Charlie is back with more nutritional knowledge that could give you the edge in your next race! Are beetroots the secret ingredient to a runner's success? Find out in today’s episode of Cook Eat Run, where Charlie chats with ICU dietitian and marathon winner Tom Hollis and Beet It Sports drink Brand Manager Jonathan Cartwright, about the power of nitrates in enhancing running performance.

Tom Hollis aka: Plantrunner

Tom, fresh off his Milton Keynes marathon victory, shares his personal strategy for tackling two marathons in 15 days and the role nutrition played in his recovery and triumph. From carb loading to the specifics of race day fueling, Tom gives us the lowdown on how he optimises his intake for peak performance.

Delve into the science behind nitrates, and why they might be more beneficial for recreational runners than elites. Plus, get practical advice on how to incorporate beetroot shots into your routine, and learn why a clean mouth might not be your best friend when it comes to nitrates…

Discover the potential of nitrates not just for race day, but also as a training aid, and explore the emerging trend of including nitrates in mid-race fueling.

Jonathan Cartwright: Beet It Sports

And if you're curious about the brand behind the beetroot magic, stick around for Charlie's interview with Jonathan Cartwright from Beet It Sports. Uncover the origins of Beet It, its evolution alongside groundbreaking research, and why its products might just be the natural performance enhancer for you.

Explore the range of nitrate products, from the classic shots to innovative crystals perfect for travel, and learn how to integrate them into your training and recovery — all while enjoying a special discount code for Cook Eat Run listeners when you purchase Beet It from the XMiles website.

Connect with Tom for more insights on nutrition and running at tomhollishealth.com and follow his journey on Instagram @plantrunner_rd.

Check out Beet It Sports beetroot shots and other products at https://www.beet-it.com/ / @beetitsport  (also available at Xmiles.co.uk - remember to use discount code COOKEATRUN10 for 10% off site wide).

Connect with Charlie online @therunnerbeans / www.therunnerbeans.com 

Grab a copy of Charlie’s book ‘Cook Eat Run’ 

The Cook Eat Run Podcast is sponsored by XMiles - the One Stop Nutrition Shop - use discount code COOKEATRUN10 for 10% off site wide at Xmiles.co.uk

This podcast is produced by Buckers at Decibelle Creative decibellecreative.com / @decibelle_creative

>> Charlie: So, after chatting with Tom for the episode, and, spoiler alert, hearing

him talk highly about nitrates and in particular

Beatit sport products, I wanted to get in touch with the

team at Beatit Sports to find out a bit more about the

brand. And so, at the end of this episode, you can listen to me

chat with Jonathan Cartwright from Beet It

Theyve also kindly sponsored this episode of the Cook Eat Run

podcast with X Miles. Listen in for a discount

code to save across the whole of the ex miles range of nutrition

products, including the Beatit Sport range.

Welcome back to the Cook Eat Run podcast with X Miles.

On the podcast today, I'm chatting with Tom Hollis about

nitrates, beetroot and whether they can improve

running performance. Tom Hm is an ICU

dietitian and has worked for the NHS

previously for ten years. Registered sport

dietitian and super fast runner. In fact, he

won the Milton Keys marathon over the

weekend. Tom, how are you doing?

>> Tom Hollis: Hi, Charlie. Yeah, I'm very good, thank you.

obviously, the day after a marathon,

you're not at, tip top condition, but I am buzzing

because I did not go into that, race expecting

it to win it. I knew there was an outside

chance, like one in

ten, one in 20, but, yeah, really pleased.

>> Charlie: So it was quite quiet on social media that you

were even running? The first I saw of it

was a little, hey,

whoops, I won more later. so was that an

intentional keeping it quiet, take the pressure off, or was

it a last minute decision to run?

>> Tom Hollis: Both. So, yes, it was a very

deliberate decision to keep it much

more low key in terms of social media,

even telling family and friends, because what

I think, just to give it some context, I did

London marathon 15 days before that. and, I, would normally

say doing two marathons in the space of 15

days at, 100% effort is

not optimal, because I'm also

a learning coach and it's not necessarily something that I would

advise my runners to do

routinely. but, I have a very specific goal

for London to run 229.

I was quite confident of doing that. Leading into

it, training had gone well, and I

talked a lot on social media about how I

was going for it. All my family and friends knew I was going

through some really specific goals. And because

in the years leading up to it, even if

I have doubts, I pretty much

always ended up with what I wanted from

races. So I think everyone around me just assumed

that every single time I would hit whatever target it was that

I was going for. And I've had so many messages of people

saying, you'll smash it, oh, you'll definitely get it, blah,

blah, blah. and loads on social media. And whilst everyone

means well, and I really do appreciate

the messages, I think it just loaded a

bit more pressure on me that I didn't

need when, actually, I just needed to be a bit more focused on

the goal. And as you well know, on a marathon

day, anything can happen to just slightly knock

you off course. My heart rate was really

high in the day, and I just don't think I was quite at

100% or have been since,

to be totally honest. because marathons hit your

immune system quite hard.

Anyway, I ended up, less

than a minute off my goal. So 2

hours 30 and 54. And I

know everyone says it's an amazing time, I know

it's a good time, and I'm lucky to be able to run those talents, but

it wasn't quite what I set out

for. so then hatched a plan with

my own coach, Chris,

to do Milton Keene's marathon 15

days later, with serious downtime. In

the meantime, we aim to

get an England vest, which is a

concept. Ah, that was new to me. so, basically, once

you get to the masters age categories of

v 35, v 40, and

beyond, all the way up to at least v

70, I believe

you can now, for each race

distance, there are about, three or four

qualifying races that year where if you

get in the top three in your age

category, you then qualify for an

England vest. So you get to wear a vest saying you're

representing England at, that distance at the low

end race later in the year. So London

marathon was one of the qualifying marathons. And obviously, it's

pretty hard to get the top three

there. Milton Keynes was one of the other

ones. And so I never considered it, but

quite a spontaneous decision to just do it.

And, so that was my own, was to get top

three v 35s. Cause I'm

clinging on to the b 35 group for another two months on

v 40 in July. and, I

knew that was a high chance. I knew there was an outside

chance of overall podium looking

at the previous year's results, and I

did not expect to win the whole thing, but, I did,

and it was a lot of fun. it was a very,

very tough course. So times went out

the window. Everyone faded

really, really hard.

