Caffeine and Running

Audio Transcript

Coach Michael: Hey Runners Connect fans. Welcome to another episode of Run to the Top Extra Kick podcast.

I am here to answer today’s training and racing questions.

Today’s question revolves around caffeine and how to utilize it to boost your performance.

Genene: What’s your opinion on caffeine and running? Can it help boost performance and can I utilize it in training?

Michael: This is a great question Genene, and as a faithful coffee drinker myself, I can definitely offer some insight here.

First, let’s talk about what caffeine does.

Caffeine stimulates your central nervous system. It’s going to increase the production of adrenaline and dopamine, which we all associate with some pretty feel good chemicals.

It blocks the adenosine receptors which is basically what makes us feel tired. Caffeine is going to block those receptors and thus delay the feeling of fatigue.

It’s going to reduce your perception of the effort and increase the concentration of endorphins in the brain.

I know we alluded to that with the adrenaline dopamine for runners.

What does this equal? This is the runner’s high. The runner’s high is a concentration of endorphins in the brain that happens sometimes at the end of a long run.

Caffeine is going to simulate that and can increase fat utilization.

This is obviously a big one for long distance runners as we’re so keen on trying to utilize fat, instead of carbohydrate, over, for example, a marathon, so that you can spare your carb sources.

It enhances your reaction time and improves neuromuscular coordination which might sound more like a sprinter’s benefit but nonetheless, can help a long-distance runner as well.

It can simply make you faster.

In one particular study, researchers found that runners who used caffeine, prior to their 5K race, improved by 1 to 1.1%.

Let’s take somebody who’s running 20 minutes for the 5K. They’re going to improve by 10 to 13 seconds just by using caffeine.

Everything else equal, just by using caffeine, they’re going to run 10 to 13 seconds faster which is obviously a pretty huge amount of time and is definitely a huge benefit to consider.

Let’s talk about how to utilize this in your training and racing. The number one thing is you have to find your sweet spot.

There’s several reasons for this and I’m sure many of you who drink coffee or any sort of caffeine, probably understand what I mean when I say there are several reasons.

Caffeine is a huge big-time diuretic and is absolutely going to affect you to that degree, especially if you’re somebody who doesn’t use caffeine very often and suddenly starts using it.

You’re going to definitely notice these effects and you’re going to have to find a sweet spot.

For many people, a good place to start is perhaps 90 minutes or so; maybe 60 to 90 minutes before a run or a workout.

Obviously, try it before training, your workouts, and easy runs and whatever before you do it.

Before races, you want to make sure that it’s something that you’re used to and you’ve done several times, so that you can find that sweet spot.

Try that 60 to 90-minute window. You can try 90 minutes first, maybe even try two hours first, if you have a sensitive stomach, and see how you handle that.

See how that sort of timing does for you and see if you can obviously use the bathroom in an appropriate amount of time, before the workout.

If you’re still feeling alert and ready and able to tackle the workout, once it’s time for the workout and then see how your workout goes as well.

Then from there, you can essentially just experiment with different times.

If you tried two hours, you can then try 90 ninety minutes and once you do 90 minutes, you can try 75 minutes and then 60 minutes but you don’t really want to get a whole lot closer than that.

Some people can handle it. Plenty of people wake up in the morning, have a cup of coffee and get out the door and that’s great.

But if you’re somebody who’s starting out, then you’re probably going to have a bit of a harder time with having a cup of coffee or expresso, and then just heading right out the door.

Any kind of type of caffeine can be fairly acidic for your stomach.

Typically, coffee is going to be one of the most acidic while something like expresso is not going to be quite as acidic.

If you have a sensitive stomach or maybe have acid reflux, you need to experiment with timing to find what’s going to work best for you and going to leave your stomach the most settled.

You need to be feel alert and ready to rock and roll on the workout.

In terms of the amount recommended, typically it’s five milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight.

