Fact: it is a proven performance enhancer. You typed on this forum so you are capable of googling. The topic comes up every few months in runners magazines. I drink it to control high blood pressure since it is essentially nature's nitrate delivery system.

There have been numerous threads on beets over the years where I am sure you can find more discussion. I use beets quite frequently and plan on keeping them in my nutrition plan going forward. Usually I buy the steamed beets from Costco but I don't discriminate on my beet consumption. I also recently started working with a company that makes a product called BeetBoost. It contains both beets + tart cherries in powdered form - just those two things. Quite convenient to consume as I had two packets before my track workout this morning. I could have taken 120 calories from another source, but I choose to get it from BeetBoost.

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Been "juicing" for a couple years with good results. Just started my pre-Boston cycle today. I get 500ml bottles from Vitacost. I do 2x250ml/day for 5 days then 500ml race morning. FYI bright purple in the toilet bowl is another effect in addition to the endurance boost.

Beets are great. I prefer Red Ace. More expensive then juicing but way less trouble and it's a concentrated 2 oz shot (3 beets) so easy to consume. I've grown to really like the taste too.

I guess the OP got tired of hearing about beets and deleted his post.

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Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.

Did someone say "dietary nitrate"?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/...ii/S1089860314002936

Well, I know people who have studied them and gotten a null result for cycling performance, and then not published because of that.

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I use it during race season and I like it. Hadn't heard of BeetBoost before. Just checked them out, but $3 per package, and you take two per day? Oh wow, way too much for me. I'm sure a lot of that cost is tied up in the single-serve packaging. I wish they would sell a larger container at a more economical price. I use http://www.purecleanpowder.com/ , 60 beets worth for $73.

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

I would use that beat powder if it wasn't 42 dollars to ship to FL... wtf?

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

And even in the published literature, the benefit seems to be greatest in non-trained or moderately-trained individuals, not in highly-trained endurance athletes, and even only during very high intensity exercise at that. (There's also the fact that the mechanism initially proposed/reported - i.e., that nitric oxide produced from dietary nitrate inhibits mitochondrial respiration, thus enhancing exercise efficiency - would require non-physiological levels of nitric oxide...but I digress.)

Now with all that said, I do believe (based on our studies, both published and unpublished) that dietary nitrate does enhance physical function/exercise performance...just (primarily) via a different mechanism/in a different context than most of the published studies suggest.

Stay tuned...

ETA: It is also important to recognize that, at least in terms of endurance performance, the magnitude of the effect is rather small, i.e., on the order of 2-4%. Thus, unless you're careful/good at measuring performance/study a relatively large n, it's quite possible to overlook an effect. In contrast, the effects of dietary nitrate on muscle speed and power are roughly 2-3 times as great, i.e., that's where the real "action" seems to be.

Purely anecdotal, but I have perceived a positive difference when using it pre bike race efforts of about 90 minutes or so high intensity, 90% and up. That's where it SEEMS to make a difference for me. I would rate myself as highly trained. And old, relatively speaking. 54.

Yep. That's why I like it for CX races. 45-60 minutes of high intensity.

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

Thanks for feedback, I will certainly relay that feedback if given an opportunity. I know beets are not cheap, even at Costco the pre-steamed beets are about ~$.57 a piece and that is mass quantity, wholesale pricing for steamed but not dehydrated beets. No sure what tart cherry powder runs but it can't be cheap either. And no, I don't always do two packets, but I had 20x400 on the track and felt like it was a better way to start the morning as opposed to say a Mountain Dew or Latte.

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So I may be reading this completely wrong, but does that study suggest that the primary benefit of acute nitrate intake is around short explosive type efforts (maximal velocity of knee extension and maximal knee extensor power) but no significant change in endurance related efforts (50 contraction fatigue test)?

So nitrate is of benefit to power/speed based sports but not really endurance?

Yes, that is what we have found, at least in healthy people and with an acute (i.e., single) dose.

Yeah, do that for sure. I had (in my mind) a little success with beet juice a couple of years ago. I have a big CX season planned last fall (a total of 24 races over 16 consecutive weekends), so I decided to go all in and drink "two beets" daily throughout the race season. That was probably a little overkill, I probably didn't need it on my rest/recovery days after races, but I wanted to keep the nitrite levels stable and see what happened. Spoiler: I had a great season. At that point Pure Clean Powder was selling 80 beets for $84, and I found a coupon code for 20% off, so I was paying $1.68 per day (looks like they have since raised their prices to sell 60 beets for $73, don't know about the status of the coupon code). I'd be interested in adding the tart cherry, but at this point my beet habit would cost $6 per day with Beet Boost, which is way too much. I'll probably order one set to see how I like it next month before a few big races I have coming up. Tell your friends if they can get down below $1 per beet with some sort of volume bulk, then they'll have a great guinea big during the long CX season in the fall.

-Colin

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

cloy26 wrote:

I would use that beat powder if it wasn't 42 dollars to ship to FL... wtf?

Check out Beet Elite http://neogenissport.com/

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"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"

 
Fact?

http://www.jsc-journal.com/...amp;op=view&path[]=134

FWIW, those results are consistent with the 50 contraction fatigue test we included in our study.

if you say 'Beet Juice' 3 times in a row Michael Keaton will appear

Any ongoing/future studies on longer NO supplementation?

Only one I know of
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22248502

Provided we can obtain funding, yes.

In Sweden, where beets have been a staple for a long time (somewhat disappeared during the last 30 years but are coming back now) it is often possible to buy them at a dollar per kg. They are great for roasting with some thyme and olive oil.

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

There are at least two studies which have shown a performance enhancing benefit to using beetroot juice. That is a fact. I posted three, just in case you had doubt or for some reason google doesn't work for you.

http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2011&issue=06000&article=00027&type=abstract


Bailey, S.J., Winyard, P., Vanhatalo, A., Blackwell, J.R., Dimenna, F.J., Wilkerson, D.P., Tarr, J., Benjamin, N., Jones, A.M. (2009). Dietary nitrate supplementation reduces the O2 cost of low ­intensity exercise and enhances tolerance to high­ intensity exercise in humans. J Appl Physiol, 107(4), 1144­1155.

1. Wylie, L.J., Kelly, J., Bailey, S.J., Blackwell, J.R., Skiba, P.F., Winyard, P.G., Jeukendrup, A.E., Vanhatalo, A., Jones, A.M. (2013). Beetroot juice and exercise: pharmacodynamic and dose­ response relationships. J Appl Physiol, 115(3), 325­336