ThatAverageRunner wrote:
Caffeine is a legal performance enhancer. End of thread.
Agreed. Some supplementary info based on my understanding of how it works as a performance enhancer:
Everyone reacts to caffeine differently, it's genetic. Some people may find it very helpful, others might feel too jittery/anxious. You can also build up a tolerance to caffeine pretty easily, as well as an addiction. Don't feel the need to start using caffeine if it makes you uncomfortable. I typically only drink one coffee a day (home brewed carefully to about 150-160mg, just to wake up and because it tastes good) except on race days where I will have maybe a slightly bigger cup, and then some run gum right before the race.
About 150mg of caffeine is about the ceiling of what will enhance your performance. You can check the packaging of most energy drinks/canned coffee drinks/caffeine-containing bars/gums for the amount of caffeine they have, it'll be in the fine print, sometimes on the ingredients list if it's an energy bar with like, green tea extract or something. If you chug a huge starbucks coffee (about 400mg) that will enhance performance but also may make you jittery, so you are better off with less - most of a small starbucks coffee, or a large red bull, or a 5 hour energy, something like that.
The performance enhancement is small. It basically only makes you perceive the effort you are putting forth as easier than it actually is, in a way helping you push just a little harder. If you are perceiving a 100% race pace effort as only 99% race pace, you're going to feel like you are ready to be able to push just a little harder that last quarter mile or whatever, and it certainly should already be in your wheelhouse if you are running a reasonable effort (like, if you are a 4:20 miler, shooting for 4:16, you're not gonna be able to go out in 60 and feel fine, but you should be able to hit those 64's and they'll feel like closer to 65's and you'll feel a bit more "ready" to kick hard the last lap when it comes around.