But, for me, I was able to fade slightly less hard than

everyone else and pick my way to the front.

So it was really. It was good fun in invert

cons.

>> Charlie: Yeah, I mean, having done back to back marathons

twice, it's not something for the faint hearted.

It's. I found my two weeks post

Boston going for a five k tricky. So how did

you. How did the mindset flip from

or when did you decide after

London. Right, let's go for this. And how did you kind of change your

mindset from like. Right, that was about a gold time.

This is about a placing.

>> Tom Hollis: so yeah, just the whole approach was very different,

like I say, because London have been quite

pressurised and very public. Milton

Keynes, about five people, knew

six people maybe. And I really

enjoyed that aspect. but it was just a little

secret of mine and I felt

much less pressure going into it. personally I was pretty

chilled. I mean, at least from a

running perspective, I felt quite

chilled. Life was really chaotic in the week

leading up to it. We've had. I mean, this stuff

doesn't happen in London, but we had a

two day power cut, where we had no. We have nothing in

the house, no hot water, no

heating, no lighting, blah, blah, blah. And when it

finally came back on, all of our appliances

had blown, like chaos for

about, 300 houses in the surrounding area as well. And

we're still not quite back to normal anyway. But.

So life had been quite chaotic that week. And I got

sick. So that, the first

marathon I

was probably harbouring something or my little

boy had something and normally his

bugs don't affect me. M and my wife got quite good

immune systems. But then

London knocked me off enough

to get sick. In the meantime, I've already booked

Milton Keynes. What have I done?

and For the whole two weeks it's been lingering. Even now it's still

lingering. So anyway, the buildup wasn't

necessarily ideal, but, yeah, I

really enjoyed the fact that it wasn't going to be

time focused, that it was going to be about

places really traditional racing in that

sense, and just Just very

different. but mainly just trying to

just freshen up as much as possible.

I had to keep a couple of runs, hidden on Strava

because there are quite obviously marathon buildup runs. and I didn't

want people to know.

>> Charlie: Yes.

>> Tom Hollis: So, yeah, but I mean, aside from all the stuff that

was going on in the background, just trying to be positive and chilled and

sleep well and eat well and look after myself

as much as possible and look forward to the day.

>> Charlie: So was there anything you changed in terms of fueling

wise from London to Milton

Keynes, based on the fact that you were obviously trying to kind of

recover and then did you do another full carb

load and then race day? What did

race day nutrition look like for you?

>> Tom Hollis: Yeah, another form carb load, which

as you know, I take quite seriously. it's

actually not that fun because when you're

really trying to maximise a carb load, it's a

pretty unhealthy diet. it's,

you know, it's a lot of white, beige

carbs, high sugar, low

fibre, low fat, which for a couple

of days you don't feel fantastic, but it's

a means to an end to a good marathon time.

To do that, twice in 15

days was not that, fun, I have to

admit. I'm good at it now. I know

what food take. I know I've got a

fairly good routine with it. So, I didn't actually change

anything. I aimed for about eleven grammes of

carbs per kilogramme of body weight on the.

I'd normally say Friday and Saturday, but this was a Monday marathon

so it was the Saturday and Sunday this time. and

then on the day

itself I kept things pretty similar as well.

So, my morning is

normally either bagels with marmite

or crumpets with marmite, plus,

electrolyte and carb drink that I usually

have on my way to the race.

And I do that for halves and for marathons.

Usually about 80 grammes of carbs in 500

mils. Just kind of sipping that slate over the

last hour and a half of the race.

Hour and a half of the build up towards the race.

>> Charlie: and that's, that's one that you've made yourself, isn't it? Like

ah, Tom Hollis special blend.

>> Tom Hollis: It's not even that. It's not that complicated or special. But yes,

it is one that I make myself and I do that. I make my

own drinks for fueling throughout training. So

it's become second nature now. So to Sunday long

runs in mountain training blocks.

Saturday is always about getting the scales out and making

my own drink for the Sunday morning. a few different

ingredients going in there, but I quite like

being in control of it. and it's cheaper

and it's better for the environment because I get to use my own reusable

bottle each time. So yeah, all things

that are quite appealing to me. and then on the

way round again,

I've converted to using my own liquid carb

mix on the marathon

itself. plus a couple of high

caffeine gels that I take.

First one at halfway, second one about 25

minutes after that. And then for the final

bit of the marathon, I finish whatever of

the drink I should have. Oh, I

didn't have in the first half. It is

not nailed down yet. there are issues with

it. Carrying your own bottle is

annoying. There's no getting around it. so

it's still a work in progress. But I do really like

being in control, absolute control

of having it with me at all times

and being able to just sip regularly rather than

with gels. For example, where you're taking quite large

amounts, then a break, then a large amount, then a

break. The other advantage of drinking

your own carbs is

you can be in control of your hydration at the same time. So

I pretty much don't need to take anything on the

on course

drinks offerings, which again, just helps in terms of

not breaking your momentum and your flow.

but, it's not perfect. Carrying a 500

mil bottle is a lot,

particularly at the start of the race in one hand. So

I'm thinking splitting it into 2250

mil ones, and see how that goes. But

yeah.

>> Charlie: So which gels do

you use? You said you take a high caffeine. Which

ones do you prefer?

>> Tom Hollis: I have always got on well with the SAS products

and I use the sis

beta fuel nootropics ones, so they are

pretty punchy. So they've got 200 milligrammes of caffeine

in? yeah, a lot. And

so, like I said, the first one about halfway,

which for me is about 75 minutes. And then I have

my second one about

25 minutes after that. So around

about 100 minutes in. Yeah.

>> Charlie: Okay. and I guess you've talked about

like, the specifics of, like, it's a bit annoying carrying your own

bottles. You're running for not that, long.

For those of us that are running for an

extra hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, we're going to need

more bottles. So is there,

how would you advise your running clients

or your nutrition clients? Like, what kind of things do you suggest

to them in terms of what people wanting

to bring their own liquid carbs with

them?

>> Tom Hollis: Good question. And I literally just got off a

consultation with a client talking about

exactly that. Ah, because she and I have been exploring her options

for liquid carbs for London

marathon. She's always had, obviously not going

to name her by name. She's always had problems in the park with,

fueling, mid run, particularly marathon

distance. So we try to explore or

making her own? Actually, no, not making her own. She was using

a commercially available, sports product that you

put into water. so lots of them do it again.

