Caffeine affecting training?

Come on 17 cups of tea a day? What are you?

Yes, There is a caffeine crash and the more you drink the harder the crash. Stick to 3-4 cups and make it less than 2 hours before your run.

well, 12-17 cups a day is RIDICULOUS first of all.

if you keep that up you will probably be anemic in a month or two. if you havent been drinking it for that long than you probably arent yet.

either way, i would cut back to 1-2 cups, holy crap.

12-17 cups of green tea is probably equivalent in caffeine to a couple cups of strong coffee. Why would if make one anemic?

Green Tea?!?! Ha i thought you were talking about actual caffeine.

lennyy wrote:

I've been running roughly 7-7:30 min/miles on my easy days while building a base, but recently i've had less of those days and more of 9+ min/mile days, while struggling to complete runs and shortening distances. Aside from that i've been eating a lot more and sleeping well. So no reason to suggest overtraining except the slowing pace. Except i've also been drinking 12-17 cups of strongly brewed green tea everyday. Just wondering if that amount of caffeine can explain why my pace has been slowing and increased fatigue during runs.

Green tea typically contains about 1/3 of the caffeine of coffee, perhaps 1/2 if brewed for a very long time. 4-8 cups of coffee is not excessive for most, and you are sleeping well, so insomnia isn't a problem.

Perhaps you are increasing your training volume too quickly?

That isn't an excessive amount of caffeine but it's probably too many (much?) tannins. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannins#Toxicity

former track star wrote:

12-17 cups of green tea is probably equivalent in caffeine to a couple cups of strong coffee. Why would if make one anemic?

the tannins and other ingredients in green tea and most types of tea will inhibit iron absorption so if you drink it constantly throughout the day you are probably not absorbing a lot of the iron from your foods or vitamins, etc.

could lead to anemia if one trains heavily and continues this behavior for a few months. how long it takes depends on your iron levels from the start.

How about you try this my friend. Trust me you might be eating too much. Green Tea that's bs. I drink a chai latte from starbucks everyday and that has around 100-150 mg of caffeine in it but it's mixed with milk. It tastes better. I take my iron before I run. I drink my chai later on. Have 5hrs of space between coffee and iron and you won't be anemic now that is hoping you are taking some type of iron supplement. If you are not am not an expert to what happens. But if you want to see what miracles caffeine does for your running my friend don't drink that bs chai latte and great tea crap. I hate drinking black coffee as it is. So I just pop a 200mg caffeine pill that's made of 6 or 7 different kinds of sources. Man if all you could hold was 5:22average for 5xmile reapeats with 1:30 rest. You take this pill you will be running 6 miles 5:24 non stop. And that's being conservative and only taking 200mg. Most of these other drinks runner take before races have like 400mg but I don't want to mess with that kind of dose. I just think this specific brand has it blended right. You become so focused my friend. FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS. So don't be scared of caffeine. And I only take it once a week on my workout day. The other days no caffeine. except the chai latte. whick is bs strength wise.

Just drink decaf tea.

You're welcome.

No seriously, why are you drinking so much tea. That is too much tea. This shouldn't even be a thread.

Kenyans drink tea morning and evening and but you my friend could beat any Kenyan when it comes to drinking tea. Are you a Kenyan by any chance?

If you're drinking that much of anything apart from water there's going to be some problem somewhere. Moderation.

Matt Berlin wrote:

That isn't an excessive amount of caffeine but it's probably too many (much?) tannins. See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannins#Toxicity

Tannins? No that's brown/black tea. Green tea is very low in tannins.

lennyy wrote:

I've been running roughly 7-7:30 min/miles on my easy days while building a base, but recently i've had less of those days and more of 9+ min/mile days, while struggling to complete runs and shortening distances. Aside from that i've been eating a lot more and sleeping well. So no reason to suggest overtraining except the slowing pace. Except i've also been drinking 12-17 cups of strongly brewed green tea everyday. Just wondering if that amount of caffeine can explain why my pace has been slowing and increased fatigue during runs.

Maybe you need some short fast stuff to perk you up. Too much plodding makes you slower and slower.

simple simon wrote:

Just drink decaf tea.

You're welcome.

caffeine isnt the problem. decaf wont make much of a difference.

ever hear of moderation?

tannins are in most types of teas, including green teas. and they are significant enough that you should not be slugging back a cup or 8 with your iron pill if you want it to be absorbed

It's the tannin that gives brown/black tea its color. Green tea has a lot less.

i brew my green tea so long, it usually is brown....guess that's not too good...