Dancing With Who Brung Me (Vespa Update)

So - remember a few months ago, when I did a product review for Vespa Sports Supplement?

Here's a short recap: Vespa is an amino acid supplement derived from wasp extract that’s designed to stimulate metabolism of fat stores instead of glycogen during aerobic exercise. It has steadily grown in popularity among ultrarunners and triathletes, although it has many detractors who are skeptical of the physiological basis for such claims.

Personally, I was on the fence about using it on a regular basis. I felt some benefit during my long training runs, but in many ways it seemed too problematic to use consistently over the long term. It didn’t taste great. It was expensive. It was designed to go along with a diet plan (the Paleo diet) that I had no hope of maintaining (No peanut butter? Yeah, right.). And it was hard to tell sometimes whether or not it actually made any difference.

Basically, it seemed awfully high maintenance. I called it Princess Vespa, and figured we’d have a whirlwind romance before I settled down with something more manageable.

It was a great plan, except for one thing: I never officially broke the relationship off.

I’m still using Vespa, and I’ll continue to use it through Western States at the end of this month. The weird thing is, I can’t really explain the product any better now than I did a few months ago, and I have all the same issues and questions about it that I had before. Not to mention, I’ve completely given up on the Paleo diet. But I feel like I’m in one of those situations where I just need to dance with the one who brung me.

At this point, I’m not going to deviate from what’s been working for me. My training buildup has been great this spring, and I’ve used Vespa all along the way. Sure, there’s a possibility that it’s all just been a placebo – but I suspect that on some level, it does provide some benefit, however intangible or immeasurable. It’s clearly not a miracle product, but I don’t think it’s snake oil either. And I’ll certainly feel better knowing that I have it in my race pack.

The bottom line for me is that I’ll take any added benefit (at least, any legal one) to help me get from Squaw Valley to Auburn - and that’s why I’ll keep Vespa as another weapon in my arsenal on race day.