Anyone have a suggestion on obtaining Beet It Sports Shots (or similar) that is not too pricey?
We just ran out and I leaned that a new case of 15 shots with shipping will run $60! Thats $4 a shot.
Thanks.
David K
can get actual beet juice from vitacost.com pretty cheap sometimes when they have done buy 1 get 1 deals
I think Lauren Goss is sponsored by Biotta, she has tweeted a discount code or two before…
Side note, do the shots do any good? I had my best rest ever by really loading up on beet juice (well, that and all my training came together about perfectly, might have had a little to do with it!)
I “think” they do work. I have taken one shot two times this summer while driving to a race.
My middle son also “thinks” they work (taken prior to several “A” swim meets).
We both know that this belief could be a result of a placebo effect - the ritual of opening and drinking the shot a few hours before an important race when race ready and tapered.
David K
You can buy the Red Ace Organics at Whole Foods, but they’re $5+ per shot.
PureCleanPowder.com has a powdered product that is about ~$3 for 3 beets worth (which I believe is the amount in the liquid shots).
They aren’t cheap, but neither is:
Hunter Allen at Peakscoaching
has it.
At KSU we’re doing TONS of research regarding muscle/exercise physiology and beet root juice. Primarily on rats, the stuff has straight up the same benefits with humans.
It honestly doesn’t matter where you get the beet root juice from. Biotta, as mentioned before, is exactly what you need. I’ve heard conflicting results in regards to canned beets, just because they are preserved and I think have vinegar or something in them, that might break down the nitrates, although I am not in the Kines Dept (public health physical activity… same building different labs)
You can also get them from any dark leafy greens, such as spinach. So eating spinach during the week will increase nitrate levels, but not the best thing to eat pre race just because of the fiber content.
Go to your local hippie/health food store, they should have biotta on hand, or just order from them online.
All: Thanks for the replies. Looks like $4 a shot is not out of line with other store bought options. I will check out the links. DK
What about a beet root or two thrown int a VitaMix with some pineapple?
Same thing. You can get dehydrated beet power and use it as a mix drink if you want. It tastes like crap but it serves the same purpose. I would not recommend putting it in your sports drinks bottle though…
Heh, yeah that probably wouldn’t end well.
I have easy access to Biotta but it is pricey compared to buying beets and throwing them in a blender. I need to mix the juice with something anyway to get it down.
Also I can grow beets in my square foot garden like nobody’s business. They’re stupidly easy.
You get what you pay for! Isn’t that the saying? I have 8oz of juice every morning and on race reek I have 12oz. On race morning, I have 12oz as well 2.5hour before the start. Now if you are into #s, my HR pre beet loading for races ranged between 175-180 over the 40k on the bike (this is the only place I use HR). With beet juice, my HR now sits at 160-166 with pushing 20+ more watts. The beet juice most likely does NOT account for the watt increase…that is from training in Tucson. But, IMO, I would say the HR decrease is a benefit from the beet juice. I will post codes soon…waiting for September ones.
Has there been inquiry into the heat stability of nitrates?
That would effect the Vitamix and Dehydrated options.
lauren do you use concentrated beet juice or just the regular (biotta) beet juice?
I love your beet it everyday shirts by the way…
I don’t think that decomposition of nitrates happens at temperatures that would be achievable by conventional means. From what I’ve gathered, Nitrite “n02” has a decomposition factor at 445 degrees centigrade. I would assume that powdered products would produce the benefits, but as always, it would be safe to assume that the natural and most unprocessed methods of obtaining the nitrate products would produce the highest effect.
From most effective to least effective just my opinion
Beets, either whole or juiced
Bottled beet root juice
Dehydrated or mixed/processed beet root juice such as a drink that has beet root juice added with a bunch of other products
There are a few peer-reviewed published reports of the performance enhancing effects of beet-root juice. The original studies are all based on nitrate ‘loading’ for 6 days prior to the event. However, when I talked to researchers about it, you may be able to achieve the same effect without ‘loading’. They just do the experiment this way, because the initial study was done like that.
I participated in a study a few years ago that specifically studied the effect of nitrates in ‘Beet It’ shots. The effect wasn’t huge; just over 1sec/km. …but when you think about it, race wheels and expensive aero frames seem to always save about 40s/40km (or 1sec/km) over the next best option;)
I’ve linked the article below.
I use Biotta. Natural.
Here is a 25% off code for online Train8-913