Some people on here think I’m nuts because I voice my opinions strongly, but I only do so after considering the situation.
Remember Priscilla Lopes-Schliep? The girl I used to run with looked like her, only more ripped. Upon reflection, this guy doesn’t fit that bill, because he’s just not massive enough. Those girls had muscles on their muscles, they were bulky with muscle.
OTOH this guy is, like somebody else said, “popped”. That’s the effect that bodybuilders look for and achieve by selective targeting of muscle groups to build. This guy’s musculature is the product of selective effect, not systemic effect of the kind I was talking about before. Plus, I can’t remember exactly now (maybe some MD can help out), but IIRC whatever she had was restricted to women. It was not only lipodystrophy, but something else, too, maybe some thyroid thing, I can’t remember.
Like I said before and as is obvious, maintaining a high BMI due to lean muscle mass, and running a fast thon and doing the training required for it, are physiologically mutually exclusive in a natural individual.
Also, if the guy was natural and looks like this in his 50’s and was an excellent athlete when younger, what did he look like in his prime? Give me a break, he would have made BJ look like a wanker.
And not only are distance excellence and high lean muscle mass naturally mutually exclusive, but high muscle mass and ultra-low subcutaneous body fat seem to me to also be naturally mutually exclusive. A body that can add tissue adds all sorts of tissue, muscle and fat. Yes I understand that he is not “big”, but to be natural and look like him...show me one other person who fits that bill, who you know is clean.
Then there is his job—fireman. Where I am, the cops and firemen are notorious for roiding (especially the cops)—ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE SHORT. Just sayin’.
Show me some pics of him when he was 15 and 16, then show me some pics of him at his peak, whenever that was.
I understand that these are dynamic photos which can make musculature look more exaggerated, but the above points stand.
I personally am still not 100% certain, but IMO the overwhelming probability is that he is using. I know for a fact that euro masters on the track are using, because they have told me so. They make no bones about it—like coloring their hair, they find it the natural and normal thing to do, especially Germans and Italians. I guess I find it interesting from a psychological perspective.
As I age, of course time takes over. I still feel great, but my wife tells me that I don’t look exactly as I looked when I was 25 ( how great is it to have a wife, right?), nor can I run 10.x at will, nor do I have the time (or, frankly, the interest) to maintain training to any kind of a reasonable level. On the upside I am injured a lot less, but my mind has turned to other things.
Although I have a healthy dose of self-centeredness (as all decent athletes must), I have always felt a strong civic and moral obligation. I was an environmentalist when it wasn’t popular—in the 80’s, after I had spent time in the military and done my engineering, I went and got a degree in environmental science because I saw the problems posed by population, pollution, etc.
As I have aged and moved into law and policy, I have become aware of the dimensions of power and governance.
These awarenesses have an effect on a person, and every thinking person feels them to some extent, me maybe more so than others. The effect it can have on you varies according to your personality and attitudes—in my case, I feel the need to try to help the world be a more livable place for those who will come after me.
As I get older and my time on earth gets shorter, I feel an increasing sense of urgency in these matters, which means that I dedicate more time to them—and, consequently, less time to track. I do it now for just normal fitness rather than performance. While there is nothing wrong with measuring your performance, I think there is something wrong with making performance your primary goal when you are 50+...or even 40+, unless you are a freak elite who is still open-competitive, like Oksana Chusovitina. To me, it would be deeply...unnatural.
In the end, he’s probably just another mental midget, overly-compensatory retardo jock. If that’s the case, IMO he should be derided mercilessly. :)