Somebody who weighs 68 kilograms which is 150 pounds, they would supplement with 340 milligrams of caffeine, which is about 16-17 ounces of drip brewed coffee.

That’s a lot. Now this is more in terms of recommendation for optimal performance.

At this point, we’re talking about races, maybe like the hardest of hard work outs, not necessarily your typical easy day.

That’s why I would recommend you consider using less on your easy days, and then more on your hard workouts and races.

This is if you’re going to do it every.

In one day, if you are a habitual coffee drinker, you take caffeine on a regular basis, then this is something I would consider.

Use a little bit less on your easier days and a little bit more for the harder work outs and maybe your long runs as well.

I remember having long runs where it was the coffee that helped me out the door.

It’s tough to get out there for two plus two, or three hours, and sometimes that coffee can definitely be the difference maker there.

Get to experiment and find what works for you, but I would highly consider using less in your easy days, and more for your hard to work out some races.

Big reason here is that you obviously build a tolerance to caffeine and it really doesn’t take very long too.

Everyone build some sort of tolerance to it.

It depends on the individual, in terms of how long it takes and how much tolerance you build, but everyone builds a tolerance to some degree.

That’s something to experiment with, and you want to make sure that when it comes to race day, and if you’re somebody who likes to use caffeine, and you want to get this performance boost, you want to make sure that you’re actually going to get that performance boost.

Let’s say you drank eight ounces of coffee before all your workouts, all your easy days, every single day for four months.

You get to race day and you have another eight-ounce cup of coffee.

Not to say that you’re going to feel anything, but you’re not going to get this big-time performance enhancing features that I’m talking about.

The fat utilization and the real reduction in the perception of effort, the endorphins and all that.

You’re not going to have that quite as much if you’re consuming the same amount every single day and you do the same thing on race day.

I recommend varying it up.

If you’re somebody who doesn’t need it every day, maybe only have it on the workout days or on the long run days, and save up for the race day.

Just make sure that you don’t have that tolerance built up.

That leads well into talking about which form of caffeine. It comes in many different forms. The primary one is coffee.

Most people know coffee, tea, expresso.

Caffeine infused products are definitely becoming big. There’s chewing gum now, that has caffeine.

There’s all sorts of like [00:08:14 goose] will include caffeine sometimes, so there’s all sorts of different forms that you can use.

There’s no science behind this. It truly comes down to a personal preference and what you handle the best.

Personally, what I found over time, I like tea but it doesn’t really give me the kick. I typically used coffee.

I would use coffee before work outs, easy days, maybe like a cup before in easy day, and maybe a cup and a half or two before work outs or long runs.

Then I would start drinking coffee before races. I found it to be a very relaxing thing.

Before a race, sometimes you’re real built up, you’re nervous, and it’s hard to relax.

It’s funny even though caffeine is a stimulant, I found it very relaxing to go sit in a cafe or sit in the lobby of a hotel and sip on some coffee.

I would drink quite a lot, to be frank, and I would drink enough to where I really felt it, and sometimes that would be three cups.

It would really depend on what exactly I needed that day.

I would do a good amount ahead of the race. I’d probably start drinking coffee like three hours before the race.

I’d drink it slow and maybe drink it even for like an hour, to the point where it’s not really affecting me negatively.

I feel like if you take it down fast, some of those potential negative acidic effects are probably more likely to take hold.

Another thing I tried that I would recommend for people to experiment with is caffeine pills.

The pills get a bad rap because they’re usually used for college students who are staying up late studying, but caffeine pills can definitely come in handy.

I think the main reason is that you do not have to ingest any coffee, tea, liquid, or anything acidic.

It’s pure caffeine in the pill form.

For some people, it doesn’t work as well, but it does work well for others.

It’s so potent that you might feel a little bit jittery and anxious but it really depends on you.

See what you can handle, try it out in training, but don’t ever try something brand new on race day.

Try it out in training, see what form works best for you, and then use that on race day.

Thanks for that question.

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See you next time.