Anybody here use sodium bicarbonate as a training aid?

It has a documented placebo effect. As with many things, if you believe it works, then it does. If you take it unknowingly, then nothing special will happen.

I did two workouts once to investigate this effect. Each was 10 x 200 with a one-min recovery. Aiming for 28s average which was a little tough for me at that time. During the second one I loaded with bicarb solution. It didn't increase my early pace but placebo or not I think it did push back the lactate barrier during the last two or three reps. Both sets began with 28s until rep 6. I closed out with 29s with bicarb assistance, but the previous week, I was down to 31-32 at the end. I agree it's never possible to isolate the bicarb effect vs everything else (wind, temp, fitness changes, biorhythm effects whatever) but it did feel better at the end.

I did drink lots of that bicarb solution crap during the short-interval workout, which made me feel somewhat nauseous. More so than the session usually caused. But I never attempted to bicarb-load before a race.

It is not really used for lacate threshold. It is used for lactate buffering for anaerobic tolerance training/racing. It can buffer SOME of the H+/lactate produced in a hard 400 or 800. But for an event like 5K which can produce lactate for a much longer time, I doubt that it would have much effect.

Bicarbonate is hard on your stomach and some people throw up when taking it. Sodium Citrate is easier on the digestive system, and some of my 800 guys have used it for racing.

http://www.sportsci.org/traintech/buffer/lrm.htm

Is that considered doping?

Buffering, yes.

So, is it generally agreed that, if the effect is something other than placebo, the effect is restricted to short-term benefit, and that there is no cumulative benefit of using it as a training aid?

Might it even be a detriment to training, as the blood may compensate and reduce its intrinsic buffering capacity?

I'm beginning to get curious about this whole lactate thing as I train more speed endurance. It seems like I can do, say, 200 intervals forever--but fast (for me) 400 or 800 repeats means pain.

Isn't this just baking soda? If it is, I doubt it is considered doping. That would kinda suck if something pretty common people use in baking could get you banned for a year.

It won't do a thing. The acid in your stomach will neutralize it before it ever makes it into your system. You will burp a bit though.

It does nothing but give you diarrhea. That's the truth. Has zero effect when taken orally, though I tip my hat to your experiment, and understanding of the buffeting effect.

Ph=pka log ^10 (hco3/h2co3)

I would suggest the search function, there are a few good threads. I was considering this about a month ago but chickened out at the end. It does have an effect if taken effectively, but other substances work better than baking soda, which often produces explosive diarrhea (no joke).

They banned "Milkshaking" in the racehorse world becuase it enhances performance in horses. Horses routinely get pulled aside for TCO2 testing. Big suspension if a trainer is caught.

Where can you get sodium citrate?

As said before, it won't make it into your blood stream. It will be neutralized by your highly acidic stomach before it reaches the small intestine to be absorbed. Baking soda or most any other substance. But a nice placebo effect likely.

You may want to google on placebo effect in athletic performance, it's a pretty interesting topic. If I recall correctly, in the bicarb study people had better training sessions if they believed they were taking bicarb - regardless of whether or not they were actually taking it. Whether this can be used to improve race performances is another question though. One line of reasoning is that the 'placebo effect' is simply a way of overcoming mental barriers that tend to lead to submaximal performance in training. If this is the case, then there is little reason to think maximal race performance is affected. On the other hand there are types of 'placebo effects' which are not just mental trickery, in that physiological changes are actually created through no apparent mechanism. I don't think an effect of this type has ever been shown for athletic perfomance though (it would be tough to prove).