Each night for the past seven days, my phone has bleeped and a message arrived from a number I don't recognise. "Remember to update your slots at www.myadams.co.uk. Emergency updates to 07786202407 (text) or 0080009437378 (voice). To unsubscribe send 'REMOVE' in reply."
I will not be removing, because I need constant reminding. This is week two of my month on the UK Anti-Doping whereabouts system, and the realities of my new responsibilities are starting to kick in.
Specifying where you'll be for an hour a day, seven days a week, three months in advance, is easy should you be a sedentary creature not given to travel. By instinct and profession I am not.
Last week I logged on every morning to MyAdams (Anti-Doping Administration and Management System) and filled out the Outlook-style calendar for the next quarter. 0600 to 0700, my flat, every day. Easy.
Then my Mum called, inviting me over for Sunday lunch, and I was suddenly perilously close to a potential missed test.
There are certain things I normally need to remember when visiting Mama Fordyce: flowers, manners and earplugs. Emailing the drug-testers to give them her address is not one of them.
Had it not been for that text message, sent from UK Athletics' drug education team (I'm in the system as an athlete, and if you think that's funny, you should know I'm down as a shot putter) I would have forgotten that overnight trips need to be logged. If they're not, and the testers turn up at my flat to find me elsewhere, I'm a third of the way to an Olympic ban.
The Adams system in operation - Tom's homepage, once logged in
Training details need tweaking too. What had been in the system as "Road ride - Surrey Hills" have to be updated, a new location - "Road ride, Stortford" created with sufficient details ("possible loops from CM23 through Essex/Herts/Cambs countryside, lasting up to four hours") that I can be found if need be.
On Thursday I'll be down in Southampton to cover the third Test between England and Sri Lanka. Another night in a new location, another update required.
It takes me about five minutes per update. As I get familiar with Adams I'm sure it will get quicker, and a lot closer to habit than it is now. The system also saves addresses, so next time Mum decides to kill the fatted cauliflower it'll be a couple of clicks instead of hundreds.
A week in, it remains a constant nagging worry. What have I forgotten? When are the testers coming?
The dutiful filial visit throws up another potential pitfall. Perhaps as a result of one too many slices of homemade lemon meringue pie, I wake up at 0300 with devastating toothache. A bleary-eyed fumble through my washbag yields a packet of Diclofenac, left over from an old sporting injury. Pain-killer/anti-inflammatory necked, I fall asleep a happier man.
Until the morning. Diclofenac is powerful stuff, available only on prescription. If some over-the-counter cold remedies contain banned substances, what about this?
Too late, I go through the routine recommended by UKAD - log on to a website called Global DRO (Global Drug Reference Online), click on 'Drug Search' and enter 'user type' (athlete), 'sport' (athletics) 'nation of purchase' (UK) and drug name.
Diclofenac pops up. Next to the words 'In-Competition' is a green tick and the words 'not prohibited'. By 'Out-of-Competition' it says the same. I'm in the clear.
If you have access to the internet, Global Dro should in theory prevent you falling into the sort of trap that snagged Alain Baxter, who tested positive after a Vicks inhaler bought in the US turned out to contain a banned substance not in the UK version.
Don't have web access? Then the sensible athlete will resist taking anything, even if it means a sleepless night of toothache, before they can get online to check.
I'm not always the fastest learner. Later that day I head out for the long training ride. In my water bottle is a sachet of energy powder from a well-known British supplements company. In my back pocket is an energy bar that promises to help me "wake up and explode into action", and next to it a pouch of energy gel that offers the same.
All three have been consumed by the time I get home four hours later. Ten minutes on I've also mixed and necked a recovery shake from the same company.
Have I just made the same error? I haven't even bothered reading the ingredients, let alone thought about all those high-profile positive tests supposedly caused by contaminated supplements. If the testers come in the morning, am I heading for a ban of my own? If they don't, how long will they have to stay away for this stuff to be out of my system?
Athletes must enter whereabouts and training information for every day in each three-month period
It is time for a rather urgent call to UKAD's Michael Stow, head of the science and medicine department. Michael is at Brussels airport, waiting for a missed connection, but taking calls like mine is part of his daily routine.
Just as medicines can be checked at Global DRO, so supplements have a safety net of their own: a company called Informed Sport.
In goes manufacturer's name, product, flavour, formulation (ie powder, bar, gel) batch number and batch expiry date. It could barely be more comprehensive. If your particular supplement shows up - all of mine do - you know it has been checked from top to bottom - raw ingredients, manufacturing process, how it is stored and where it is sold.
But there are no guarantees. The system promises only to reduce risk, not eliminate it completely.
"As an athlete we advise you to go through a two-step process," says Stow. "First, think about your need. Do you really need to take supplements? We'd advise you to speak to a registered nutritionist or dietician first.
"Secondly, assess the risks. We recognise that it can be unrealistic for the elite athletic community to be told not to take anything. So make your decision with as much information open to you as possible. If your risk assessment is good, the chances of you taking something that's contaminated are very low."
I remember that I'm also taking a daily multi-vitamin/minerals tablet, made by a high street chemist. I can't find it on Informed Sport's website. Does this mean it's not safe? Can an athlete not take something that millions of ordinary civilians do on a daily basis?
"Some companies that aren't aimed at the elite level don't see it in their commercial interests to do so much testing," says Stow. "Our message is that there's a risk, but by choosing a reputable manufacturer - one with good practice and good quality assurance - the risks should be much lower."
The lessons are coming thick and fast. Stow also tells me to go through my medicine cabinet at least once a year to check if products that were once safe may now be on Wada's annually updated prohibited list, to buy my medication at home before going abroad so I can be sure what's in it, and to contact my national governing body (in this case, UK Athletics) if in any doubt.
There is a lot to learn. And I am still barely starting out.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tomfordyce/2011/06/inside_the_anti-doping_system_1.html
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