To take sodium bicarbonate or not.

For longer sprint distances/split reps/intensive tempo, oral Sodium Bicarbonate helps limit the accumulation of H+ from lactic acid resulting in further utilization and training of energy pathways. However, will ingestion of sodium bicarbonate lessen the adaption of our natural sodium bicarbonate buffering system?

We’ve discussed this before. A slight buffering might help those who havn’t fully developed their own capacity to buffer LA, but too much and you’ll spend your race day firmly planted on the toilet!

sodium citrate is apparently easier to stomach and generally you use 0.3g/kg of bodyweight, though I would start much lower then that (say 0.1) and see what you can tolerate…as Charlie states you will be running in the wrong way if you take too much.

Agree, sodium citrate works better

Yeah we have discussed the use of bicarb and citrate before. Many of the British 400m/400 hudlers use it for races with a protocol set out fromtrails in training. I for one feel the benefits when racing and have used it for a long time. UK Athletics are thinking of giving it to al the 400/400H athletes for racing with as they think it works well also.

It is now being more used in capsules than raw powder as the raw stuff is so bad it makes you throw it up sometimes!

I bought some little rice paper packet things in Japan from the pharmacy. A lot of japanese medicine comes in the form of powder so they can be quite useful. A pack of 100 for a few bucks.
Anyway, put in a teaspoon of baking soda (or anything you don’t want to taste), roll it up and swallow. You can’t taste a thing. then it dissolves in your stomach.

I was just going to ask how is it encapsulated. akm provides one suggestion. any others?

you can buy from pharmacists empty gelatine capsules which hold 1gm of the stuff, so they take some swallowing when you have to take 20-25 of them! They taste better than the raw powder though!