Coffee before a race

It depends on you. Everyone has different bodies reacting differently to coffee. Personally I wouldn't do it.

But Mo Farah took a shot of espresso before his 2012 Olympic 10k race.

Worked well for him.

Coffee doesn't work well for me though. Makes me dizzy and jittery, plus it has diuretic effects.

With no scientific evidence to speak of I limited myself to a small a ll cup of coffee race mornings. Just enough with lots of water and juice to wake up and swallow down my p-butter, banana, and honey toast.

Thinking coffee is a diuretic ( ?) and will not help with hydra t ion. (On top of the beer from the night before!) And the old thing about coffee letdown.

Never knew whether that worked.

a 5 hour energy 20 minutes before a race is one hell of a boost, that's for sure.

A cup of coffee before a short (5K or 10K) race works for me. But one time I had a cup of coffee before a marathon, then started eating caffeinated gels during the race. The large amount of caffeine had such an intense diuretic effect, I was peeing non-stop during that race. It cost me a lot of time and was annoying as can be. I think I would have preferred dehydration with the inability to urinate over the pee-pee parade that race turned out to be.

Now, before a marathon I make sure my morning coffee is at least 2 hours before race start and make sure to avoid caffeine during the race.

I always drink coffee.

My last marathon I drank 2 cups 2-2.5 hours before. Worked fine and get's the stomach going.

I drink a cup of coffee as soon as I wake up to purge the bowels before I run. I've trained my body to clear everything out within 30 minutes of that first cup.

I'd soil myself if I didn't drink coffee before a long run or race.

Wow. Crazy that this thread got brought up again! I drink coffee nearly everyday and in the early morning to loosen up the stomach mainly. It gets me going for workouts too. Just have to make sure you’re hydrated enough.

I have quite an addiction tbh, I try to lower my intake. On race day I always go for the espresso double shot. Gets me going! Thanks for the replies.

Green tea first thing in the AM....makes me alert, no palpitations, great cathartic. I still think caffeine will make you alert but not faster. It is a diuretic too.

Which one do you recommend? The Kenyans swear by it. Must be the healthier option, also the caffeine crash from coffee is not ideal.

GettingFasterDude wrote:

A cup of coffee before a short (5K or 10K) race works for me. But one time I had a cup of coffee before a marathon, then started eating caffeinated gels during the race. The large amount of caffeine had such an intense diuretic effect, I was peeing non-stop during that race. It cost me a lot of time and was annoying as can be. I think I would have preferred dehydration with the inability to urinate over the pee-pee parade that race turned out to be.

Now, before a marathon I make sure my morning coffee is at least 2 hours before race start and make sure to avoid caffeine during the race.

Caffeine's diuretic effect is thought to be pretty weak... I'm guessing you just drank too much water, before or during