CYCLING SUPERFOODS #17 BEETROOT
Nitrates in beetroot improve performance,here’showyoucan you use it to help your next sportive
Nitrate consumption helps to reduce the oxygen cost of sub maximal exercise, so makes a given workload easier to perform. But what this all really comes down to is fatigue resistance, exercise efficiency and performance.
How much?
You can get nitrates naturally through your diet, two to four beets a day will see you get your required amount. If you wanted to drink it you would need 800ml of standard beetroot juice to get those sought after performance enhancing effects, which is a considerable amount of beetroot to neck!
Luckily beetroot concentrate is available in 70ml Beet It shots, so you don’t need to down pints of juiced beets.
The best way to get these performance benefits as your sportive approaches would be to increase your dietary intake of beetroot over a period of two to six days beforehand. An untrained individual might see results by only taking on beetroot around a day before, but if you’ve been riding longer and are more highly trained, it’s best to add it into your diet for a longer period.
If you’re not the biggest fan of having beetroot every day for six days then supplement with two 140ml shots a day, so four in total.
On the day of the event you want to take 140ml (two shots) 2.5 hours before the event, which should suffice. willgirling.com