Ingesting Baking Soda before training? Is this actually a thing?

I get the theory but no idea how that would work in an actual person, or what their evidence was, or how strong it was. And as for the mixture, wouldn't the acid in the vinegar sort of neutralize the baking soda? Sounds more like an elementary school "volcano" model! And not sure that something kids do to make volcanoes should be going on in one's stomach before training or racing?

so, FTR, I've done the research and actually done the experiment as well, since I was curious. The rec was 0.3 mg/kg and I weigh about 70, so I went with about 2 grams of bicarb in about 4 big glasses of G2. It's a lot-



On the plus side, I can say that for me, it improved my ability to do repeat sprints but that was about it. I did not test breath holding or crazy stuff like that. It did not change my ability to hold one hour power (CP/FTP). It did not change my max power and I tried several times during the races to go all out. I raced two or three sprint bike races on the day @ 1 hr and ~3 hrs and did another the next day.

I had the perception that I was still fatigued as I was doing these short sprint races, but surprisingly, I was still able to hold almost the same pace for each of the several consecutive races. If I remember correctly, my best race was a super sprint bike race the next day.

On the down side, it makes you very bloated. It was hard to drink so much of it and I mixed it with G2 and could likely have gone a bit more concentrated. Definitely moves the bowels! I retained water and my weight went up and stayed there for several days.

All in all-not worth it.