Sas do theirs, Morton do theirs.

tailwind do theirs. Loads of them do them

down. So she was using those

and she was using like a hydration pack for

one litres worth and, then carrying

an additional bottle in her hand as

well. So she was

in total going to be having 1250

mils worth of volume on her,

which was two and a half, 80 gramme sachets of carbs.

So about 200 grammes of carbs. she was

aiming to go around about three and a half hours.

but there are other issues which I completely get when

you're out there a bit longer. things get a bit warmer,

which can be a bit grosser. You know, if you're

drinking your own liquid carbs

mix and it's just slowly boiling away

in the sun, that's going to be gross if it's a hot day,

three and a half, 4 hours in. So I do get, that,

but as ever, it's all about

trying these things in training, particularly

on your long weekend runs.

and, not, you really have to try and

replicate all of it. Not just

the amount of carbs, but how it feels sitting

on you, that volume, that weight, how often you need to

drink and so on. And so for some people, they might think,

well, that's definitely, not worth the effort. I will use gels

or I'll use what's on the course. So every person

is slightly different. And obviously some people just do

not get on well with sports nutrition products

at all and are adamant that they need to eat real

foods or something a bit closer to that. I have always

in the past, kind of tried to steer

away from that because I just think if

you can tolerate sports products,

you're going to be far more likely to get closer to

the amount of carbs per hour that would benefit your

performance. But, yes, some people just

really struggle.

>> Charlie: Yeah. Okay, so let's take it

to the main topic of today. I could talk about this all day,

as you and I have talked many times. We

go down a bit of a rabbit hole.

First question, did you take any

like beetroot nitrates in the lead up to either of your two

marathons or have you ever before?

>> Tom Hollis: Yes, and pretty much always

for any race of significance. I have

done, for, I would say the last

at least five years.

>> Charlie: Wow, okay.

>> Tom Hollis: Yeah, pretty much. If I've got them, which is most

of the time, then I will have them

for anything,

a meaningful race where the outcome is really

important to me. You know, if I was doing a summer

series of five k's, for example,

I might not necessarily do it for each

one, because they're not the cheapest

products, necessarily. So

I might be a little bit more sparing in terms of where

I use them. But, yeah, like I say, for any meaningful

race, pretty much always. And yes, that

included London and Milton keys

marathons.

>> Charlie: Okay, so let's go back to kind of basics. Why. Why

are nitrates beneficial? Why do you take them? Someone who's obviously

done a lot of research into sports nutrition and

performance, why are you taking them? And why

should the everyday runner, rather than like

necessarily elite runners, be thinking about taking

them?

>> Tom Hollis: Yeah, and, actually,

before I kind of go into the why,

it's. There's actually, you could say there's more

benefit for the non elite runners than the

elite runners. Interestingly, this

is one, ergogenic, so, performance

enhancing area, or aid,

where it looks a lot of the research

points towards there being more benefit,

potentially, for untrained,

relatively speaking, or recreational

athletes, runners, than towards the

ending end of the spectrum, which is different to a lot of.

>> Charlie: Finally.

>> Tom Hollis: No, finally, for super

shoes, it's often the other way, isn't it? It's thought to be the

fast buyers that you get that, x

percent improvement in performance, but

it's all the other way for Beatru. And

there's, there's some theories as to why that might be,

but just to kind of boil it down to what it is. So

it's all about not the beetroot per

se, but something

called nitrates. So,

dietary nitrates are something that are, ah,

in a few different types of vegetables.

So some dark green,

leafy vegetables, things like

spinach, rocket,

rainbow chard. It's actually in lettuce.

I think it's in kale. I can't remember. When I say

it's in it, I mean in significant amounts to make a

difference. and it's also in Vietroit.

what happens when you eat nitrates

is they're converted to

nitrite in your mouth. I

won't get too technical from a chemistry

perspective, because I think we need to necessarily.

But so the bacteria in your, in

your mouth, so your oral microbiome

converts nitrate to

nitrite, and then the nitrite is

converted to something called nitric oxide. So

nitric oxide or no you sometimes see it, is

known to be a really powerful and useful

molecule that we have naturally in our bodies

anyway. So we, there are two ways to

produce it. One is that, pathway

that I've just talked about, and the other is their

endogenous pathway. So it's naturally done

within the body through a separate

pathway. we know that, nitric

oxide is what's called a

vasodilator. So it

increases the diameter of some blood

vessels to improve, blood flow.

So it can actually be used to treat high blood

pressure, for example, by widening

blood vessels, and can be used therapeutically in

medicine. And is,

But, so that's one role

for it. But it is

thought to have lots of other kind of physiological roles that

we are, we know a bit less about, but, ah, are just starting to

understand. But the important thing of what it

does from a running

perspective, and it's been researched quite

heavily for the last, say,

ten years plus 15 years, even a little

bit longer, is it shown to

improve your running economy or

exercise economy. And what that means is it's,

it's lowering the oxygen

costs of any

exercise that you're doing. In other words,

making you slightly more efficient, at what you're

doing. And that's potentially really

amazing because there are kind of three

markers that are thought to

mainly define your performance at running,

which is your vo two max. So your

maximum oxygen uptake, your

lactate threshold, so the point at which your

lactate starts rising exponentially,

and your running economy or your exercise

economy. And, it was often thought that there's very few

things that can change that third one. but

nitrates is potentially one. So

that's why it's being researched so

heavily. And we're not talking about

massive changes, it's not going to transform

your running, but we're talking

about a percent here or there.

>> Charlie: Yeah. Which, let's face it,

we're all looking for the marginal gains, aren't we?

So.

>> Tom Hollis: Yeah, and I definitely am for

myself as well. So knowing that there is

that potential benefit there, I always

feel like it's something I could do and

therefore something I will do just to kind of try and

tick every box. there's, I

mean, I can talk a little bit more about, the research, if you

like. It just kind of depends. where do you want to go?

>> Charlie: Yeah, I mean, I think. I think

talking more about like how, like, how do

you do it? Like, when we're talking about adding

nitrates into our diet, beetroots in are we talking

about cooking with extra beetroot? So

I know that I saw a lot of people taking shots

of beetroot in the days leading up to the London

marathon, sharing on social media with them, you know, they're

like blood red mouth. So

how do you take the nitrates or take the

beetroot to get the most benefit and, how much?

