Creatine is one of the most studied legal supplements on the market with dozens of peer-reviewed research papers. And there are no known long term side effects. As distance runners, we know this supplement can increase weight by way of water retention. The general consensus is it DOESN'T improve endurance performance and is really meant for short bursts of speed/power (i.e.. for sprinters).
But - and read me out on this - what if you only took it during base phase training where there are only 2 types of workouts you'd be doing:
Tempos and (short hill sprints or short high velocity strides).
We can agree creatine most likely will not benefit tempos and certainly not the high volume of miles.
We can agree it will benefit:
1. Recovery
2. Enable you to put out more force on those short strides or hill sprints.
If #1 and #2 are true then it stands to reason you will be a more developed runner in terms of speed and running economy before you even start the season with intervals, races. Then you stop using creatine once base phase is done and you're back to your normal weight. The bonus though is that you retained those extra training benefits gained previously.
When you think of runners using illegal drugs like EPO, they often using it in October to January. They get the benefits then they race in Spring and Summer without EPO but by that point they've already gained the training benefits (keep in mind EPO also helps with recovery ergo you can train harder).
Is this flawed thinking or can this micro-dosing approach work with Creatine?