Beet Juice?

we, team Rev3, just picked up a Beet Juice sponsor this year. (notice the lack of a sponsor name, i’m not pushing anything here)

I started doing research on the stuff and it ‘sounds’ like it is a super secret endurance love potion for triathletes.

Anyone have experience with it?

I’m excited that I had some this weekend and it was suprisingly tasty. ( I admit to wanting to plug my nose before the first sip.) Now if I can get my hands on it to give it a regular useage this year and see if it is as benificial as it says it should be.

a link to one of the websites.
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/truth-about-beetroot-juice

Tim

Tried 6 day loading before a race. (500ml per day)

I think it worked. So much so that I will do it before all my major races.

solid data out there on it; i think the ‘secret’ is that you need to consume rather a lot of the stuff.

-mike

agreed, i haven’t found anything suggesting it doesn’t offer great benifit’s.

the closest place to me to get the stuff is 25miles or so… that might be a challenge for a lot of folks.

Tim

Yes, I think the secrets are concentrated beet juice, and pre-load days before. Last season was my wife’s and my first season using it. Both of us had PR’s at oly distance. Could I tell a noticeable difference, not really, but the race results are what keeps me buying it.

Make my own at home with a juicer. Love the stuff. If you havent already noticed, don’t worry, you are not pi**ing or Sh*ting blood, just a bonus of the juice. Kinda like asparagus, you know when it has made it through you!!

glad you said something… i was going to mention that just two small cups, maybe 4oz total?, and i was pi$$ing pink.

knowing i just drank a beverage that would stain a red carpet, i thought it was kinda fun to pee a different color :slight_smile:

tim

I make my own also. Much more palatable to mix with fruit like apples, oranges or other things like carrot and ginger.

Do they recommend a pre load for 6 days or consistant consumption?

Can you put the sponsor in your sig? Beet juice is expensive. I was wondering if they are cheaper.

Make my own at home with a juicer. Love the stuff. If you havent already noticed, don’t worry, you are not pi**ing or Sh*ting blood, just a bonus of the juice. Kinda like asparagus, you know when it has made it through you!!

I also make my own juice and add beets into a blend on occasion. Haven’t tried loading for a race though. I like everything in moderation but I’ll definitely give the beet loading a try this season!

I have not tried it when preparing to an event, but I have tried what in Venezuela (where I am from) we call 3-in-1 which consist of Beets, Oranges and Carrots. MMMMM delicious.

Yes, I think the secrets are concentrated beet juice, and pre-load days before. Last season was my wife’s and my first season using it. Both of us had PR’s at oly distance. Could I tell a noticeable difference, not really, but the race results are what keeps me buying it.

How many days did your wife pre-load and how much was she drinking a day 16oz?

What quantities are you using from each fruit?

How much of the beet juice are you supposed to consume?

There has been a thread about this before that i commented on, so I won’t go into too much detail here.

The performance benefits of beetroot juice have been documented for some time. I participated in a beetroot juice / cycling study that identified the nitrates in beetroot juice as being the source of the performance improvement.

The study measured differences in an all out 10km TT on a computrainer (they gave us financial incentives to perform at our max on all trials). The average improvement in time was ~1.5sec/km when taking the beet root juice with nitrates when compared with taking BR juice without nitrates (nitrates were filtered out).

When you think about the typical aero claims of most companies (e.g.“40sec faster over 40k”), beet root juice is a cheap way to boost performance.

The only downside… The concentrated stuff tastes like shit. Acutally, the regular stuff tastes like shit too and you have to drink more of it:(.

I couldn’t find the juice locally, so I was doing more of a homemade “smoothie/juice” with beets last summer. I did tend to feel better after some regular consumption of it.

I typically cut up 100g of beets and then finely pureed it as I could with a little bit of OJ. I used white/yellow beets and didn’t have to deal with red pee, but the nitrate levels are the apparently the same.

updated :slight_smile:

Tim
.

…I had all but forgotten about the red pee and poo. It was a little unnerving the first time I saw it!

They should put that as a disclaimer for swimmers. Could be a bit embarrassing when you pee in the pool.

I was running Dublin marathon in October and the studies I read beforehand all used pre-race loading as the protocol.
There were different loading protocols -all with positive results. I went with 6 days because it was approximating the norm.

I did a quick search on Pubmed and found this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22248502
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21471821

Do they recommend a pre load for 6 days or consistant consumption?