>> Tom Hollis: Yeah, that's good. Okay. Yeah. So let's keep it really

practical. So, like I mentioned, there are different variations.

Vegetables that naturally have higher nitrate

levels in them. But in order to get

close to the amount of

nitrates, that is evidence based from the

research, to give you the dose effect

needed, you'd need eating really large

amounts of this spinach or

rocket or beetroot or lettuce

and.

>> Charlie: So on, which doesn't go well with a car blade.

>> Tom Hollis: Exactly. Exactly right. So on a day to day

basis, if you've got healthy, fairly balanced diet,

then you might be including some or lots of these things.

Anyway, and I try to, but in

that two day period with low

fibre, particularly advice leading into

a race, particularly a marathon, it doesn't really tell you

well because you're. Yeah, exactly

right. So you're not telling to have a load of dark

green, leafy veggies during that period,

which is where things like beetroot

shots come in because, well,

a, they are the most heavily researched form

of nitrates because it's a way of controlling the amount

that you're taking because it's a commercially available

product. but also they are the most practical

way to get this dose in. So, the

dose that I'm talking about is about 300 to 400

milligrammes of, of nitrate. You can get that, in

about 500 mils of

beetroot juice itself. Now that's

a lot of beetroot juice.

But so what is now more

practical is in the last few years, plus,

you've been able to get the concentrated beetroot shots

that you've been talking about. And that is what most people

will use. And each one of those shots will

have one kind of evidence based

dose of nitrate that, is

likely to have a

very small impact on

your running economy and therefore potentially

performance. M.

There is some evidence

that taking it, ah, chronically, that is

for a few days, up to six days before the

race, has, some additional

benefit

beyond race, morning or pre

race. But that's,

in my opinion, not

conclusive. So again, if you

want to absolutely tick every box, then you could do

that by taking it regularly in the days leading into

the event. and there's some evidence that your

muscles act as a

nitrate reservoir, so you do store some of

it. But, from my reading, and I've done a literature

review on this when I did my sports nutrition postgrad

a few years ago and I've checked and

I don't believe there's anything to kind of contradict this recently,

really. It's all about your pre, if you have to

prioritise it, it would be your pre race dose

of nitrates and you want that to be

at least an hour and a half before

your race. So somewhere between about 3 hours before

and an hour and a half before, in

order for that pathway that I talked about to have taken

effect. Whilst I think of it, because it

is an important, quite weird thing to mention.

M I mentioned about the oral microbiome having

an impact. So the bacteria being

key to that first, conversion. So

you don't want to have a really clean

mouth when this is happening. So

there were studies to show that if you had

an antibacterial mouthwash, for

example, during or

shortly after, that process of taking the

nitrates, it would disrupt it significantly and your

levels of nitric oxide would not raise to anywhere near the same

extent. So glue is a bit gross, which you

don't have a clean mouth, which unfortunately

isn't necessarily what you want because you, you kind of feel

like you do want to clean your mouth because you've just taken this

bright red thing that's going to stay in your mouth for

hours, or your tongue at least.

But unfortunately you kind of need to link it there. I've

tried to look for how

long you need to not have

cleaned your mouth before and after. And I don't

like clear answer on that, unfortunately.

So I tend to kind of,

me personally brush my teeth,

etcetera, early on marathon

day, maybe 4 hours

out, something like that, depending on time,

and then maybe have breakfast and a cup of tea and

blah, blah, blah. and then maybe an hour after that,

then I would do the beetroot

shot, and in between that

and starting the race, I wouldn't be taking any chewing gum, and

obviously wouldn't be brushing my teeth or mouthwash or anything like

that.

>> Charlie: But is it okay, do you think, to kind of just swill

your mouth out with water so that you get rid of that flood red

teeth look, or are you personally trying to kind of

avoid that and you just don't smile at anyone on the way to the

race and hope that the race photos turn out

okay.

>> Tom Hollis: As far as I'm aware, then I don't think water would

change that at all. I don't think it would make a significant change. Your

bacteria, it's where you're more kind

of aggressively, intentionally

cleaning your. That it makes a difference. That's my

understanding, anyway.

>> Charlie: Interesting. Okay. And so that's pre

race. I've heard of some people using

them during the race, or sterka, have just come out

with a gel that contains 350 milligrammes

of nitrates within their, carb gel. So is

there benefits, especially for maybe people that are running

longer, as in not longer distance, but running for a

longer period of time? Is there a benefit for them

of taking it during the race?

>> Tom Hollis: Possibly. I've not seen anything

conclusive in research to say that

there should be. but it's something that I've

considered myself as well, because, like we talked about at

the start here, because I'll make my own

fuel for marathons, there's the potential

there to add in nitrates in one

form or another. but

I've decided not to. And also, I guess if you're adding in the

beetroot shots in your drink,

if you get spinaches, that could get quite

messy, potentially. anyway, but

I guess if you're a four hour

plus marathon, then it could

make some sense that you're getting the benefit

of that, later in the race. But

the half life. Sorry.

The raised nitric oxide levels

in the blood, and in the

muscles, to my understanding, it's not like it comes

up and then comes down really quickly. It comes

up and stays there for a fair few

hours. So it's.

There's no need for my understanding

to be taking it mid race rather than before. I could be wrong,

but not from whatever it.

>> Charlie: Okay, interesting. So I guess people

could, if they are, you could use it as the

gel if they're doing something like a five k, and then at least

you've got the carbs, but you want it an hour and a half ish

before the race. So

have it as your kind of pre run, five k

snack on the way to the race.

I might have to do some testing with that, but, you mentioned that

you used.

>> Tom Hollis: I just won that. Sorry to interrupt you, but I think.

>> Charlie: No, don't worry.

>> Tom Hollis: They're confused with nitrates as well, because

the, other, I guess, most commonly researched

ergogenic aid from a m nutrition

perspective is caffeine. And you

notice the impact of caffeine rather, right. You feel

stimulated, you feel more alert.

There is a tangible impact on how you feel.

And so some people assume

that nitrates, beetroot shots, whatever,

aren't working in that commerce because they don't

feel anything. But you won't. It's not like caffeine where

you get that kind of stimulated effect. It's a more

subtle effect that hopefully will benefit your

performance but you won't notice why. I just

want to point out.

