We all know many racers in Cats 1 2 3 4 and even 5 take supplements to increase performance. Among the leading legal supplements what are the best for endurance races? The market is full of powders telling us that they increase O2 utilization and such but most are just sugar and crap. Optygen is the leading seller but i have no real solid info on it. Its legal and "Safe". Does anyone know what works well to help increase performance without cheating?

proper nutrition while exercising is best. Keep up the electrolytes, carbs, and proteins, and you'll notice a huge difference over just plain old water. There is a ton of crap that claims to increase your performance. If it was true, why wouldn't everyone use it? either it's unsafe or has unpleasant side effects, or it's a bunch of crap. Since the FDA will ban most supplements with serious negative side effects, guess which option i'm thinking. Optygen appears to be safe, and all the online reviews i can find about it are mixed. But as one said, there are no magic pills that increase your performance. Supposedly it's also pretty pricey. Personally, i wouldn't want to take something i don't take while exercising to help my endurance. That leads me to think that it might have a more dramatic impact on my body than the stuff i drink while i ride. I prefer a drink like Cytomax or endurox that is basically high-test gatorade with some extra stuff to help out endurance. Supposedly, a 4:1 carb to protein ratio helps boost endurance over a normal carb only drink. Also, these types of drinks with carbs and protein are good for recovery, which can help you train harder and make better gains. If anyone else has any insight on Optygen or this type of supplement, i would love to hear about it.

IMO just eat good food. Try and limit fat/sugar/preservative intake.

I find that after eating fast-food/canned food/highly processed food, I feel like crap.

Look out for next months 220 Triathlon magazine. I have written a feature article on Nutrition to Optimise Race Performance and gives advice on achieving a nutrition base that can be mainpulated to optimise race (and training) performance. There is also an example weeklong food diary to give an example of how to achieve the nutrition base. The following issue I have written about hydration, vitamins and minerals and supplements. Check it out, it should help.

I have tried a suplement called sportlegs. It doesn't get rid of lactic acid, but insyead changes the ph of it so the acidity is lowered. This allowed me to push one or two cogs higher than without taking it. It may not sound like much, but if you are racing, every little bit helps.

I've been using Sportlegs for a few months and have noticed a difference in my ability to go harder longer.

Ive herd good / bad things about sport legs.... Looks to be just a can o Tums to me. Im no diet scientist though. During training I keep a very balanced diet. Recent studies show that you should not limit your fat intake in substancial amounts because it is linked to testasterone release.... Testasterone helps prevent catabolic break down.... So when your training (especially with wheights) keep that in mind. Alot of the guys I used to lift with would try to cut all the fat out of there diet, it wasnt benefical or tasteful im sure. I've been taking flax oil capsules as part of my diet, they wont increase performance, but I have noticed a change in how I feel daily.

Isn't the idea behind sportlegs the same thing that cytomax claims, ie buffering lactic acid?

Yes, sport legs is supposed to (And has in my experiences) change the PH of the lactic acid making it less acidic and therefore there will be less burn. The lactic acid will still be there but you won't feel the acidic nature of it.