I am going to supplement my 30’ bike TT tomorrow with Clif Electrolyte Apple Crisp. It has caffeine in it, and I’ve never supplemented with this before. Any surprises I should expect?
I try hard to avoid caffeine (specifically no coke, no coffee), so this is new territory for me.
Any help = appreciated.
If you’re looking for that wonderful little caffeine kick, perhaps take it pre ride.
Others will have more sciencey info, but my quick thought is the caffeine may not kick in for 20min or much more.
If you’re sensitive to it, maybe 15mins. everyone is a bit dif, etc.
I recall reading that peak blood levels of caffeine comes about 1hr after ingestion.
yeah, starts kickin in after 20-30 min and reaches its peak after ~90 min, so if you drink it during your race you will probably not notice any benefits from caffeine. regarding coke you might want to ask tom boonen…
how do you respond to caffeine? i can have a lot with no effect. even more and i start to need a toilet.
how do you respond to caffeine? i can have a lot with no effect. even more and i start to need a toilet.
I’ll find out tomorrow. It’s not a race, just a “practice” TT to gauge improvement. Figure I’d test out the caffeine in the TT before my Oly Race in one month.
Ive used a caffeine supplement prior to workouts for about two years now. I use cytosport fasttwitch since its the cheapest and powergel for longer training events. The pre workout(or race) gives me pumped to go workout. For during workouts it gives me alittle more spunk in my legs. Is that a race, test or just training? If its just training you will be fine take half first to see how it effects you.
It will give a 2 percent increase in performance if you are not a caffeine drinker–it will do nothing if you drink coffee every morning.
how did you come with the 2 percent figure?
So you say if i go 60min 40K, and I never take caffeine, Ill go 58:48?
I don’t think so.
That was what was presented to us in a presentation on performance enhancing drugs
Here is an abstract from J Appl Physiol 93: 990-999, 2002. First published May 31, 2002; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00249.2002
Effect of different protocols of caffeine intake on metabolism and endurance performance
Gregory R. Cox1, Ben Desbrow1, Paul G. Montgomery2, Megan E. Anderson1, Clinton R. Bruce3, Theodore A. Macrides4, David T. Martin1, Angela Moquin1, Alan Roberts2, John A. Hawley3, and Louise M. Burke1
1 Sports Science and Sports Medicine, Australian Institute of Sport, Belconnen, Australian Capital Territory 2616; 2 Centre for Sports Studies, University of Canberra, Bruce, Australian Capital Territory 2617; 3 Exercise Metabolism Group, School of Medical Sciences, RMIT University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083; and 4 Natural Products Unit, Department of Medical Laboratory Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia
Competitive athletes completed two studies of 2-h steady-state (SS) cycling at 70% peak O2 uptake followed by 7 kJ/kg time trial (TT) with carbohydrate (CHO) intake before (2 g/kg) and during (6% CHO drink) exercise. In Study A, 12 subjects received either 6 mg/kg caffeine 1 h preexercise (Precaf), 6 × 1 mg/kg caffeine every 20 min throughout SS (Durcaf), 2 × 5 ml/kg Coca-Cola between 100 and 120 min SS and during TT (Coke), or placebo. Improvements in TT were as follows: Precaf, 3.4% (0.2-6.5%, 95% confidence interval); Durcaf, 3.1% (0.1-6.5%); and Coke, 3.1% (0.2-6.2%). In Study B, eight subjects received 3 × 5 ml/kg of different cola drinks during the last 40 min of SS and TT: decaffeinated, 6% CHO (control); caffeinated, 6% CHO; decaffeinated, 11% CHO; and caffeinated, 11% CHO (Coke). Coke enhanced TT by 3.3% (0.8-5.9%), with all trials showing 2.2% TT enhancement (0.5-3.8%; P < 0.05) due to caffeine. Overall, 1) 6 mg/kg caffeine enhanced TT performance independent of timing of intake and 2) replacing sports drink with Coca-Cola during the latter stages of exercise was equally effective in enhancing endurance performance, primarily due to low intake of caffeine (~1.5 mg/kg).
I am a daily coffee / dt. mt. dew drinker and I will agree that it may
not do much for me performance wise, I definitely notice a difference
if I DON’T have some coffee before my morning workouts. Probably more
of a physical and mental addiction to the caffeine, but that’s too
scientific for me to think about, I just drink my cup of coffee and
run, seems to work and my workouts are definitely better with it than
without.
Well I had a GU, the new ones with caffeine, about 15 minutes prior toy swim today. No major change/differences; I still am aediocre swimmer!
Will have my Clif drink when the ride starts tomorrow (15’ warm up) and that should last through the end of the TT.
Will report back tomorrow after that.
LOL
all it will really do is make you feel more alter, like you have more energy.
I know I am really, really tired when caffeine doesn’t perk me up.
Can’t believe you’ve never used it training before… I ate caffeinated gels before I started drinking coffee!
How much caffeine is in that? I’m guessing it’s less than 50mg. Shouldn’t even notice a difference or notice performance benefits.
Just about every study I’ve seen about caffeine supplementation has the athletes take in 4mg per kg of body weight. That’s a TON and you should notice the benefits (and the side effects 
).
4mg/kg/hr sounds about right to me
.
Thinking again, I actually think the studies have 8 mg per kg. Not per hour though, per hour would be a killer.
The caffeine isn’t necessarily suppose to help by giving you more energy like when you drink coffee or a soda, the main reason for it being in GU or Powergels is that chemically it helps the absorption of the carbohydrates through the membranes of your digestive tract into your bloodstream. Yes it gives you the little caffeine buzz, but not performance enhancing enough… the real benefit is that it gets the simple sugars (carbs) in the gel from your stomach to your muscles faster.
I know you all have been impatiently waiting for my update on how things went. TT went just fine, started taking in the Clif at the start of warm up, which was about 25’ or so, maybe getting through 1/3 of the bottle. was about done with it by the end of the TT.
Results were odd, which I’m going to post about separately. Bottom line, speed was about the same as last TT effort; for the last 20’. The first 10’, I was faster this time than last. Had no stomach distress that I could tell was related to the caffeine.
OOPSMYEYE, if what you have written is accurate, then that’s reason enough to give it an extended try.
I read that if you pop 5MG per KG one (or two?) hours before your event, your body will burn more fat in the first hour, leaving more glycogen later (obviously applies to a longer race).
I tried this the other day during the green mountain stage race, but it was hard to really tell, since I was only really doing 600 calories an hour for the most part.
I ended up only consuming 600 calories during the entire 3.5 hour race!
I will try this again Sunday for ToughMan. 2 x200MG pills 1-2 hours before the race.