I participated in a beetroot study a few week ago - waiting for it to be written up and the anlysis of my specific results as each indivdual repsonds different to the juice. In general, more highly trained athletes actually reecive diminshing returns.
I thought they were pretty foul tasting, but then i got ill on the last week of the trial. now my brain has associated the smell and taste with being sick and i simply could not bear to ever have one again. i had a couple of spare bottles and i was gagging whilst throwing them down the drain!
I participated in a study at work on Beta Alanine a few years ago, not sure I got the final conclusions but the researcher was pretty confident it worked for some scenarios, I think it’s generally for shorter efforts or power events. But if it can be factored in to make your hard sessions better then it will benefit longer races?
It’s also one of a few supplements the IOC consider as being useful, assuming you can avoid contamination.
A food first philosophy is promoted in relation to nutritional needs, and supplements should only be used under supervision to treat or prevent nutrient deficiencies. Only five supplements have an evidence base of contributing to performance: caffeine, creatine, nitrate/beetroot juice, beta-alanine and bicarbonate. But there is a risk of ingesting banned substances in the use of any supplements.
I think L-Citrulline will also work for high intensity type intervals, as I read it as being similar to nitrate\beetroot?
Just gone ahead and ordered some. Along with finally jumping on the Omega 3 bandwagon. My diet is by far and away the worst part of my “training regime”, and whilst these alone wont fix this, the upside in terms of TTE and recovery should be of some benefit.
The Omega 3 is probably more important. I seemed to cope well with training last year, but whether it’s the fact I didnt really have an off-season, or the much higher run volume than I’ve ever had before in terms of the (failed) attempt at VLM, but I don’t feel I’m recovering as well as before. A hectic personal life schedule more recently, that I’m trying to shoe horn training into, probably is exacerbating that.
As an update I have been on the stuff for 10 days with the recommended double dosage for a month. The stated tingling effect wore off after day 5 and now I pop 2 in the morning and 2 in the evening.
I was feeling knackered yesterday but had to take my running club’s training session due to another coach not being able to take it. Hill reps with 1,2,3,4,5 minute efforts I threw myself into the session and was surprised how hard I could push on each rep despite that initial feeling of tiredness. Early days yet
I have gone through my first months double dosage so now reducing it to 2 tablets a day. What I have noticed is that it might be a placebo but when I need to dig in for those 30s-60s efforts on the bike or on the run then I can find umph or extra speed. I really noticed it last night at a local fell race where the guys who dominate (and race fairly regularly) were still ahead but I would grit my teeth and reel them in and join their group only to be gapped and then do it again. In the past I would not have had the ability or will power to do that and would have dropped off and ran in between groups.
If you are going to use this there is a degree of loading to consider. If I remember rightly you need a dose of about 180 g to ‘fill up’ so the recommended loading is 3 g per day for 60 days or 6 g per day for 30 and then drop to maintenance dose of 1.5 g per day.
Like has been discussed its more a short power generation effort that this benefits so prime candidates are athletes such as 800 m/1500 m runners but I guess it means it may be suitable for small intervals in an endurance event such as finishing sprints, uphill surges, etc.
