Hammer Nutrition - Race Day Boost

John Withrow · July 22, 2011 3:04PM

Has anyone ever loaded with Hammer Nutrition - Race Day Boost before a race? Thoughts? Comments?

Is Sodium Phospate loading in the week before a race helpful? What about the Glutamine? Does it cause Bloating? Any other side effects?

mattsull · July 22, 2011 3:15PM

I experimented with it several times and felt no apparent benefit. I've never noticed bloating from Glutamine. It's in the recovery drink I take almost every day.

JeremyBehler · July 22, 2011 3:53PM

Looking at a bottle right now, as I'm using it for my Oly this Sunday. Used it before American TTT in May as well. Hard to say since that was the first time I used it and my comparable race was a standalone HIM vs. 140.6 spread over the course of 2.5 days.

My $0.02 - I didn't suffer any negative effects (bloating, etc) so it definitely didn't hurt. As far as race performance, it's tough to say since the race intensity was so different. What I will say is that the one noticeable difference was the lack of cramping and less post-race soreness. How much of this was impacted by the Race Day Boost, I don't know, but I decided to use it again and will likely use it for IMAZ.

Big fan of Hammer's product and they all work well for me (HEED, Perpeteum, Gel, Recoverite, Whey Protein, Endurolytes) so gave this a try given my success with their other products.

William Jenks · July 22, 2011 5:40PM

I am an extreme skeptic of the value of "lactate buffers" for endurance events. Long story short, you can buffer your blood pH, but it's not necessarily such a great idea (think evolution here...) and not for all that long (the body is pretty darn good at regulating pH and temperature, all things considered). There are some studies that show positive effects for shorter effort bursts though...but again, the dosages are unpleasantly huge.

CO2 is, in effect, an acid. If you're not acquainted with the chemistry, that sounds funny, but it has to do with the reaction of CO2 with water...and we can just leave it at that for now. Since you are pretty constantly producing CO2 and the body has a pretty strong desire to exist at its own favorite pH [including having an enzyme to speed up the reaction of CO2 and water], the effects of consuming a lot of base are pretty transient.

penlynwilson · July 28, 2011 1:20PM

What William said.

Also, you don't need to salt load in the days up to the race. Morning of if you want to.

Bob Irwin · July 28, 2011 1:29PM

I've used it for my A race since 2003 when I did my best HIM time at Vineman. Don't know if the race day boost had anything to do with it, but it didn't hurt, so I've kept the same routine. I've never had any stomach problems.