Alberto, how can you explain the values of Christopher Koskei, gold medal in 3000 steeple in WCh '99 ?
These are his value :
BLOOD VALUES OF CHRISTOPHER KOSKEI (YEAR 1999)
Date
Mar, 16
Jul, 8
Aug, 2
Training Level Mediocre Very good Very good
Shape Level Mediocre Very good Very good
Days of Staying at sea-level 12 9 4
WBC 4.98 5.50 5.44
RBC 4.49 3.96 3.85
HGB 13.4 12.3 11.6
HCT 42.8 40.6 38.8
MCV 96.2 102.4 100.6
MCH 34.5 32.0 31.4
MCHC 33.8 32.8 33.0
PLT 366 388 328
Urea 33 32 33
Creatinin 1,36 1,50 1,18
Uric Acid 5.6 5.3 5.7
Colesterol 88 92 86
Triglycerids 104 98 102
Total Bilirubin 0,5 0,7 0,6
Total Proteins 8,2 8,8 9,2
Albumin 5,6 6.0 5,2
AST 38 36 36
ALT 16 22 23
YGT 9 6 8
Sodium 198 204 190
Potassium 5,3 5,6 5,3
Chlorine 116 108 102
Iron 80 64 76
Magnesium 2,08 2,28 1,80
Transferrin 146 155 172
Aptoglobin 34 50 44
Ferritin 154 86 64
Folic Acid 9 ng/ml 21 ng/ml 19 ng/ml
Vit. B 12 724 pg/ml 784 pg/ml 750 pg/ml
The values are in 3 different periods (the days of his blood tests are 16.03 - 8.07 - 2q.08).
For every period, I considered the level of his training, and his shape. It's very easy to have a real analysis of the shape : there are the competitions, and when you run faster, your shape is better.
How you can see, IMPROVING THE SHAPE, HIS HEMATOCRIT WENT DOWN, and when he won WCh, he had 11.6 of Hg and 38.8 of Hct.
Already I gave these data, many years ago, to Malmo, and he provided for putting in a link the original files, written using the system of Microsoft Word with tables (I had this in my computer, but copying everything became text only).
How you can see, THE VALUES ARE VERY FAR FROM WHAT YOU THINK.
You are a physiologist, so I ask you to answer this question : IF USING TRAINING ONLY FOR INCREASING THE SHAPE THE VALUES GO DOWN, WHY I HAVE TO THINK THAT HIGH VALUES CAN INCREASE THE PERFORMANCES ?
And this is not an isolated case : I give you also the values of Kennedy Kimwetich, 800m runner for 1'43"03 and 2'13" in 1000m, already 32 years old (really), in the same 1999, when I went Kenya for the first time, and I had more than 500 tests with Kenyan in the University of Torino, because I wanted to understand the differences.