Did you know there's a pill that supposedly over half the distance medallists used in 2023?

The stuff obviously works, and Maurten's advance is that they figured out how to package it without (most of) the side effects that accompany the effective dose.

To Rojo's point about "go train": even if this works, you're probably looking at low single digit percent improvements, at best. If you haven't maximized your other training practices, which carry potential improvements much greater than bicarb, then save your money and hit the roads.

No it's not weird that some top pros aren't taking it. They have better stuff

Yeah, this is a top 10 special post of all time. When your powerful muscles get tired, have no fear because your aerobic muscles will get you to the finish line!

Beyond that, it depends on

) whether bicarbonate levels in your blood were the main cause of the acidosis
) whether your supplement can actually increase those levels above normal, without your body just regulating them back to where they were

And then even if it works as claimed, it makes more sense to inject it, which there's apparently no barrier to in the WADA rules, other than 50mL a day. They already use these injections in emergency medicine.

Following Matt McElroy (one of top US triathletes) this year, he's posted on strava and instagram how he's been trying to use bicarb this year and had a lot of the stomach issues that are related to it. Seeing the popularity of it with milers and 5k runners I'm curious to know if that olympic distance tri can be "too long" of an exercise where the bicarb can be not as advantageous and the potential risk of gastro problems is increased

Bicarb is not a pill. Not really a supplement either

Supplement companies pay athletes to advertise their stuff all the time. Some of it works. Some of it is garbage. Most are placebos. Primarily rice flour pills with a small amount of chopped up vegetation with no real impact that they charge ridiculous sums of money for.

That being said, some is legit performance enhancers that haven’t been banned yet. Broncos players used to wear EAS hats, which is the company that gave the world andro, a steroid pre-cursor that a lot of the low-T centers shell out nowadays. It is banned by WADA.

Sodium bicarbonate is baking soda. It likely falls under the placebo category.

Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to have a taste of deer antler spray before I eat some soft turtle soup for lunch.

Interesting as we were taking sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) in my first year of middle school track in 1981. We didn't take it long as it messed with your stomach. Had read about the the product recently and would be interested in what the research says.

Oops - didn't realize my link went to a paywall. Interesting in this very old study the amount they used where it didn't result in negative side effects was 0.3g/kg in capsules over 3 hours.

If you have the secret to elite performance they'll pay you to access it. The fact that Maurten are paying pros to take it means I'll file this away with ketone IQ, compression boots and that $800 "teach yourself swahili" course I took after reading that 90% of marathon world major winners speak swahili.

I would have guessed that many people are more aware of the benefits of drinking water while exercising than the effects of NaHCO3 on exercise performance. I am one of them, but maybe it is just me, and everyone else in the world can instantly rattle of the benefits of NaHCO3.

So I am thankful for the article, even though it seems I am the only one dumb enough to find it interesting.

Is that a fact? I thought their sponsorships were product-only.

Apologies. I did not mean any offense if any was taken.

Will this help a hobby jogger for 1/2 to full marathon?

rojo wrote:
I gotta admit up front I pushed back a decent amount on this article from Jonathan.

Yet that didn't keep you from teasing it with the most click-baity subject line possible.

The effects of BiCarb would be potentially more beneficial in a championship race where the outcome of the distance races typically come down to a kick over the last 400-800 meters. Also running the qualifying rounds would also see potential benefit with BiCarb use as it's been shown to reduce soreness and potentially improve training outcomes with consistent use.

Time-Trial style races of distances 5k and up would be less beneficial as the performance benefits are reduced over duration of the event and the likelihood of gi distress is probably greater.

Overall, it's about measuring risk to rewards. Pooping your pants is probably worth it for a championship medal but far less exciting for a rather meaningless fast time.

Thanks. No apologies necessary, though. It was just a snarky way of pointing out that I thought the implied combination of "everybody knows" and "NaHCO3" was pretty funny. I do understand that in the small bubble of elite running this could be true. Further evidence that I am not elite. I was darn good on my high school JV team though, and still running 40 years later.

we used to put it up our a$$ back in the 80s so it wouldn't upset our stomach. It's amazing that the founders of LetsRun think this is some groundbreaking new pill lol