hendricks@gorge.net

OK, having not looked at the results I at first thought, big deal, Steve raced in a master's category and won. But after having looked at the results, and the margin of victory, I am thinking he should be disqualified and the guy who took second (he had 7 minutes on 3rd place!) should be awarded 1st.

Steve, please tell us that you just weren't thinking when you entered the race as an EXPERT!?! Come on, 12 minutes and 19 over 3rd? That's just plain mean. The least you could have done was sit up at the finish for few minutes so it wasn't so egregious (or maybe you did).

Oh, and I hear that since Lance has been off for a year his going to jump into the cat3s for while, until he "gets back into shape."

------- Original Message -------
From : Brad Cockman, DC[mailto:brad21@gmail.com]
Sent : 5/16/2006 2:01:19 PM
To : obrarace@list.obra.org
Cc :
Subject : RE: Re: [OBRA Race] Larsen at Chainbreaker

I thought this was an astute observation by Dr. Ted here in Bend:

Bash Steve? It depends on what you believe in. If you believe that race
results depend only upon training frequency and volume, then he should ride
age
group if he's not training. Leave him alone.

OR

If however, you believe that certain people have a genetic gift for aerobic
work, and that these people (even if racing "off the couch") can crush mere
mortals who have to train hard just to finish the race, then such a being
should always race elite/pro. Bash away.

There are genetic differences in people's aerobic
capacities. Mitochondrial
DNA comes from mom, and sometimes a person's mitochondria is so unique you
can see the difference under the microscope. Greg Lemond's mitochondria were

so numerous and active, that a pathologist who reviewed the muscle biopsy
slide commented that, "this looks like the mitochondria of an Alaskan sled
dog"...not a normal human's. However, Greg was getting sick and his
performance
was declining when this biopsy was taken, so does the finding represent an
incidental observation of his extra-ordinary mitochondria or was the freaky
mitochondria part of the disease process? No one knows for sure, and there
are
so few of these truely exceptional humans on the face of the planet, that
science hasn't figured out what exactly makes someone the "one in a billion"

human athelete. I once had a conversation with Steve, and he feels that his
success was due to hard work.

If everyone could become a superstar just by following "the program", some
guru's training regiment, then we would be surrounded by superstars.
Unfortunately, life isn't so fair, and there are a few genetically gifted
individuals
out there who can do more and go faster when they train. Mere mortals
can't even get fit enough to do their workouts. Other pros feel that they
need
to cheat just to be competitive against the few lucky freaks of nature that
are out there racing. The fact that drugs don't replace training, so much as

they can enhance the physiologic response to training, suggests that there
is
a wide variety of potential physiologic responses to a given training
regime.
Another oddity, is the phenomenon that some athelets can actually improve
their fitness and get faster during a multiday stage race. Most mere mortals

get torn down, depleted and sicker with the back to back stress of endurance

stage races. Different people respond differently to training...even minimal

training during the lunch hour.

This concludes my once per year commentary.
Dr Ted

Brad Cockman, DC

I thought this was an astute observation by Dr. Ted here in Bend:

Bash Steve? It depends on what you believe in. If you believe that race
results depend only upon training frequency and volume, then he should ride
age
group if he's not training. Leave him alone.

OR

If however, you believe that certain people have a genetic gift for aerobic
work, and that these people (even if racing "off the couch") can crush mere
mortals who have to train hard just to finish the race, then such a being
should always race elite/pro. Bash away.

There are genetic differences in people's aerobic
capacities. Mitochondrial
DNA comes from mom, and sometimes a person's mitochondria is so unique you
can see the difference under the microscope. Greg Lemond's mitochondria were

so numerous and active, that a pathologist who reviewed the muscle biopsy
slide commented that, "this looks like the mitochondria of an Alaskan sled
dog"...not a normal human's. However, Greg was getting sick and his
performance
was declining when this biopsy was taken, so does the finding represent an
incidental observation of his extra-ordinary mitochondria or was the freaky
mitochondria part of the disease process? No one knows for sure, and there
are
so few of these truely exceptional humans on the face of the planet, that
science hasn't figured out what exactly makes someone the "one in a billion"

human athelete. I once had a conversation with Steve, and he feels that his
success was due to hard work.

If everyone could become a superstar just by following "the program", some
guru's training regiment, then we would be surrounded by superstars.
Unfortunately, life isn't so fair, and there are a few genetically gifted
individuals
out there who can do more and go faster when they train. Mere mortals
can't even get fit enough to do their workouts. Other pros feel that they
need
to cheat just to be competitive against the few lucky freaks of nature that
are out there racing. The fact that drugs don't replace training, so much as

they can enhance the physiologic response to training, suggests that there
is
a wide variety of potential physiologic responses to a given training
regime.
Another oddity, is the phenomenon that some athelets can actually improve
their fitness and get faster during a multiday stage race. Most mere mortals

get torn down, depleted and sicker with the back to back stress of endurance

stage races. Different people respond differently to training...even minimal

training during the lunch hour.

This concludes my once per year commentary.
Dr Ted