes avoid any supplements - SO WHAT ARE THEY EATING, MR CANOVA?

We need to follow two aspects about nutrition :

a) Food that must be used for BUILDING your tissues (the bricks for your house)

b) Food that must be used as FUEL for having the opportunity lo LAST at different kinds of Intensity.

Under the first point, African food is not the best solution. If we go to analyse the percentage of Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fats that an Athlete (not very different from normal people, not running) can introduce from his food, we find more than 80% of Fibers and Carbohydrates (Ugali, Chapati, Potates, Rice, Beans), no more than 15% of Proteins (usually Chicken, sometime "Nyama Choma" that is a grill of meat of cow, bull, goat and sheep), and only 5% of Fat, coming from drinking a lot of Milk.

This fact can also explain, together with the structure of the roads where they use to train, WHY THERE ARE SO MANY INJURIES AT TOP LEVEL BETWEEN THE ATHLETES TRAINING HARDER.

For a Kenyan, there is no a good balance between his ORGANIC AND BIOENERGETIC SYSTEM, and his MECHANICAL STRUCTURE.

So, when we move for very hard training, the LIMITING FACTOR for a Kenyan is not his ORGANIC SYSTEM (that is where you can have some intervention with blood doping), but the FRAGILITY of his body.

So, the new frontier for some improvement is to find the way to make the structure of Kenyans more strong, in order to avoid (till when is possible) the risk of injuries.

This is exactly what we did with Wilson Kiprop from November 2009 till end of January 2010 : giving him the base for working hard, at the level that his physiology and his motivation could allow, but his mechanical efficiency (at the moment) not completely ok.

It's very interesting to see what top athletes have in their luggage when come to Europe for one month during the track season, in Summer. They have luggage sometimes more than 50 kg heavy, and inside there is special white flour used for cooking Ugali....

Thank you a lot!

Each of your post is gold and how did I enjoy the talk to you in Poland this year during WCChp...

Do you have a book? This is all very intersting and I would love to have it in book form.

So then how much of sucess is diet related and how much is running related?

something I've always struggled with

runn wrote:

Do you have a book? This is all very intersting and I would love to have it in book form.

You can order Renato's marathon training book from iaaf.org, very good booklet about marathon training, I don't remember him talking about nutrition much in it.

I love this dude's bullshit!

Renato, you cannot separate these nutritional aspects. As you know, the high carbohydrate diet spares protein losses from training, and overall keep the weight at minimum (BMI at 17-18 or so) reducing cumulative impact loads. You are also aware that continual glycogen depletion is also not conducive to an endurance athlete and that glycogen reloading is also essential to maintaining fluid levels, preventing dehydration and central fatigue which protects mood and motivation for training.

Of course a Kenyan (and other East Africans)have organic limitations: 1) in the muscle work of high ventilation volumes 2) in the thin lower limb which may predispose to fracture, and 3)in the peak running velocity which sets a limit on performances at every distance. The biggest limitation a Kenyan faces is the genetics which favor distance running performance but in an extremely competitive environment which leads some to attempt overreaching, falling into the trap of thinking more and more work in training will necessarily bring a better result.

If a coach insists that all runners train as much volume as possible to achieve their goals, and along with it, the pressure to race frequently, you will have breakdowns due to excess. But this is a limitation of the method and mindset in general, not the athlete as the demands imposed are in the long haul non-physiological in the very purest sense.

If an African shows up with food stashed in the luggage,it is to be thrifty. That seems rather sensible to me. This desire to avoid hunger and have at least some of the comforts of home while traveling is not at all unique to the African athletes I have known.

The biggest crock I have ever heard is that there is a group of professional athletes thats completely clean. If anyone is spreading rumors that there is a group that is completely clean, they're a liar and a thief.

The saddest thing I ever heard is that there are people, like Doctor House, living in the suspicion that everybody is guilty of something that never did.

It's true : I don't have any proof that EPO doesn't work with top athletes (also if everything I explained is something scientific, not an opinion).

