Red Bull, or stimulant drinks and energy gels?

Go for it. It's basically the same as coffee. Takes 30-45m for caffeine to peak in the bloodstream for most people.

why not wrote:

Go for it. It's basically the same as coffee. Takes 30-45m for caffeine to peak in the bloodstream for most people.

Actually, it is not the same as coffee.

You may see the same caffeine, but people will chug the red bull, but sip the coffee.

Also, Red Bull, Monster, et al, have additional ingredients (ginsing, guarana and more) that react in the body to help it absorb the caffeine quicker.

My usual used to be coffee a couple hours before the race then a gel with caffeine after my warmup for longer races.

Bro - Mama wrote:

Also, Red Bull, Monster, et al, have additional ingredients (ginsing, guarana and more) that react in the body to help it absorb the caffeine quicker.

I seriously doubt any of these products have sufficient quantities of the active alkaloids in those herbs to make much of a difference for anything beyond product marketing, but thanks for the heads up.

Personally I think the main benefit of a stimulant drink before a race is that it gets various processes kicked off that you want to take care of well before you toe the line. Plain old coffee does the job quite nicely!

GivesYouWingsBS? wrote:

Would it be just dumb to take a red bull 20 min before a 10 k and also an energy gel?

Probably. It's not EPO.

It might work against you depending on how it reacts in your body. If I use too much coffee, I can't relax and focus on a pace quite the same way. That's me.

So Redbull and in particular rockstar/monster make you feel more energetic that just coffee. Or jittery. They also make me piss like a racehorse. I don't like feeling jittery.

Two shots of espresso feels like a good balance.

Do not experiment with carbonated drinks combined with gels at a race. That can f*ck you up.