Yesterday I drank 6 cups of coffee from 8am to 1pm, normally drink 1 or 2 cups. I eat breakfast, lunch and snack then went for a run at 4pm, also had about 500ml of water from 1pm to 4pm.
I felt terrible on my run to point that I had to stop, this was just an easy 60min or so run, had no energy and felt tired. This has never happened to me before but never had 6 cups of coffee prior to running before.
Any comments?
I kid u not, I'm playing around with my own coffee consumption for a while as I've noticed a similar trend. Can not for the life of me imagine why this would be happening, my only guess would be because of a spike in blood sugar leading to a crash because of all the caffeine? For my own case if I drink a lot of coffee in the AM, my PM run is bad, not as extreme as yours being a day between coffee intake and your run but similar result.
Sorry just reread your post, your the same as me, drinking more coffee in the AM leading to bad PM run.
maybe drink Red Stripe instead?
Did you drink 6 cups of coffee early on because you were tired? Possibly you were just fatigued from the get-go, more so later in the day, so you were zapped by your run and maybe coffee doesn't have that much to do with it. Just a thought.
Caffeine is a weird deal. I typically drink a few cups each morning. I have found, after a long time of having crappy long runs on Saturday mornings, that the LR will be crap if I don't drink a cup of coffee beforehand. So the opposite effect as you. I have never noticed a correlation to a run later in the day, but you may be on to something.
I've found that a cup or two of coffee in the morning actually helps my run if its a few hours later. Of course it could be all mental, I'm not sure.
...coffee which has caffeine in it course, in most cases will help 'rev' you up! My guess is that you had a bit too much, and if you added sugar, milk and or cream to it, the affects were worn off. Normally caffeine helps in the release of fatty acids in the blood..which help increase endurance.
Like anything else you toss in the body, it will become used to it and the affects won't be as dramatic as the first.
I'd suggest simply a cup or 2 at most to get the benefits...and another plus is that it helps you with 'b.m.' before you run..and not during!!!
So, coffee helps in endurance and helps you go to the bathroom before the run..now you know!
You might find interest in a book titled: "Smart Exercise" by Covert Bailey. The guy is biochemist who has studied the affects of caffeine on endurance athletes!***
here's an idea: don't drink six cups of coffee next time
Didn't you get heart palpitations? The few times I've had that much caffeine I was literally shaking and my heart was racing.
How much were you eating when you were drinking all this coffee? Caffeine can produce a signaling cascade that ups glycolysis. I wonder if it is enough of an effect to deplete available glucose and effect your blood sugar like one of the other posters mentioned. Anyone here with a strong background in medical physiology?
nathan jessup wrote:
You might find interest in a book titled: "Smart Exercise" by Covert Bailey. The guy is biochemist who has studied the affects of caffeine on endurance athletes!***
Covert Bailey is an idiot as are likely most people who come out and determine that all people should eat the same diet/macronutrient ratio, etc. If I ate the way that he suggests I'd be tired, irritable, sluggish, and unable to perform. Funny as 20 years ago when he suddenly was the diet guru....he was already getting soft.
Initial $0.02... Caffeine stimulates the adrenal glands which is in simplistic terms a stress hormone...flight or fight. You may not have been out exercising, but a stream of hormones was released into your bloodstream and body and it is quite possible that you felt the resulting fatigue from what your body perceived as having already undergone a workout-like stressor.
Thanks for the comments, obviously will not drink 6 cups again.
Looking at what I ate during the day and concerned maybe not eating enough carbs, from 8am to 4pm had 200grams of carbs which is typical for me. I should be at 400 grams for the day and there is no way I ate 200+ grams of carbs post run.
bump
My opinion: it was a coincidence. Not knowing what your workouts were over the last few days, and without knowing how much sleep you've gotten over the last 48 hours, it was probably a coincidence. You just had an off day.
Long term: no negative effects. That being said, I wouldn't drink a cup of coffee an hour for 6 hours straight, but 1 or 2 cups is probably okay
i drink 4-6 cups of coffee most days. never have noticed a negative effect on running. sometimes i think has even helped me maintain focus on workouts.
Caffeine is as close to a miracle drug as their is. There have been many, many studies trying to link it to all types of bad things, and they never come out conclusive at all. If there were severe downsides to it, it certainly would have come out by now.
The upsides are well known. It makes you more alert and focused. Gets you going. I believe coffee is the #2 most consumed beverage in the world after water. If it was killing people we'd know by now.
I tend to run at about 5:30pm most days. I don't think I ever have a bad run when I grab an afternoon cup of Joe at about 4 - 4:30 beforehand.
Experiment with the timing and volume. 6 cups was probably too much of a good thing. For me, a nice strong cup maybe 90 minutes before a run definitely improves how I feel.
1) everything in moderation - drink 4 cups max/day.
2) don't add sugar or cream. black coffee is the best.
I had similar things happen after using caffeine. I built up the tolerance for it that I'd have to drink so much to stay functional in the office that I'd come up lame in the run later that day. So I got onto crystal meth and it's all better now, again.