Walk into any sport nutrition retailer and you will find an entire shelf of pre-workout supplements claiming to support endurance, oxygen delivery, and sustained output. Most of them are built around two functional categories: nitric oxide precursors and stimulants. Many come in large tubs with ingredient lists measured in the dozens.

The Nomad Beetroot Honey Gel contains five ingredients. Two of them — organic beetroot powder and organic guarana — contribute to a pre-session fuelling strategy by combining honey-based carbohydrate fuel with a dietary nitrate source and a botanical caffeine lift. This post examines what the research suggests each one does, and the appropriate context for understanding how they fit a training week.

The Nitrate-to-Nitric Oxide Pathway

Dietary nitrate is not a synthetic compound engineered for sport. It is a naturally occurring anion found in high concentrations in vegetables — beetroot, spinach, rocket, and celery among the most concentrated sources. Vegetables contribute approximately 80–85% of daily nitrate intake, with beetroot among the vegetables with the greatest nitrate levels, exceeding 2500 mg/kg.

When consumed, dietary nitrate (NO₃⁻) follows a well-characterised reduction pathway. It is absorbed in the upper gastrointestinal tract, concentrated in saliva by the salivary glands, and reduced to nitrite (NO₂⁻) by oral bacteria. Nitrite is then further reduced to nitric oxide (NO) — a signalling molecule with established roles in vascular function, mitochondrial respiration, and muscle contractility — particularly in the low-oxygen environments characteristic of working skeletal muscle.^[1]

The performance relevance of this pathway has been examined extensively. A seminal study by Larsen et al. reported that sodium nitrate supplementation reduced the oxygen cost of submaximal cycling, with similar findings confirmed in subsequent work using nitrate-rich beetroot juice — where a 3–5% reduction in oxygen uptake at a fixed submaximal power output was observed. The implication is significant: dietary nitrate may help improve muscle efficiency by reducing the oxygen cost of submaximal exercise in some individuals — in other words, the efficiency of skeletal muscle contraction appears to be enhanced.

A 2021 systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition — covering 73 studies — found improvements in power output, time to exhaustion, and total distance covered associated with dietary nitrate supplementation, and reported a decrease in VO₂ at submaximal effort. The same review noted no significant difference in time trial performance and total work done, and highlighted heterogeneity across studies and the need for further research.^[6] This nuance is worth holding: the evidence supports a plausible oxygen efficiency mechanism, but the translation to measurable time trial performance gains is inconsistent across the literature.

It is important to be precise about who the research evidence is strongest for. Results are more consistent in recreationally active or moderately trained individuals; findings are mixed in elite athletes, likely due to their already optimised nitric oxide utilisation. For the recreational endurance athlete — the primary RealFUEL+ audience of Singapore runners, cyclists, and triathletes training alongside work and family commitments — the evidence base is more applicable than it would be for a professional competitor.

Understanding the Timing: Carbohydrate, Caffeine, and Nitrate Are Not the Same Window

The reduction pathway from dietary nitrate to active nitric oxide is not immediate — it requires the salivary bacterial conversion step and subsequent systemic circulation. Research using beetroot juice formats generally places the window for peak plasma nitrite elevation at approximately 2–3 hours post-ingestion.^[2] This means that a single gel consumed 30–45 minutes before a session is unlikely to achieve the peak nitrate-to-nitrite conversion timing studied in clinical nitrate supplementation protocols.

For the Nomad Beetroot Gel, the practical 30–45 minute pre-session window is best understood as a carbohydrate and guarana timing window. The honey-based carbohydrate fuel and guarana caffeine are the components most relevant to that pre-session window. The beetroot nitrate component may contribute more meaningfully when the gel is used consistently across training days as part of a broader dietary nitrate intake pattern — rather than as a single acute dose timed to produce measurable nitrate-specific outcomes in a given session.

Nomad does not prescribe a specific timing protocol. RealFUEL+ positions the gel as a pre-training and pre-race carbohydrate fuel for use before a session — not as a clinical nitrate loading strategy. Athletes seeking a structured nitrate supplementation protocol should consult a sports dietitian for guidance appropriate to their event and training context.

