I have read and I think it was mentioned on TR AACC podcast that caffeine negates the advantages of bett juice. So my question is what provides a greater advantage for the endurance athlete beets or caffeine?
Beets me! (Sips coffee)
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caffeine.
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Probably depends on your personal physiology and how you respond to either chemical. Caffeine is a vaso-constrictor which negates the vaso-dilator properties of beet juice. Also, beet juice you have to load over the course of a week or so; caffeine is day of. Experiment.
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Caffeine because I won’t drink beet juice.
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I’ve tried them both and for me neither seems to do much.
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lol
I haven’t noticed anything either maybe I just have not trained hard enough or am not as intune with my body. The one thing I do notice is for recovery I feel better when I take SIS Rego+.
I have tried it but haven’t really noticed anything significant and that is not to say that it didn’t work maybe it did and I just didn’t realize it. I did the beet juice loading 96hrs out and I have done caffeine gels. ??? The other day on Tour de France talk show they highlighted a typical refuel bag contents(oops i forgot the official name) and it consists of 2x bottles mix of water, carb and or hydro, 2x gels with one being caffeine, and 2x energy bars???
lol it’s definitely an acquired taste.
I don’t know but it seems caffeine is the easier to acquire.
I recall watching a report that suggested that the fitter you are the smaller the affect Beet juice has on you. Although this may be referring solely to the pros!
I think the science suggests Beet juice may have more benefits, but caffeine just tastes better. And doesn’t make your pee pink. I personally can’t stand caffeine gels. But if I lay off coffees for 1-2weeks before an event. A double espresso about 20-30mins before a race works wonders.
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One quick recipe I use to get my beetroot and veggies in one go is the following:
300 ml Orange Juice
2-3 beet root
40g spinach
80g raspberries / strawberries
Wizz this in a blender and drink it straight. Quick way to get your greens and beetroot with a bit of sweet. The vitamin C from the OJ should also help uptake the spinach and beetroot.
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I’ve never been carded buying beet juice. But I have been carded buying caffeine.
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Junio…arugala or rhubarb is a better source of nitrate.
Use a rhubarb pie filling and you can carb load at the same time you get your nitrates. And you won’t pee purple like you do with beet juice.
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I’d love to believe the nanny state I live in legislated this, like when a certain band said happy hour is now enforced by state law 
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In my n=1 experience its caffeine by a long shot.
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I’m currently experimenting with beet juice. My race is on Sunday and I started preloading on Tuesday. Lets see what, if anything, happens…
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I’ve tried both, for some time albeit not at the same time.
Using the beet-it sport shots at times I could feel the Beet juice working, specifically on longer events about 3/4 of the way through and on consistent efforts such as climbs, my instinct was that more oxygen was getting to my muscles. At other times I couldn’t and couldn’t work out why I could notice it sometimes but not others. I played around the the pre-race ingestion time etc but couldn’t find a pattern.
I have and do take the SIS caffeine tablets - 500Mg about 45 mins pre race. I do notice a delay in fatigue, bit its related to mood. If I maintain a positive mood, I feel good for a long time. But if I’m in a negative mood, it seems to exaggerate that. I read somewhere that this kind of psychological effect enhancement is true - it enhance’s your mood in either direction and caffeine is an anxiety enhancer. Also be wary of the caffeine half life - 5hrs - we means it could well affect your sleep patterns/recovery.
However neither have been a “great result” factor, albeit I’ve had a flat year this year on caffeine and a better year last year on beet-it sport yet there are so many variables…
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I remember when the country was free and you could go down to vitamin shoppe and buy 5000 3mg tabs of ephedrine HCl & a kilogram of 100% caffeine no questions asked. Not sure that was a good thing…
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