Okay, so I do get that lol. I guess, my take would be you have two natural available ingredients, and they make that much of a difference, and no one figured this out until now it appears daily on letsrun?
It is turning pedestrian 800 runners into world beaters. The sub elites that I know that use it say it basically eliminates lactate as what holds them back, they just reach their full mechanical potential. Unbelievable this is allowed.
Hate to break it to you but bicarb is nothing new in track. It’s been around at least since the 70’s. I’m aging myself but coaches offered it to their HS runners even back then before races and hard workouts. It’s just been in the news lately but alas nothing new to see here.
I do think bicarb in the form that Maurten or whatever manufacturers are delivering it should be banned from competition. I coach High School, and I don't want to see kids having to take bicarb or us as coaches feeling like we need to recommend kids take it to be on a level playing field.
We already go through this with recommending super spikes, but equipment is one thing. Having kids feel like they have to take some kind of substance/drug like bicarb (even if its legal) to PR or Win or even just be competitive isn't going to play out well. I already have my suspicions about high school kids (especially boys) taking all sorts of sketchy supplements.
Even if it's "healthy", I don't want to see bi-carb become the new thing everyone needs to take to compete. It just doesn't seem in the spirit of the sport and seems truly different from other "fuels" we need like water, electrolytes, carbs/sugar/gels, or even something like caffeine.
unless if baking soda is found to be dangerous for your body, i hope it never gets banned. who cares if previous world records are being broken? the people who were the best at their time already made their money, fame, and medals. as time goes on, so will the world records. people are naturally going to get faster over time. people learn about better workouts (double threshold, baby). people make better shoes that run faster and also do less damage to your legs. people learn about the best nutrition that is proven to increase performance. just accept it and move on
Did people just figure this out? And if so, why did it take so long?
Taking straight bicarb usually causes stomach distress. So sure you could get some lactate buffering, but you might get awful stomach cramps and some explosive results.
What changed recently is commercially available delivery mechanisms (bicarb in a gel like suspension), that seems to solve the digestion problem. People started seeing results in races, started adding it for training, and it got pretty widespread.
I tried the Maureen bicarbonate system as an older but still competitive 800 racer. A lot of gel to ingest 90 minutes before a race. I was burping up until the starting line. I felt better longer as the race progressed in terms of tying up, but not sure I ran faster. Maybe a placebo effect, hard to tell. Then again, for the elites, even if it’s only a 1% enhancement that’s a second if you are running 1:44, so there’s your jump. If it’s a bit more than 1%, bit of a bigger jump.
It is turning pedestrian 800 runners into world beaters. The sub elites that I know that use it say it basically eliminates lactate as what holds them back, they just reach their full mechanical potential. Unbelievable this is allowed.
Hate to break it to you but bicarb is nothing new in track. It’s been around at least since the 70’s. I’m aging myself but coaches offered it to their HS runners even back then before races and hard workouts. It’s just been in the news lately but alas nothing new to see here.
Hate to break it to you, but the way that it is now delivered mutliplies the potency while removing the digestive distress that was a limiting factor of how high you could dose. This isn't the $2 baking soda from the store anymore.
Surely cooking with baking soda is different from ingesting raw baking soda, whether within gel or not, so I would bet that we're getting zero benefit from it in cooked foods.
It's obviously not the performance enhancing drug that you think it is or it would be banned.
It's performance enhancing but not a drug, dumbo.
It's a chemical - bicarbonate - which is what a drug also is - and so is caffeine, which is why it, too, was considered for a ban but for the inconvenience it is served up in coffee. You are an ignoramus.
It’s all a smoke screen for what’s really happening…
it was “turtle blood and caterpillar fungus” in the 90s.
Posters go on about it here because they are desperate to find a legitimate cause for highly suspect performances. Sure, it's performance enhancing - like clean air or a glass of water.