But I have the proof about where the athletes can arrive completely clean :

a) WR of steeple (Shaheen - 7'53")

b) Winning WCCCh one year after having a baby (Florence Kiplagat)

c) Beating the WR of 25 km (Mary Keitany)

d) Beating the World Best in altitude in 10000m (Wilson Kiprop - 27'26") and defeating Zersenay Tadesse after 4 years of continuous victories

e) Winning the first edidtion of steeple for women in WCh (Docus Inzikuru - Helsinki 2005)

f) Moving in two years from steeple to HM (World Champion 2002) and to WR of 25 km (Paul Kosgei)

g) 6 athletes under 26'52" in 10000m

h) 27 medals in World Championships (Track, Road, Cross)

So, for which reason I have to doubt about the same results that other athletes can do ? Why I have to doubt about, for example, Bekele, if I recognize in Kenenisa more talent of my best athletes, able to run very close his performances ?

Of course, you can think I'm a cheater, this is your opinion.

But, because I know that all my athletes are completely clean, this is the reason because I KNOW THAT BLOOD DOPING WITH THIS TYPE OF ATHLETES CANNOT WORK.

And after this, everybody can remain of his opinion. But your life can be very much better if you start to think that is possible to be at the top without cheating, at the same way it's not possible to think that everybody is rich is a criminal because his money comes from shady businesses.

I agree 100 percent with Mr. Canova that the drugs do not work.

You can look in any hospital to see, are such drugs making the people super athletes? No, they are very sick people, worse off then the average in society, and this is BECAUSE of the drugs that are given to them, instead of the people being healthy.

People have a choice, they can either take the drugs - or believe in the drugs, same thing - or be healthy. Any person cannot have both at the same time. Anyone taking the medical drugs is not healthy physically. Anyone believing in the drugs (but supposedly not taking them) is not healthy mentally.

Canova gives great and accurate info.

Doping is not a part of the african athletic culture , never has been.

Doping is a part of spanish/italian/russian/scandinavian athletic culture , we see it in x-country skiing , cycling , running etc. There is a long detailed history of use. Nothing to argue , its just fact as we see the "caught" athletes make headlines.

They see it as an excepted practice to stay competitive. Everybody else does it so should we is the mentality.

... and overall keep the weight at minimum (BMI at 17-18 or so) reducing cumulative impact loads...

Is there any reason to think that such a low BMI is necessarily a good thing? The marathon world record holder - Haile G - is 5'5" and 123 lbs - giving a BMI of 20.5.

Renato, dont let people like Dr. House stop you from posting here. Most of us look forward to reading what you have to say.

i can say that I am 100% certain that there are very very clean athletes who are WR holders. There are a few who are cheating.

I enjoy the sport because I enjoy running and I enjoy watching

clean athletes do well and dopers eventually get caught.

I enjoy watching the Africans run because like you, I believe they are clean and because for them running is not complicated with the pointless use of technology.

Tommy2Nutts wrote:

Renato, dont let people like Dr. House stop you from posting here. Most of us look forward to reading what you have to say.

i can say that I am 100% certain that there are very very clean athletes who are WR holders. There are a few who are cheating.

I enjoy the sport because I enjoy running and I enjoy watching

clean athletes do well and dopers eventually get caught.

I enjoy watching the Africans run because like you, I believe they are clean and because for them running is not complicated with the pointless use of technology.

I agree it's the mind that is the power - the thought ! Bruce Lee was as good as he was because he believed he was. He let his mind relax like water he absorbed his opponents energy then returned it compounded with his own. As rrunners we need to relax the whole being flowing along like a mighty river, when we encounter a hill like water we rise to it's level then flow swiftly over the top. Always being mindful of forward motion sustained at speed and relaxation. "Hard" days hard, easy days easy, thereby we shall advance to our potential joyfully !!!

