I used to take caffeine pills about an hour before road races when I was in college and I took in no other caffeine at that time. It really hyped me up. You have to pee a little more but it was worth it. The biggest downside? Pacing. Very easy to blow thru the first mile way too fast unless you constantly say to yourself, "Slow down, run easy, relax." Even in an 800 I'd be holding back on that first lap. Good luck!
Used to drink a cup b4 football game sin HS. Not a lot, just 12 oz or so. Got my motor running big time.
Never tried it with track. Just seemed counter-intuitive to me b/c I wanted to try and race hard, but relaxed. Seems like most other posters have had + experiences with it tho.
In retrospect, I don't like the idea of a growing kid using any addictive stimulants and caffeine is without question, addictive. See no huge harm if used in moderation tho.
Hi OP, high school coach here: I'd be ok with an athlete having a cup of coffee before a race. I always drink a fairly large coffee about an hour before races of any distance. The only potential negative would be if your stomach can't handle it or it makes you need to use the restroom. So that's something to be aware of.
With that said, some people are saying 100-300 mg of caffeine prior to racing: this is a high school runner, please be more responsible. At 300mg of caffeine + a hard 800m, you are starting to risk heart attack, etc. Any more than that would simply be dangerous.
Good luck this season!
Please double-check your state athletic regulations. In some states, such as the one I coach in, energy drinks (such as Red Bull, Monster, etc.) are illegal for athletes to consume.
While coffee is NOT on the list of illegal energy drinks, are you crossing into a gray area of fair competition of consuming an outside substance for the sole purpose of athletic improvement?
Then, as someone mentioned earlier, there is a chance of health issues of elevated heart rate with the consumption of coffee.
Just think about fairness & health as you fully consider your competition decisions .
Hi,
I never even considered the thought of cheating. My main idea was to decrease me anxiety before races and just feel pumped. I do not think pills are safe for me at least and am rethinking the decision to even have coffee.
OP, I think you are making the right call. They also make gels with different amounts of caffeine that could be an option, and most likely not against regulations. However, I will say, if your goal is to decrease anxiety, caffeine is not a good choice. Caffeine elevates the heart rate and for me (and others) can increase anxiety.
My advice is to create a routine you can repeat that will help you become relaxed before you race. For some athletes, that is listening to music. For some that is joking around with friends. For some that might look like quiet meditation, focusing on your breathe and visualizing yourself running a strong race. Positive mantras, etc. all of these are helpful tools to get your mind in a state where you feel fired up naturally.
Best thing I read for such distances was to drink a small mixture of water with Sodium Bicarbonate. Will help mitigate lactic acid buildup.
Javman wrote:
Best thing I read for such distances was to drink a small mixture of water with Sodium Bicarbonate. Will help mitigate lactic acid buildup.
CAREFUL with that one... sodium bicarb can be a laxative is the right quantities
Wally11 wrote:
Hi,
I never even considered the thought of cheating. My main idea was to decrease me anxiety before races and just feel pumped. I do not think pills are safe for me at least and am rethinking the decision to even have coffee.
A nice middle ground here would be the old school way: drink a flat coke a half hour before your race. There’s enough caffeine in there to get whatever you are looking for.
The other very safe choice is a gel (Gu or other) in the same time range.
Caffeine is one of the only safe and legal substances shown to have an effect on endurance sport performance. It is NOT cheating, full stop. It’s used (in safe doses) across the board from amateur runners to pros. The reason Monster and other energy drinks are banned for student athletes in some areas is due to the potential for abuse - kids would drink 5 of these things (which is dangerous no matter what) to get cranked up before a football game and then wind up having medical problems. As long as you are not dumb about it, there is no reason to avoid it.
That being said, don’t do something that makes you even more nervous. If you are having trouble with energy before races, another problem might be lack of sleep, or you might be low on calories. Think about those things, too. Mess around with your pre-race routine, lock yourself on the bus with motivating music cranked up on your headphones. Figure out what gets you ready to crush it.
If it feels like an anxiety thing, caffeine will probably make that worse.
Basically half of the population have a high tolerance to caffeine and can reap its benefits with few negative effects, the other half has a low tolerance and is very sensitive negative effects.
Cuppa Joe is just fine. Just remember to pee before the race!
I wish I'd drank coffee before the indoor high school meets, which startec at 9am. I was a meat eating lad and was constipated of mornings. Jesus H. Christ, I wish I'd had a cuppa Joe before those 9am mile races, coulda gone faster if I'd pinched a loaf first!
Yup, if you ever want to hang a rat before the race, just knock down a cuppa joe or two! Soon you'll be stocking the lake with Brown Troutd
Get a cup and get on with it...
How exactly does caffeine and the raising of your heartbeat improve performance?
Obviously it does, but it confuses me a little, because isn't the basis of improving fitness, lowering your heart rate while running at the same speed?
I mean - does it increase your maximum heart rate during a race? Your ability to stay near your maximum heart rate for longer during the race?
Yes, all elites I know drink a good amount of coffee before races, it will improve performance.
But doing it as let's say a 17-25 min male 5k runner to improve performance is a joke. Drinking coffee just to get 3s faster when they could just be training more or harder and shave off minutes to run in the 15s or 16s is the wrong mentality.
Coffee isn't a Getafix elixir - it will drop a few seconds in a longer race, but the real improvement occurs with training.
Also Magness made a great point - to get most out of coffee, ONLY drink it on your long run and workout days. Otherwise the body adjusts to it and it won't have the strong effect anymore. But again, I think this is overkill, if someone really likes coffee he should drink it every day and not worry that it won't act as the boost anymore on race day.