Caffeine and Marathons

I'd be more concerned about the diuretic effect of caffeine leading up to and during a race. I'm sure 400mg does give one a jolt, but it will metabolize out, as well. I drink a cup of green tea (maybe 35mg) and it increases my alertness without the heart palpitations. I really don't think the level of caffeine makes one run faster, just increases alertness (kind of like the old thinking giving coffee to someone who has drank too much, you just have an alert drunk).

I always have a big mug of coffee (black) before running. I make it in one of those Spanish/Italian pots like Pacino uses in serpico, so it's good and strong. It's also a way of taking in some liquid. Most helps me wake up.

That's a lot of caffeine!!

I usually do ~150mg before racing. I don't drink caffeine & only use it before hard sessions/races. 50mg as a drink tab with my breakfast. 100mg from RunGum or something similar 45 minutes to 1 hour before. I find that timing clears out the system, gives me a jolt, and keeps me feeling good throughout a race. I don't think you have to worry about caffeine effects fading during a race. The study is that running performance increases with caffeine if you take some pre-race.

I don't know the studies on it but if you take caffeine, and a lot of it, almost daily, then you probably don't notice it as much but it should still be helping you. I think a good practice would be limiting it in training where you can so you're not doing anything out of your routine by race day.

In a marathon, I'll take a caffeinated gel or two in the back half. I feel like it helps. Could also be placebo.

svoboda0 wrote:

Before some hard workouts and shorter races, I've been taking around 400mg of caffeine with a couple of pills. Personally, I've found that it does seem to give me a jolt, and there seems to be research that it does give a boost, but only a temporary one that fades.

For a marathon I'm curious is anyone knows when it'd be optimal to take caffeine as I'm wondering if taken before the start the effect will wear off by the middle of the race so that taking it in the middle of the race would actually be optimal.

Also, does anyone know the latest research on caffeine withdrawal i.e. if leading up to a big race you really should abstain from any caffeine then take it on the day of the race?

Sheesh 400mg? No wonder you get a jolt.

I prefer Epinephrine. It's cheap, has extremely low toxicity and is extremely effective.

Beware though. Too much Epinephrine before the start can mess up your pacing strategy.

i had caffeine before my one and only marathon and it jacked my heart rate to 160 in the first 100 meters. basically where it was for the entire race.

screwed me up because I paid a lot of attention to my heart rate during my M training, and I expected to run quite a few miles in the 140 to 150 range before settling at 160 around the halfway mark.

I've always wondered if that cost me some minutes in the race, but not enough to try again without it!

high school xc coach wrote:

i had caffeine before my one and only marathon and it jacked my heart rate to 160 in the first 100 meters. basically where it was for the entire race.

screwed me up because I paid a lot of attention to my heart rate during my M training, and I expected to run quite a few miles in the 140 to 150 range before settling at 160 around the halfway mark.

I've always wondered if that cost me some minutes in the race, but not enough to try again without it!

How much Caffeine did you have?

In what form and when?

What were the weather conditions?

How did your race go?

Caffeine has been well studied and (unlike almost any other legal supplement) its positive impact on performance is real and well documented. See Matt Fitzgerald's book The New Rules of Marathon and Half-Marathon Nutrition. If you regularly consume caffeine (through soda or coffee, for example), Fitzgerald does recommend phasing it out for a while before a race (I forget the details, but it's something like 2 weeks).

But unless you weigh 300 pounds, 400mg is excessive and possibly counterproductive. No additional performance benefits were found past 200mg.

The half-life of caffeine metabolism looks to be on the order of 6 hours, so one jolt 30 minutes before the start of a 3-hour marathon will still have much of its kick left at the end.

I wonder what Jared Ward does?

Good to know this for future races!

Yes, 2-3 cups increase performance.

'Abstaining from caffeine at least 7 days before use will give the greatest chance of optimizing the ergogenic effect. '

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19077738/

Dopeology wrote:

high school xc coach wrote:

i had caffeine before my one and only marathon and it jacked my heart rate to 160 in the first 100 meters. basically where it was for the entire race.

screwed me up because I paid a lot of attention to my heart rate during my M training, and I expected to run quite a few miles in the 140 to 150 range before settling at 160 around the halfway mark.

I've always wondered if that cost me some minutes in the race, but not enough to try again without it!

How much Caffeine did you have?

In what form and when?

What were the weather conditions?

How did your race go?

I drank something like 20-24 oz of coffee from tim hortons...i don't know what that amounts to, but I never drink coffee before a run. and rarely drink more than 8-10 oz in a day.

temps were 50s to start. perfect. early morning, so no sun. last 8 miles or so was 60s with sun. Im a person that runs hot, so that wasn't great.

I thought I was in something like 3:10 shape and ran a 3:23:xx. ended up pacing within a minute on both on first and second half, but I honestly thought i was being ridiculously conservative for first 13 to 15. I was wrong on that. It was all I could do to gut out the last 8 miles. worst physical experience of my life.

That is a load of caffeine. That's about 3 cups of coffee worth.

Maybe you should taper your caffeine use for a while, and then consider 25-50mg per hour in the marathon. Most gels/chews that have caffeine give you about this much per serving.

Breakfast In Bed wrote:

That is a load of caffeine. That's about 3 cups of coffee worth.

Maybe you should taper your caffeine use for a while, and then consider 25-50mg per hour in the marathon. Most gels/chews that have caffeine give you about this much per serving.

Or maybe not believe the hype about caffeine?

He prays to Jesus

It's very much a cultural belief that caffeine improves performance in every activity. But really you can run or study or do any type of work well or badly either with or without it.

I ran a marathon yesterday . I was felt fine, but because I registered last minute I didn't have any gels or gummies, my spouse bought some and checked in every few kilometers to see if I needed a sugar boost (I needed a few but not much and there were no gels on course). Before the run I had 2 cups of coffee, and by km28 I was feeling tired and needed a jolt. I saw my spouse around km30 and screamed "i need coffee" and got my thermos out from their backpack (which I filled up with coffee at breakfast thinking I'd save it for the ride back home). I shotgunned the two cups that were in the thermos down in about 15 seconds on the side of the course and kept on running. It felt perfect. the unsweetened coffee was a nice balance to the water and gummies I had in my belly for the last two hours (there was not enough sports drinks. I wouldn't take caffeine pills, but then again not everyone has someone interested in watching them run.

Dopeology wrote:

Breakfast In Bed wrote:

That is a load of caffeine. That's about 3 cups of coffee worth.

Maybe you should taper your caffeine use for a while, and then consider 25-50mg per hour in the marathon. Most gels/chews that have caffeine give you about this much per serving.

Or maybe not believe the hype about caffeine?

Or that. I've done it both ways, mostly because I'm a morning coffee drinker like many. Only reason I'd have caffeine before a race or long run is if I think it'll be too long before the end of the race where I can sit down and enjoy a cup.