Do Kenyan top athletes take iron? How do they avoid becoming anemic? Do they have to worry about that?

Stupid American wrote:

Canova gives great and accurate info.

Doping is not a part of the african athletic culture , never has been.

Doping is a part of spanish/italian/russian/scandinavian athletic culture , we see it in x-country skiing , cycling , running etc. There is a long detailed history of use. Nothing to argue , its just fact as we see the "caught" athletes make headlines.

And yet all these clean super-Africans seem to feel the need to surround themselves with coaches/managers/doctors from these naughty countries.

Why do they do that?

Renato Canova wrote:.

But, because I know that all my athletes are completely clean, this is the reason because I KNOW THAT BLOOD DOPING WITH THIS TYPE OF ATHLETES CANNOT WORK.

You're going to have to explain this. Are you saying that blood doping won't work for a very good athlete? I disagree. Physiology is physiology. It doesn't matter how fast or slow, blood doping works.

Komen didn't seem to have any problem with it.

Common, I think that, instead, physiology has to explain HOW IS POSSIBLE TO REACH RESULTS OF MY ATHLETES WITHOUT DOPING, if really doping works. You continue to speak about opinions, not supported by any scientific evidence, because NEVER there was any experimentation with top athletes using the same type of training and looking at their results WITHOUT doping and WITH doping.

If you know something about what we can call "Scientific experimentation", you know that, in this case, the system used is the "doppio cieco" in Italian, that we can translate as double-blind. We give to the same subject some substance, or some placebo, but he doesn't know, and we see the results. Do you think somebody had an experimentation like this in pharmacology or physiology ?

So, you have only two possibilities :

1) You believe I'm a cheater, a lier, a doper, and I attack for removing from myself and my athletes any suspicion of doping, because ALL my athletes were doped (but in this case, because never any my athlete or myself were in the middle of this problem, why I need to go in the storm ?)

2) You believe in the FACT that my athletes obtained their result completely clean, and in this case you have to change some opinion about the doping effect for every type of person.

About the fact that Kenyan athletes look at coaches and managers of other Countries, this is for the same reasons because the best African brains wants to study in US, or because fifty years ago if somebody needed a heart transplant had to go in South Africa to the equipe of dr. Barnard : because for improving everybody needs the support of the best professional persons in any area, and, not for their fault, black African Countries at the moment don't have in these roles the same level that we can find in other Countries, with more history and more background.

ENRICO FERMI (Italian) was the first discovering the nuclear fission, in US, and nobody asks WHY he didn't do it in Italy. The answer is easy : because it was not possible.

Do you know that the first real athletic coach, in the Italian Federation, was Boyd Comstock, from US ?

Why do you think there are so many Italian coaches of football (Capello, Ancelotti, Mancini, Di Matteo in UK, Spalletti winning Russian league in Russia, Zenga in UAE), of volley (there are 4 top Countries with Italian Coaches), now also of walking (Sandro Damilano is, from the beginning of October, the new responsible for China) ?

And, in any case, the situation is exactly the opposite :

about 25 years ago, were European managers (the first was John Bicourt from UK, immediately after Kim McDonald) going to Kenya for developing athletes, according the new professional activity, able to produce economic incomes, while before athletics was for glory only. And only later some European coach arrived for working with the athletes, normally connected with some management. This is a very different situation from what happens in US, where Kenyans athletes went (and continue to go) as students, and their activity is out of the professional circuit.

Common wrote:

Renato Canova wrote:.

But, because I know that all my athletes are completely clean, this is the reason because I KNOW THAT BLOOD DOPING WITH THIS TYPE OF ATHLETES CANNOT WORK.

You're going to have to explain this. Are you saying that blood doping won't work for a very good athlete? I disagree. Physiology is physiology. It doesn't matter how fast or slow, blood doping works.

Komen didn't seem to have any problem with it.

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If our bodies needed more blood cells to run faster, then they would produce more.

But they don't, because you don't need more blood cells to run faster, you need better training.