The most beneficial thing to do would be to structure your workouts a bit if you can. Just adding a long run on a weekend morning and making one of your evening runs into a tempo or interval run will make a huge difference--much bigger than any supplement ever could.

Also, make sure that you are doing everything you can with your diet before turning to supplements. Switch from bleached pasta and bread to whole grain, add more fruits and vegetables, and cut out all of the junk food. Then next step would then be a multivitamin to supplement any shortcomings in the diet (I felt that it was easier to stay healthy once I started taking one).

As for other supplements, don't even bother with them unless you already have structured training and a great diet because they won't have any effect and you'll just be throwing your money away. One good thing I did start taking a while ago, though, was Endurox Excel....took about 10-15 sec off my 5k. However, I dropped 2 min with hard, structured training and watching my diet before I even started taking them.

If you find you are fatiguing more quickly than you think you should I would recommend getting your doctor to check your blood iron levels and red blood cell count. Personally, I tend towards moderate to severe anemia, so I have to keep a close handle on getting enough iron. When I was younger, I just thought I was always out of shape, because I would get so out of breath. Then I finally discovered I was really anemic. So it is something worth checking out if you have concerns.

The fatigue is not severe enough to concern me but definitly something I will keep in mind, thanks. I only mentioned it given how new I am to the sport I felt it may be improtant to add.

JJ

Hummmm? Was that a drive by ad?
The only supplements I take...during heavy training is R4.Post workout. Electrolytes in long races and workouts.
A multi-vit. and eating well covers everything else...period.
And yes...I'll admit it..I have wasted money on suppliments that were supposed to help me improve...but I stopped that years ago.

I've taken a variety of suppliments. I'm currently taking a generic multivitamin, a 1000mg fish oil, and a glucosamine/MSM/chondroitin joint suppliment. All of these things for general health.

The only thing I've really tried in terms of performance enhancing suppliments was creatine syrum when I was running 80-100 mi/week in college. While I didn't notice any increase in my performance during workouts, what I did notice was the ability to recover from said workouts faster. I don't take it any longer because I have no motivation to destroy my body like I did back then.

However, the bottom line is that unless you're really at the top of your game in every other aspect of health (sleep, diet, etc), suppliments are going to be like putting flashy rims on a beat-up honda civic.