Guarana: Botanical Caffeine With a Different Release Profile

The Nomad Beetroot Honey Gel contains 30mg of caffeine derived from organic guarana — as printed on the physical pack label. For context, the ISSN position stand on caffeine notes that ergogenic effects in endurance exercise are commonly observed at doses of 3–6mg per kilogram of bodyweight.^[3] For a typical adult athlete of 70–85kg, that translates to approximately 210–510mg per session — well above the 30mg present in a single Nomad gel. The guarana caffeine in this gel is best understood as a moderate botanical caffeine lift within a fuelling strategy, not as a full caffeine performance protocol.

What distinguishes guarana as a caffeine source is not the caffeine molecule itself — it is pharmacologically identical regardless of origin — but the matrix in which it is delivered. Guarana offers a higher caffeine concentration than coffee and a more gradual release, which research suggests may lead to more sustained and stable stimulation. This occurs because guarana's caffeine is bound within plant fibres, producing a smoother experience compared to the faster absorption characteristic of regular coffee. Guarana naturally contains caffeine alongside tannins and other plant compounds, which may influence how some individuals perceive its stimulation profile.

In practical terms for a training or race context: some athletes report a smoother and more sustained caffeine experience with guarana than with caffeine from coffee or energy drinks, making it better suited for activities requiring prolonged focus and endurance — although direct sport-performance comparisons with isolated caffeine remain limited. Where a pre-run coffee may produce a sharp caffeine spike within 30–45 minutes that dissipates in 1–2 hours, guarana's tannin-bound delivery mechanism is associated with a more gradual ramp and a longer effective window.

It bears noting that the peer-reviewed evidence base specifically comparing guarana to isolated caffeine in controlled sport performance settings is more limited than the broader caffeine ergogenic literature. The mechanism of slower release is consistently described and biochemically plausible, but athletes should treat guarana's advantages over isolated caffeine as a quality-of-experience distinction — a smoother subjective experience for some users — rather than a claim of superior performance outcomes.

The Beetroot-Guarana Combination in Context

The pairing of dietary nitrate and caffeine in a single gel format is not accidental. They address different aspects of the pre-training physiological window:

• Dietary nitrate (beetroot) operates through the oxygen efficiency pathway — research suggests it may reduce the metabolic cost of submaximal exercise, potentially allowing a given power output to be sustained at a lower physiological cost.
• Guarana caffeine operates through the central nervous system — well-established research demonstrates caffeine's role in reducing perceived exertion, delaying the onset of fatigue signalling, and supporting sustained focus during prolonged effort.^[3]

Together, the two compounds address both the peripheral (muscle efficiency) and central (perceived effort and focus) dimensions of endurance performance — through dietary rather than synthetic means, and within the context of a honey-based carbohydrate fuel that provides the dual-transporter glucose-fructose foundation examined in Post 01.

Singapore Training Context: Heat, Oxygen Cost, and Pre-Session Strategy

Singapore's training environment adds a specific layer of relevance to the oxygen efficiency research. Exercising in high heat and humidity increases the cardiovascular demand of a given workload — heart rate at a fixed pace runs higher, perceived effort increases, and heat dissipation competes with oxygen delivery to working muscle. This makes oxygen efficiency an interesting area to consider in Singapore's hot and humid training environment.

This does not mean dietary nitrate overrides heat physiology — hydration, acclimatisation, and pacing remain primary variables in tropical training. It means that building a consistent dietary nitrate foundation through training fuelling may contribute to the overall physiological picture, alongside the other elements of a well-structured Singapore endurance training strategy.

The Nomad Beetroot Gel is positioned at RealFUEL+ as a pre-training and pre-race carbohydrate fuel — not an in-race supplement. For Singapore athletes training in the early morning or early evening windows, consuming it 30–45 minutes before the session places both the carbohydrate delivery and the guarana caffeine in the correct window for the training bout that follows.

What This Means for the Nomad Beetroot Honey Gel

The Nomad Beetroot Gel is built on an organic Greek honey base — naturally containing both glucose and fructose for dual-transporter carbohydrate delivery — with organic beetroot powder and organic guarana as the two functional additions. The full ingredient list is short by design. No synthetic nitric oxide precursors, no isolated caffeine, no artificial flavour systems.

For athletes new to the range, the Nomad Starter Kit includes the Beetroot Gel alongside the three other flavour variants, allowing in-training evaluation across multiple sessions before race day selection. RealFUEL+ recommends testing any new fuelling format during training — not for the first time on race day.

Want to trial the Beetroot Gel with a natural honey top-up? The Beetroot + Fir Honey pack pairs one Beetroot honey energy gel with a Fir Honey sachet — a simple pre-session combination to test in training.