sodium bicarbonate

I have some questions on sodium bicarbonate loading. I searched the old threads and didn't come up with too much.

1. Safety-seems like it is safe, but I'd like to hear it if you believe otherwise.
2. Doseage-.3g/kg of body weight was suggested in another thread as well as a study I read. Does this sound good? Also, how should you take it, mixed in with drink or no?
3. Effectiveness-I think all the studies have shown performance benefits for efforts of <10 minutes. I race road/mtb/cyclocross, no events other than the odd prologue tt of that short a duration. Would it help during the short efforts above ft during rr/mtb/cyclocross, even though it would probably not help over a 1hr tt?

I still don't see much benefit in it, but I was curious enough about it to seek out others opinions.

Are you confusing Sodium Bicarbonate (treatment for acid reflux) with Sodium Phosphate loading?

Ric Stern has (or used to have) an article on his website covering a study he performed investigating the effects of phosphate loading.

I have heard of Sodium Bicarbonate being used effectively to reduce fatigue, presumably by neutralising acidic metabolites such as lactic acid. However, that would be a lot of extra sodium in your diet, which is not considered a healthy thing these days. Also lactic acid is itself a fuel once aerobic respiration resumes.

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"Boudreaux pissed me off, what should I do?"
"Nothing, just shut up and take his advice."

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

An article I read on cyclingnews.com stated that lactate acid does not actually exist in the bloodstream. It disolves into lactate and H2, and the H2 is part of what causes the burning sensation in the legs. So I would think if sodium bicarb neutralized acids, this would be unrelated to neutralizing lactate.

This is a good read: http://www.cyclingforums.com/articles/a-3.html

cheers

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Steve
CyclingForums.com

a brief read seems to suggest that the upside is only 1-2%. does not sound worth it given the observations re risk of vomiting? contrast that with sodium phosphate loading which claims upto 16% improvements - probably as much as the unscrupulous could safely achieve with EPO!

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Sodium bicarb loading could be very interesting. It would probably cause lots of extra gass. Rocket power!

It works like this

H+ (hydrogen) + NaHCO (sodium Bicarb) = H2CO3 (carbonic acid) which can dssociate into H2O (water) + CO2 (carbon dioxide). H2O poses no threat and CO2 can be expired.

The more bicarb in the body (a naturally occuring substance) the better you can buffer hydrogen ion accumulation (a biproduct of anaerobic glycolysis)

Wasn't Cytomax suppose to have a similar effect, or was it just a marketing thing?