Having AZT and Sara do these tests has been engaging, and good in that other eyes and methods have confirmed things that I thought to be true and effective; both folks fell in around where I would have put the betting line.
Discussing AZT's testing brought in the broader picture of training...you have limiters and you have masters that need to be served and a finite resource to serve those masters. And this is where a cookie cutter program falls so short. The assumption that everyone is the same is just silly. And while I'm gratified that folks are out there doing research and applying the scientific method to athletics, every time I go into a drugstore and look at the pain reliever shelf I'm reminded of what should be, and is never mentioned as, the holy grail here:
Individual Response.
What doesn't get published in these abstracts or in the VeloNews articles is the outlier to outlier range. In human physiology outliers are no less worthy of consideration then those at the top of the bell curve. At least from a coaching/training standpoint.
Both AZT and Sara fell at the extreme of ranges in some of the testing.
And yet they exist.