>> Charlie: Okay, good to know. Because I feel like yeah you kind of,

especially if you're spending some money on it, you want to feel the bang for your

buck. But hopefully it translates

to improved performance times just while I'm on

that. So if anyone does want to

try, beat it. You can save 10% on x

miles with the code cookeatrun ten.

They are the one stop shop for all your fueling

needs including pre, post and mid race nutrition.

So stock up on those essentials and if you want to give

beta a try, this is the place to buy it.

>> Tom Hollis: Just on that note. Actually I'm not filled with beta

at all, but they are products that I've generally used,

in fact exclusively used for nitrates over the

years. And some people don't get on with the

shots because they find it just too

intense from a flavour perspective. too

earthy, just too much so they

have Laura recently brought out like a

crystals option. So they're a

bit more versatile in how you take them. So you could have them with

your porridge or with some yoghurt or

even in a salad or something like that. So it's the same

dose being detected slightly differently.

>> Charlie: Yeah I've seen those actually. They have those, the shot

and a more a ah, bigger like bottle that. Then

if you're doing the kind of build up that you can then use,

pour out your own 70 mils or whatever you need.

And they've got all of those on xml so go and cheque it out. I'll leave a

link in the description box so that everyone

can have a look. so we've talked a little bit about

kind of dosage when to do it, but

would you ever use these for your

like training runs? Like the ones that

are like these are a key training run or

is it just for race day for you?

>> Tom Hollis: I think if I'm being completely honest, if

money was no object, I might use

them a bit more in training because there is benefit

there. So a lot

of the evidence points towards it

being most effective for kind of

sub maximal training.

So not when you're absolutely,

exhausting yourself to the limit.

which in my interpretation might

be of benefit to the marathon because for a lot

of the marathon you are running out sub maximal

effort. there is

more m recently evidence to

show that it could be beneficial for shorter

interval and higher intensity work.

but yeah, more traditionally it's been associated with that

sub maximal effort. And there is

potential benefit there in terms of using it for training

because if that oxygen cost of that

training session is lower,

then it's going to feel a bit easier. Your

recovery might be slightly improved, which

in turn might be a confidence boost, etcetera. And

also, yet again, practising things

for race day that you wouldn't want to leave for

race day itself. So I

probably would use them a little bit more

regularly in training, if, like I

said, if price wasn't a factor. but

as it is, it tends to be perhaps

once or twice a training block. I will use them for training.

Yeah.

>> Charlie: And so you mentioned sort of the recovery aspect

of like if it feels easier if you're not having to exert yourself so

much to hit the paces necessarily.

And they also beta have a product that's

designed for recovery or they

post it as recovery, which has cherry juice

with it. Is that something you've tried? How does that

work? Is there benefits to taking nitrates for

recovery? Or is it more the cherry juice that they're

using there for the recovery aspect?

>> Tom Hollis: I haven't tried it and, I would love to at some

point. but the tart cherry

juice thing has been around again for a few years

as being powerful in terms

of recovery. But you do need to be quite

clever in terms of what when you use it. Because,

if you're kind of

reducing inflammation, and

oxidation from training

too often, then you can actually be blunting the

adaptation that you want from that

training. But I do know that it's used

quite a lot at elite level and can

be beneficial for sleep as well. So sleep quality, which

is something that we're all striving for.

but no, I've not used that product. And

I also. I'm not

totally. No, I don't really know about

nitrate and its role in recovery or the

composition of the tea, I'm afraid.

>> Charlie: No problem. I just. I'm interested. I keep getting given

the sleepy girl, cocktail on

instagram, TikTok, which is like

tart, cherry juice, magnesium and

I think sparkling water or something. That's supposed to

be the, you know, the key to sleeping well. And I haven't

tried it yet, but I'm actually quite tempted.

Are there any downsides other than we've mentioned

cost to taking the nitrates of the

beetroot shots?

>> Tom Hollis: well, in terms of side effects,

no, not really. So, apart from

the one that most people will have

experienced, which is,

discolouration of

who and we, for once.

>> Charlie: And I was wondering how you're gonna.

>> Tom Hollis: Say here, but let's just go with pooh. And

we're both new parents, so

that's kind of appropriate. And, which can be

pretty alarming, actually, when you

do it for the first time.

Not everyone gets it to the same extent, actually,

but most people do. And, sometimes you

can forget that you've. That you've taken it.

>> Charlie: Yeah. Then you're guilty of

that.

>> Tom Hollis: Okay. That's what's going on here. Yeah, I'm not. I

haven't. I'm not bleeding from

tindamo. It can be

quite alarming. But, it's obviously not, you

know, that's not damaging at all. It's just a sign of your body

processing it. but beyond that, ah,

in a lot of the literature and the literature review

that I did back in the day, there are

basically no side effects or in effects to

be concerned of.

>> Charlie: Great. So basically, if you're

interested, give it a try. Test it in training.

>> Charlie: Yeah.

>> Charlie: And then use it for race day.

>> Tom Hollis: It is very, very low risk.

you know, it may benefit you. You may feel that it doesn't

benefit you. It is 100%

legal. It is. You know,

the beetroots and the vegetables that it's naturally found in

are healthy anyway. So they're good additions to your.

To your diet and to your overall health. and although I

say, you know, price is a potential barrier in terms

of things that you can do,

those small one percenters

to improve your training, it's pretty low cost compared

to some of the other things. Super shoes and so on.

>> Charlie: Yeah. And cook, eat, run, ten

gives you a 10% discount. So if you are interested in trying

it, use that on x miles and, let us know how you

get on. Well, Tom, thanks so

much for joining me today. Where can people find you if they want

to follow you on Instagram, Strava, or work with you

for run or nutrition coaching?

>> Tom Hollis: So, Maury, let's start with my

Instagram, which is plant runner

Rd, which is where I am

moderately active on. trying to go a bit more,

but, could definitely go for improvement there.

Strava is just Tom Horace. and

then my website is

tomhorrishealth.com m

which is probably first pull of cord if you're

interested in coaching and

other nutrition services that I provide.

And actually if you wanted to look at this topic in

particular, I've got a blog on there which if you scroll

back a few pages, I did three separate

consecutive blogs on nitrates for

endurance running.

