Why Blood Doping Will Boost My Performance

I've never really understood what the fuss about drugs and sport is. Simply put - money buys you better performance. If you have more money you can buy a better coach, better equipment, better diet and better drugs.

Whether drugs are allowed or not doesn't change this - so as far as I can see the ban is more generated by the war on drugs in society which is equally stupid and pointless.

The best reason for legalising drugs in sport is to allow them to be regulated and athletes to be better protected from interesting side effects.

But this is about my and improving my performance - so what's the story?

Well training at altitude has lots of benefits - the simplest ones are that it increases the amount of oxygen that your blood can carry and also the efficiency that your body uses oxygen. This can translate into a 5% performance improvement - turning a 10 hour ironman into a 9 1/2. Nice.

The things is that I'm going to be spending 3 weeks training and racing at altitude later in the year. This in itself is going to be painful. I remember once sprinting at 14000 feet and needing 10 minutes to recover. Granted I was not that fit then - but the level of oxygen debt that you incur happens so fast and it is so deep. Ouch.

Why waste this performance boost? When I arrive back in Malaysia I have 2 litres of super powerful blood removed and stored. Then before a major race I pop it back in and BOOM! I speed like a rocket.

Is this wrong?

If it is should I be running in the Standard Chartered Marathon shortly after I get back . . . I'll run a lot better and faster then - and I'll have got the same benefits as blood doping by spending $2000 US on a trip to Nepal.

Or should I spend $4000 on an altitude room and maintain the performance level indefinitely without having decant and re-ingest my blood.

Three options - all a similar cost  and performance gain. One just happens to be 'bad'

But if you see a huge performance this year it is more likely to be because I spent more money on:

• Coaching
• Equipment
• Nutrition

and of course I'll have put the hours in and have better:

• Mental skills
• Technical skills, and
• Desire to win

That said - if there are any AB positive athletes out there who need a performance boost - blood is for sale.... contact me - I have a great deal just for you . . .