Just got this in an email from Hunter Allen’s Peaks Coaching. This is a huge improvement. Is this over-the-top?
My question is why not just eat a lot of real beets? (Yum!) Is it that beet juice concentrates the nitrates more? Delivers it better? If whole beets work, would you have to eat them right before your ride? Maybe it’s that part that is impractical.
This product seems pretty sus…
That said, I am not particularly knowledgeable about nitrate or nitric oxide etc supplementation.
I assume it is mainly an ease of use/consumption thing as you mentioned - vs. eating actual beets (Not a fan personally, as they always taste strongly of dirt to me due to the Geosmin) or drinking bottled beet juice concentrate.
A semi-related side rant -
I don’t care about the fake “natural” advertising that is so prevalent nowadays, if I want nitrates I’ll gladly add straight curing salt (that I use to cook with and make corned beef, bacon etc), instead of having a farm dope up a field with extra nitrate fertilizer, have that be taken in by the beets as they grow, then have the beets processed into some sort of extracted concentrated juice/powder.
Same sort of thing happens when they advertise products with “no added nitrate” or “uncured” and they instead add processed refined celery juice powder which has a high nitrate content.
I just realized I’m promoting this product simply by posting this image, even though I am questioning it.
Hopefully, people reading this will be suspect with such hyped-up praise for a product. Not that I don’t think beetjuice works—the guys at TrainerRoad (and other coaches I’ve read) seem to love it, too.
Yup - the screenshot definitely reads like the fluffy copy that would be in a mailing list/targeted email but that’s the point of such a thing I suppose.
@Jennifer_Sage - from your experience/coaches/the TR folks, is there anything special claimed about beet juice in particular?, other than that it is a source of nitrates?
edit - Also, how are people who are drinking the juice ensuring that they get the correct dose of nitrates? I can see ingesting the same fluid volume each time, but it seems like the actual nitrates contained per unit of volume can be variable between each bottle/brand/time it is bought etc.
mostly what I’ve heard is that it lowers RPE, allowing you to work harder. I’ve personally never tried any of the newer products for performance. I love fresh beets, but any beet extraction I’ve tried in the past to me tastes like dirt, similar to your experience. I’m wondering if they all taste that way, or maybe the newer products don’t?
You can mix it with apple juice to make it a bit lighter tasting, but it will obviously still taste “earthy”.
Regarding why not just eat beets instead - you’d need quite a lot, probably like a dozen or so, which is a bit hard to do before a race.
I’ve tried beetroot juice before races - I like the taste, so it was yummy, but it didn’t do anything noticable for my performance.
yes, a dozen beets would be hard to eat any time, but especially before a hard workout or race! 
Thanks for the info.
I’ve had some good experiences with this product, but for me, it seems like it takes me not using it for many months then loading up on it prior to racing. I’ve had more negative experiences with beet concentrates than I’ve had positive. It just makes me shit now. lol. I’ll stick with coffee and eat beets as they’re intended, part of a healthy, whole foods diet. No need to juice them or use concentrates IMO. As with any supplement that promises this much of a performance boost (15W on your FTP?) - I’m wary.
My best case anecdotal evidence for beet concentrates was one of the first time I tried a product like this, right before my race - I didn’t get the negative GI issues that I get now and just felt like I could breath much easier. I’ve tried chasing that sensation since then only to have been disappointed with the results.
