The great debate (I say great; it's about beetroot)

So after a delightful rest week, training has intensified, with my predicted mileage pushing 50 for the first week back on it.  I'm incorporating speed training into my schedule now, and speed is very much on my mind when it comes to beetroot.  Seriously.

Beetroot has been the subject of a few studies over the years, as it is one of the few natural substances that appears to enhance athletic performance (caffeine is another).  I say 'appears' for a reason; not everyone thinks it works.  But it turns out that doesn't matter either.  

So, it turns out the reason beetroot enhances performance is because it has a high concentration of nitrates which, when consumed, trigger something called vasodilation.  Simply put, it makes your blood vessels wider.  This allows more blood to reach the working muscles.  More blood means more oxygen, that means less effort, or at least, a faster pace for the same effort.  Taken an hour before a race, beetroot can give you a performance increasing effect (fun fact-if you brush your teeth before taking it, it doesn't work; apparently this is because you remove important bacteria that turn nitrates into nitrites).

How much of an effect can beetroot have?  Well, some studies show a 12% decrease in the effort required to maintain a given speed.  Over a race distance, this means between 30 and 90 seconds quicker over a half marathon.  Surely it's worth it?  

Surely?

Maybe not.  Other studies examined stimulants, and reported that of all the stimulants in the world (legal and non-legal) the one with the single greatest effect on athletic performance was caffeine.  Maybe THIS is a better way to get a natural, legal boost to your performance?  

I debated this at great length with my running coach Otto.  He is not an advocate of beetroot, claiming that training is a much stronger effector of performance (he's right of course, he often is in running matters). However, he is a big fan of the caffeine boost.  Although I also enjoy caffeine as a race tactic, I disagreed with him on the beetroot, but I had an ace up my sleeve; the placebo effect.

In case you're not bang up to date with this; the word relating to placebos is 'psychosomatic'; a physiological reaction caused by thinking about said reaction.  If you think it will happen, it will happen.  Placebos are even more well documented than beetroot or caffeine.  Placebos have shown to do everything from increase performance in cyclists, all the way up to enabling MS patients to walk and mountain climbers to breathe (they put non-oxygen rich gas in a tank, and the climbers breathing this showed no variation in performance to the group who breathed oxygen).  Pretty awesome, right?  And so I explained my view to Otto.  If beetroot's effects are genuine, I benefit by taking it pre race.  If they're not but I think they are, I STILL benefit by taking it.  It's a no loss situation (except financially, as beetroot juice costs a fair bit more than other juices).

I've tried beetroot, but not in controlled research conditions, so I can't say for sure that it works.  Also, I've tried lots of things at the same time (such as caffeine) so I can't attribute any one thing to any performance increases.  But guess what?  It doesn't matter.  I believe it does work, and the placebo effect may be even greater than the beetroot or caffeine effect.  I try these things to achieve multiple small boosts in my races.  For football fans, it's the Sam Allardyce approach to running; squeezing out as many marginal gains as possible to achieve my goals.

Go on, slug down some beetroot juice before a race.  Just be warned.  

It's rank.