>> Charlie: I will link to all of that in the show notes so that people can get

directly, direct access to you, including the

Strava with the hidden runs. Are you going to share them now?

>> Tom Hollis: Yeah, maybe.

>> Charlie: So. Jonathan, thank you so much for joining me on the

podcast today. I'm so

excited to learn a little bit more about

Beatit and the company, the products. Can we

start a little bit with how and why beat it was

formed?

>> Charlie: Yeah, of course. So Beetit is part of James white

drinks. So we're based up in Suffolk

and we've been going since 1986,

actually. The company, we've been pressing beetroot

since 2005, so quite a long time.

And really, the whole sort of beat

it in the sense of a sports brand really

came about, from the research. So it was

researchers up in Scandinavia, back in

2006, they found that nitrate

helped to increase nitric oxide production in the

body, that helped to lower high blood

pressure and they were looking to try and find a natural

source of it, basically. So at the time they're using

things like nitrate salts, potassium salts and things like that.

So at the time we were the only sort of beetroot

pressing company, so in the UK. So they contacted

us. We said, yeah, that's fine. We didn't have much

expectations about, you know, what was going to be useful

or what they find. and yeah, they did find

that helped to lower high blood pressure. In

2009, some researchers down in the University

of ex today sort of thought, well, maybe that might

help in athletic performance. We can help improve blood

flow and oxygen around the body. So that's when

they started to investigate the effects of beetroot juice on

sports and endurance performance. And then, in

2011, we sort of rebranded then, so

from beat it to beat it sport because we kind of followed the

research, really. so yeah, that's kind of where it all started.

And since then, it's sort of snowboard really, with a lot

of new papers that have come out, a lot of new applications

that's been found in different sporting types as well. So,

it's been an interesting journey and it's an interesting one. Now there's

this still lots of research that's coming out today. So.

>> Charlie: So were you just pressing beet for

beetroot juice as a. Just, a drink or to include

in some of your other drinks? Anyway. And then it just so

happens that it is an amazing product for

athletes and general health.

>> Charlie: Yeah, so we. I mean, James White, we've always been pressing fruits and

vegetables. So we do all sorts of natural

juices. We have, a, product called Big Tom, which is

a spice tomato mix. We do.

>> Charlie: I've drunk many of those over the years.

>> Charlie: Yeah. So any sort of fruit and veg, we

try to press it. We make it into a product. So it came

quite naturally to us. and obviously a lot of the beets are, grown in Cambridge, which

is not far away from us in Ipswich. So,

yeah, at the start we just thought it'd be

interesting to press, I guess press a beetroot juice, as

a healthy drink. We also do a carrot juice as well. So we're

a big fan of keeping nature quite simple, you know, not adding

anything else in. so, yeah, we were already kind of

sort of pressing it. So it's quite easy for us to supply

the researchers in the beginning.

>> Charlie: So it's kind of. Yeah, as you say, it's sort of snowboard from there.

So we've talked kind of a

little bit about in this episode about runners

using it. But do you work with a range of athletes to, improve?

Because I guess it's not just running where you can,

you want kind of effort and exertion levels

to be lowered.

>> Charlie: Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, I

guess the kind of basis of our consumers

are endurance based. So whether that's on the bike or

runners, that's because that's where the research sort of started

from, helping to delay the onset

of exhaustion. So. And then, it

was about 2015, 2016, some

researchers looked at what happens to, improving

things like intermittent sprinting and, reaction time

and strength and force production. So once

they found that out, a lot of

sports nutritionist dietitians that work with these

professional teams, they then contacted us because they were looking

at using the products for a different

basis. So we supply a lot of

teams, in the states, a lot of NFL

teams, NCAA d one teams, NBA

teams. So I guess the products are applicable to

quite a wide range of sports now. and there's a lot of evidence

now it's not only just insurance, but

also how it can help with things like team sports and

independent sprinting and things like that. So

yeah, quite a wide range, but for different, different

outcomes, I suppose. Different, different applications.

>> Charlie: Yeah, I hadn't even thought about it. That side. Obviously,

we're very focused on kind of

nutrition for running and cycling,

with x miles and with myself being a runner. So, yeah,

that's interesting. And do you get to go over and watch any of the

games or are you strictly, send the supplies and hope

for the best?

>> Charlie: I'd love to. yeah, they're usually very, very busy people, so

I, don't get time to go out there. I've been out to the states, but

not to see any sport. But, yeah, I'd love to experience it. I think,

it's a bit of a crate.

>> Charlie: You need a research trip, see how they're putting it into

action.

>> Charlie: Yeah, why not?

>> Charlie: So that's kind of the elite side of it. How

would you, or how does b six sport

suggest that the everyday runner

cyclist trying to improve their own personal performance use

the products?

>> Charlie: Yeah, so I guess the kind of dosing principle remains the

same. what the researchers found is that, the

higher trained you are, the

less effects you'll get from it. and it's usually

down to, I guess, the training status. So if you're an elite

athlete, you might get a one or 2% improvement.

I guess the room for improvement, or the ceiling is a

lot, lower in the sense

that, they're already quite close to their maximum, whereas for

the average person like myself, who's not sort of highly

trained, I guess, the room for improvement is

greater. and I think it's a lot of these elite athletes may already

have a diet that's rich in nitrate already. Perhaps they might

already be quite tuned to producing nitric oxide

already as well. So, yeah, and that's what the research has shown.

So the lower the trains you are, the chances are, the higher

the benefits that you're going to get. but yeah, the dosing is still

the same, so you still use it in the days leading up to the race.

and yeah, like I said before, there's a lot of research

every year that's coming up that increases our understanding of it.

So, yeah, that just helps

for the kind of general public, I guess, just to

understand how, how nitrate can

benefit their performance. And, the other is the same, whether you're

elites or non elites, you know, there's still

been, you know, benefit that can, that can help you so

yeah.

>> Charlie: So how many bottles do you think you need if you've not trained for a

marathon and you need to be performing on race

day?

>> Charlie: Yeah, I mean, I recommend taking it in training

so there aren't any side effects.

>> Charlie: Okay.

>> Tom Hollis: Yeah.

>> Charlie: Yeah.

>> Charlie: It does turn your weeping.

>> Charlie: Yeah.

>> Charlie: Right. So you can't get around that. But, it's just a

juice. You know, we don't have any fibre in there. So people often get a bit

concerned about how it's going to sit in the stomach with the products.

