My son tried the bicarb jello for a hard training session yesterday. He got it down ok but then dropped half of it because the jello (in a plastic bag) was too slimy.
Need to make finger jello next time!
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Good to know Endurance Innovation podcast is back from hiatus. I’d removed them from Overcast
What are the GI effects? Diarrhea? Cramping? Vomiting? I’ve heard a few podcasts and none say exactly what the GI effects are - just a vague reference to “not being able to tolerate it”.
Here 'tis… wrap yer ears around this:
Edit to add: there’s a short discussion on the forum about the episode here.
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YMMV, but when I take 20g sodium bicarb I have to urgently #2 after 60-70minutes. I have built that time into my pre-workout routine, and experience no other side effects once completed.
I am now trying this before Zwift races, but I honestly don’t know how I would tell the difference. But, like beet root gummies, it was inexpensive to try so I might as well.
It depends on what the race is like. It seems like bicarb is really going to shine in events with repeated over threshold efforts.
My kid tried half the recommended dose for a track event. He had to urgently poop after about an hour. He also felt a bit nauseous and didn’t want to eat the rest.
I found this podcast with David Bishop, the researcher. The last 1/3 has some interesting information on sodium bicarb.
The sodium itself may be a ergogenic aid for increasing threshold. I’m going to have to look up the studies he’s talking about.
How about sports legs? That seems to work for me.
Dr Sparks mentions a 40k TT comparing Maurten to placebo study was in the works at the time of this episode. In case you missed this paper, here it is:
Here’s the spoiler…mean 40k TT performance improvement was about 54s. So that’s a stonking great improvement. n=14, all male, mostly masters athletes, ~52 VO2peak. 2 out of 14 were negative responders.
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I got around to doing a trial on myself. 0.25g/kg 3h and 90min before a CP3 test. RPE was down to a 7 from 9.
I don’t think you could get a better effort to apply it to, but I was impressed and had no side effects. So very pleased with that.
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Has anyone compared sodium bicarbonate mini-tablets vs gelcaps for time-to-peak bicarbonate and GI tolerance in long efforts?
Wild to me anyone would even consider doing this with those side effects.
I mean has anyone gotten real performance gains from this? Seems whacky tbh.
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@Jolyzara it’s very whacky. Definitely not for you. 
If a half dose makes me feel sick and want to crap my pants after an hour, definitely. 
Is this the same as Sports Legs? Sports Leg seem to work pretty good for me
Sportslegs says it preloads your bloodstream with lactate…. I would suggest looking into cellular respiration and the Krebs cycle to understand why their claim is 
.
As for bicarb it does work and has the studies to prove it, however it also has a drawback that products like Maurten bicarb aim to reduce/eliminate.
I used Sportlegs in the past and it gave me no benefit to my riding and I felt like it made my legs feel bad during the ride. I had three bottles of it and was over it before I even finished half a bottle so I think used the rest after rides to replenish some electrolytes. Would not waste the money. LMNT at this point makes my legs feel better and that might just be placebo. I have tried bicarb in the form of baking soda and water and I definitely felt like I could go extra deep on intervals (like last day of hard intervals before a rest day where you want to thrash your legs without conscience) but I was about 50/50 in the times I took it and experienced gut issues, so verdict was good for indoor training high-end work but might wanna hold off on race day.
No. SportLegs is something completely different.
Remember back in the day when George Brooks first made the lactate shuttle popular…he briefly marketed a product called Cytomax which has an ingredient called PolyLactate. SportLegs is a product in this tradition. Brooks idea was that lactate could be another fuel source during exercise.
I think the market has spoken wrt exogenous lactate consumption.
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