I'm stopping caffeine 1 week before an A-race. Do you?
With Eagleman (A-race) coming up next week, I started thinking about what I can do to get all the free speed I can get. I'm doing the race wheels, latex tubes and getting the rest of the bike set up right. Then I remembered a couple of podcasts that talked about how caffeine can improve exercise performance. So I looked into this and the data seems good. Here's one paper I looked at:
http://jap.physiology.org/content/93/4/1227.full.pdf
So since caffeine can improve race performance and it seems to have more of an effect on those who aren't regular users, I decided to go caffeine free for a week. I have never been much of a coffee person, I get my caffeine from Diet Coke, usually 4-6 /day. Might be a painful week but I'll get ready for the headaches and jitters that I'm sure will come.
My plan is to cut all caffeinated products from my diet for 7 days before Eagleman. Then on the morning of the race I'll have 5mg/Kg of caffeine in the form of diet coke, coffee and maybe a caffeine pill then rock the race.
Am I going to do more harm than good?
Does anyone else do this before a race?
If you do, what do you do to load on caffeine the day of the race?
Thanks
Comments
#1 - you probably ought to consider kicking the habit of 4-6 diet cokes per day on an on-going basis...that can't help performance.
#2 - I wouldn't change ANYTHING the last week before a race...especially an a-race, unless you have practiced it. You know from your training what are capable of...all you are doing here is introducing a new variable. Besides, are you actually doing to change any of your race plan based on this experiment? If not, why bother?
If you want to try this out, why don't you do it before your next race rehearsal...where you can afford a learning experience.
Just my thoughts.
Second what Stephen said. I wouldnt try anything new, especially for an A race.
I myself dont have a lot of caffeine in my diet, but have been using it regularly for training and racing for the last two years. I've experimented quite a bit and know the right situation (for me) where it helps significantly.
I've never taken pre-race, normally saving it for the later miles of a very long run, last hour of a 4hr bike or after mile 18 on a marathon. It consistently helps me in a major way.
I'd wait until you've had some time to experiment.
Per above post: It WILL mess up your sleep. I, too, am a caffeine addict in the form of Dr Pepper. I am dropping my intake slowly over a couple of weeks right now for general health reasons, but going slow to avoid the symptoms. When I went cold turkey a few months ago I had four days or so of feeling hung-over and it messed with my sleep significantly. Just stopping the week before a race will effect your training for a few days.
I can say that I am already lloking forward to a cold Dr. Pepper and a snickers at the bike turn-around at my race in July......just sounds refreshing even now.
I've done it and caffeine is a secret weapon on race day and laying off for a while before hand seems to get the body to say YES! when you hit it on race day. But I also wait until I hit the bike and use it in INfinit. And then GU's etc after that. None before then. I'm wound up enough in the morning and before the swim. Caffeine is the last thing I am wanting. However, once on the bike, game on.
Also, my sleep improved when I laid off the coffee, which has never been much to begin with; maybe 2 cups a day. I wouldn't sacrifice sleep for any strategy.
After reading additional posts, i think there are two issues here.
I'm not a caffeine drinker at all, but i do take caffeine on race day. Last november i did ironman Arizona, for the first time drank infinit the day before the race as well as on race day. I typically take caffeine tabs on the bike too, has always worked well for me. Except this time, my stomach was upset morning of the race, things felt wierd. About an hour into the bike i started to pee, and basically, never stopped. Full bladder every 20 minutes which killed my bike, it lasted till about an hour into the run. The exact same thing happened to me during my last race rehearsal but i never figured out what caused it. Only common denominator was a brand new bag of infinite used twice, race rehearsal and race weekend. Classic symptoms of taking too much caffeine, i believe my infinit bag got a heavy dose of caffeine, which was way too much for me. I learned 2 things: 1)use caution when messing around with caffeine intake, 2) once i have an infinite bag that has worked well over multiple long workouts, save half of it for race day. I've opened a "bad" bag twice now just prior to race day, typically get 1 bag a year where something is off.. A bit more than you asked for Tim, but for me, it cost me a hawaii spot.
First, some research studies (Courtesy of the Ironman Medical Conference in HI, Oct 2009), then my personal experience with caffeine use.
Chris M has the right approach: "low" dose of caffeine taken "late" in an endurance activity (cycling TT) improves performance. Details: 120 minutes @ 70% of VO2 max, then TT to exhaustion (ausually took about 27 minutes). Cola ingested @ 80, 100, (& 120 minutes - cyclist's choice) during the 70% phase. 100 mg caffeine gave a 2-3% time improvement in performance, 200 mg gave a 4-5% improvement. 200 mg is abgout a cup of coffee, or a caff. tablet. Ideal dose claimed to be 3 mg/kg body weight. (150 # >> 200 mg)
The projected length of effect of a dose is 2-4 hours. Here's a quote from a summary paper: "It is also important to note that there are very few, if any, negative side effects when consuming a 200 mg dose of caffeine (eg. anxiety, dizziness, nausea, tremor). This amount of caffeine can also be added to a sports drink, either before or during exercise, with no adverse effects on hydration."
How does it help? Probably two ways: enhanced ability to recruit body's fat resources to fuel muscle activity; and enhancing higher neural fucntions. It does help to get a kick to the head when trying to run 26.2 miles after 6 hours of biking. Without Coke in an IM, I feel like pulling over and taking a nap on the run; with it, I can pay better attention to the task at hand.
My own experience in using caffeine tabs in a race is 0/2. Both times, I had massive problems with hydration issues and having the wheels come off to a greater or less extent. There were other factors involved, but I became convinced that concentrated caffeine does not sit well with me performance-wise.
I do start slamming the Coke on the marathon in an IM, and have had great success in finishing strong. The caffeine may be a part of that, along with proper pacing, training, and use of high altitude camps 2-3 weeks before the races. I'm loathe to give up any of those things, as I suspect all of them have an impact. But I keep my intake of caffeine to small doses now, and only late in the race.
@ Henry- in response to 2- I've seen research that says caffeine has more of a benefit in nonusers than users. In users, essentially the longer you can abstain the better. Most studies had people abstain for 1-4 days, I really didn't see any time that was optimal or anything that said how long it would take for all caffeine effects to go away.
I am a big caffeine user and always incorporate it into training and racing. I know several people who have tried the fast with success. I am considering it for my upcoming HIM on June 18. Thinking about 4-5 days abstinence then coffee on race morning and Gu Roctane on the run. Worked really well for a friend at Kona last year.
If I do go ahead with this, ther's no way I'm going cold turkey! FYI: This race is an A race but I will be trying the caffeine fast in order to determine if I want to try it for IMWI Which is my AA+ race.