You're taking it in the days before, you can take it any time of the day.

By doing this, you're basically sort of banking up the

nitrate in the muscles. So they found out, a couple of years ago that

nitrate gets stored in the muscle. So similar to how we

carb load before a race, you want to sort of load up

the stores of nitrate. So when you start to run the

marathon, you're not only using what you have in your bloodstream,

but your body will draw it from the stores as well.

>> Charlie: Okay.

>> Charlie: So that, that's, I guess, one reason why. Why

we preload on it. And, yeah, it's also because

the nitrate in the body helps. It's been shown to

cause more. It takes time, I guess, for the adaptations,

to occur rather, than just having it sort of on the day off.

You, do get a benefit taking it on the delve, but

the research has shown. Yeah, there's much, much

more sort, of pronounced benefits, I guess if you take

it over about six days, leading up to the race.

So, yeah, one or two shots a day.

>> Charlie: Yeah. And would you recommend people use it

in training just to text sort of how it

feels and also to get those benefits maybe before their long run or

before a hard workout in the weeks leading up to

the marathon. So that then the pink wee and

the. And the taste, I guess, is not such

a shock on race week.

>> Charlie: Yeah, no, definitely. I mean, like with anything, always trout training

first. We don't get any sort of negative

feedback. like I say, it's been used by over

300 different, studies now as well. So it's

literally thousands of athletes. and the only side effect is it does

to any wheat pink. So. But like with everybody, everyone's

different. You know, they haven't been tested in the lab. So, you know, make sure

you try it yourself. and, yeah, I guess it's

just getting you to something new that's part of a routine. But because you're having

it in the days before, any time of the day, even on the day of

the race, you've taken about 2 hours before. So by the

time you start to run, you would

have fully digested it anyway. And it's only a 70 mil volume, so

it's not like a pint's worth that you've got to choke through,

which is what you would have done if we didn't sort of develop

the product back in 2011, into concentrated

shots. yeah, definitely trout training. like I say, it's

something which you kind of. It's more of a bolt on to what you're

already doing. So some people say, oh, do I still need

to take gels? Do I still need to worry about my hydration? I mean, yes, you

do. Obviously, you need your energy still.

This, beetroot juice just helps you to be more efficient with the energy

that you are consuming. So it sort of lowers

the energy costs of exercise, basically. So still stick to

everything else you're doing. Just an extra bolt

on. That's got a lot of research evidence behind it. Yeah. To help you.

>> Charlie: So it's kind of like the nutrition equivalent of a supershoe.

>> Charlie: Yeah. I mean, the percentage improvements are quite similar, actually.

Yeah. So on average, on endurance,

so time taken to reach exhaustion,

that's usually what they measure on. It varies from around

about five to 7% improvement in the time

taken to reach exhaustion. So, And some

people say, yeah, would I feel it? It's not like

caffeine. It's not like a stimulant where you feel, you know, like elated. It's

something which I guess you'd only kind of feel it

if you know what, you'd usually start to feel

fatigued on a run or a race. You might feel it then that you've

got a bit more gas in the tank to keep going, because that's,

that's effectively what the shots do. They enable you to

run a little bit further into your week's exhaustion because you're

more efficient with the fuel that you've got. so, yeah, it's

no, no caffeine, because a lot of people are sort of ordering

a caffeine thing. So it's not, it's not a stimulant, but,

>> Tom Hollis: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

>> Charlie: That's, that's the nice thing about it, really. It's just all

natural.

>> Charlie: And so you've got the 70 millilitres that are kind of the

pre packaged. You've also got some ones that are mixed with

cherry juice.

So what are those ones. How are they different from the ones that

are just kind of standalone beet

charts?

>> Charlie: Yeah, so the sour cherry, it is a mixture. So we've

got, it's roughly half and half. So sour cherry

is 58% and the beetroot is 42%.

So what we've done is we've mixed the two

concentrates, sour cherry and beetroot. They're

both known to be rich in antioxidants.

and then there's a lot of research that's shown that

antioxidants such as sour cherry can help

lower sort, of muscle soreness or the symptoms of

that after a run. And it does that by

lowering the, the inflammation that you get after

exercise. So,

yeah, it's very different. Obviously, it does have a bit of

nitrate in from the beetroot that's in there. It's not as much as you would

have from the beetroot shop, but it's all really about

the combination of antioxidants that you get, from a

mixture, and it's also ready to drink as well. So you don't have to worry about

pouring out, mixing. You can just quickly shot

it back.

>> Charlie: And still taking that before

or. Because often with the cherry juice, it's

recommended to have that afterwards. So it's kind of like you take it before your

long run or your marathon, and then you're still going to get

the benefits from the cherry juice afterwards.

>> Charlie: Yeah. So we did actually initially recommend having it just

after the, exercise or race, but then we had a lot

of feedback from some professors in the sort of

world of sour cherry, I guess, and they were saying that really at

the moment, the consensus is that there's more benefits if

you were to take it before and

afterwards. So they kind of coined the term, pre

covering, which is, even though it's a recovery product, you have

to start before. So. And the reason being,

they think, is because just, by taking it afterwards, it's kind

of too late, so the damage is done, and you're trying to sort of get it in

once the damage has been caused. Whereas if you can get the antioxidants

in sort of pre, then your

body sort of has it there to use it when it

needs to, I suppose so. So we, we've used a dosing

where we do, sort of two or three days before and

then two or three days afterwards. So it's something which is sort of

dose before and dose afterwards. Initially, we didn't want

to do that because it kind of crosses over the beach,

at sports as well. but we

were kind of always led by the science and, when we are told by

professors what they think it should be done in the area, which

they are, the experts in, we'd be silly to ignore that.

So yeah, we've taken it on board. and yeah, that's the kind of

recommended way to do it.

>> Charlie: So that's one of the other products. You've also got the big

bottles of the concentrate

and then are they crystals? They kind

of the powder, how does that

work?

>> Charlie: Yeah, so the crystals are, 100% beetroot juice.

So they're just vacuum dried

basically, and then it's milled, so it's 100%

natural. The reason why we made that product is

because a lot of people understand the benefits of beetroot,

but they either don't like the taste or they don't like the idea of

what it's going to taste like. It's often the latter. People have an

idea of what it's going to be. so we wanted to have a product

which enabled people to sort of

benefit from beetroot,

but is a bit more palatable.

So the crystals are great for like sprinkling over things like

breakfast cereals, porridge, oats. I personally have it mixed in with

yoghurt. You just get the natural sweetness of beetroot, which

is great. So you don't get the oathy taste that you get from the liquid form

and yeah, ah, it's just a bit more versatile. We had some ultra

runners who are really keen on it because they're having a

top up dose of nitrate mid, you know,

100k or whatever, they're running these crazy distances.

And rather than carrying a shot, which is obviously a little bit more weight, but

to little bit bulkier, they can just put a little sachet

down in their pocket and they can add it to their drink at

feed station. So, and if people are travelling abroad

as well, it's lightweight, so yeah, I guess it's

the same purpose, but it's just another way of

getting the nitrates in. If the shots are a bit too intense for you.

>> Charlie: Yeah, I guess for travelling, people travelling with hand luggage only,

that's a, you know, if they're trying to take a couple of shots, it's a lot of their

liquid. you know that you're only allowed to take this little bag,

so you don't want to waste the space necessarily, or not

waste it, but you know, use a lot of your space with.

>> Charlie: It's a lot of beetroot to drink all in one go if you don't

have in it.

>> Charlie: Yeah. Or an expensive mistake if you if you get caught.

>> Charlie: Yeah, they should be okay. It's around 100 mil, but like you say, it is still

something you got to try and fit in there, in.

>> Charlie: The bags, but yeah, and there's big debate over

whether gels are liquid or not when you're going through those

sorts of things, so.

>> Charlie: Yeah, true.

>> Charlie: Sounds like travelling, that could be a really

good option for people to use the crystals.

yeah, definitely.

>> Charlie: Most people who are having

maybe breakfast at the hotel, a lot of people have porridge at the hotel

or something. You can just, you know, quickly rip open the

sachet and mix it in or have it with the yoghurt

if that's your thing. So, yeah, it's just a bit more versatile, I

guess, which hopefully gets more people

sort of on board with a brand.

>> Charlie: and so what sets beat it sport apart from

other kind of brands or products that

are boasting the fact that they've contained nitrates for

performance?

>> Charlie: Yeah. So I think the key thing, well there's a number of things

really, but the most important thing with

beetroot or any sort of nitrate related product

is how much nitrate is

in a serving and is it enough to

cause a performance benefit and if it is, is it

consistent batch to batch? So one thing that we found very

early on was that nitrate varies from beets you

get in the garden, in the supermarket to even our regular juice that

we do. So when we gave it to the researchers, they just

found that it fluctuated all over the place and it's really hard for

them to do robust research when you've got

inconsistencies like that. So we

took a lot of time to get it right. we

use sort of high nitrate beetroot, I guess,

and then we standardise every batch. So every

shot has got, at least 400 milligrammes of

nitrate in. So I guess there

are many competitors out there, obviously in the UK,

elsewhere in the world as well. But we actually test

every single competitor product when it is launched, to

see how much nitrate is in there. And does it stack up to what they

claim? We don't release these to the public

because, I think we'll probably get.

>> Charlie: A lot of legal, don't want to.

>> Charlie: Get sued, especially in the states, but, we've been quite

shocked actually. There's some products out there in the states that are claiming

400 milligrammes. they've got less than

ten. So it shows that people

are often misled, which is quite frustrating for

us because that's where a lot of the research and development

came. From our perspective, we wanted to make sure that we

were standardising it. another thing is that we

keep it literally 100% natural. So there's only

two ingredients in our shots. If you look at other nitrate

products, you'll probably see a handful of ingredients.

A lot of them aren't natural, they're

preservatives. so we keep it really clean, really natural. We're

in form sport as well, so any athlete has that

assurance. and we're also the product that's been used

by all the research. So any beetroot related

research that's been done over the last sort of 15

years, about 90% of them have used our

product. So they know that our product has actually been

tested. we haven't funded any research

so we're just the ones

that can provide the researchers with a product that has a standardised

dose. And we do a placebo shot as well

which has no nitrate. So they can do a

crossover, double blind study. So

that's why they use us. they trust us. So

a lot of these dietitians and the nutritionists,

that's why they come to us, because they read about the research, they'll

see that they used our products and they come to us. So

I guess we're the most credible, in

that sense that we are actually tested. I don't

think there's many products out there that's probably tested as much as

us. and yeah we're quite sort of proud of that. I think

it's is something which sets us apart from the rest. Yeah,

for sure.

>> Charlie: Great. And if people want to find out more about the

products, where can they go other than x

miles which have the product? And we have got 10% off

code for listeners with the product, the

code cook, eat, run ten which will save across

xmls including the Beatit sport products.

But yeah, where can people go to find more?

>> Charlie: Yeah, great. I mean xmiles is a great resource, as

well. We have our own website, beatitude.com, where we have

info on there. we have our own Instagram page

where we post infographics, information,

videos, content. If there's something where

if someone has a question that we can't answer online, just drop

us an email, contact us on our website. We've got

things like brochures, booklets we can send out as a

PDF always happy to jump on a call as

well. We often speak to athletes who

have certain events where they want some bespoke

advice. If it's back to back and even how do I

dose? So, yeah, just reach out to us directly

or look on our website. That's probably the best way.

Fab.

>> Charlie: well, thank you so much. It was so interesting. I've actually got a

box here ready in front of me to test

out as part of my training to see

how I get on in training and then hopefully use them for Berlin Marathon

at the end of the summer.

>> Charlie: Oh, brilliant. Brilliant. It's in, is it? September Berlin, isn't it?

Yeah, no, it's been a pleasure.

>> Charlie: Yeah, it'll come around soon, but yeah, yeah.

>> Charlie: It's been, a pleasure chatting with you and hope you go well

with the products that's. Now you get on.

>> Charlie: Will do. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the

Cook Eat Run podcast with xmls. Don't forget

to get all of your nutrition products from xmls,

the one stop store for your nutritional needs. Try out

some new gels. Try out the beat it sport range. I know that

I've got literally a box sitting right in front of me and I can't

wait to try it out. Next week's

episode is with Jamie. Jamie running

on Instagram and we are doing a deep dive into

Sterka products. I'm talking about his favourites. I've

ordered some products for me to try, so don't forget to join us

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