Cup of CoffeeThis weekend sees the first of the long training runs for this November’s New York City Marathon. These long training runs are good opportunities to test new race strategies ranging from what to eat for breakfast before the race, discovering if you can tolerate NSAID’s with exercise, or finding which energy gels or drinks you can stomach best. This weekend I’m going to be introducing caffeine into my pre run diet. Since 2004, caffeine is no longer banned by the World Anti Doping Agency, and many sports products have started to include it.

Sporting Benefits of Caffeine

Consuming moderate amounts of caffeine (3-6mg/kg Body Mass), 60 minutes prior to exercise has been shown to enhance performance during prolonged, sub maximal exercise, and during short bursts of high intensity exercise. It has been consistently shown to reduce an athlete’s rating of perceived exertion and the reporting that exercise feels easier.

Caffeine can stimulate the Central Nervous System and reduce the perception of effort so you feel better and can increase push yourself harder or for longer. In both time trials, and exercise to exhaustion tests, caffeine has been shown to improve performance and delay the onset of fatigue, but benefits varies between individuals, another reason you should try before using caffeine in a competition.

Caffeine has also been shown to improve an athlete’s ability to maintain performance during repeated bouts of high intensity activity, by improving mental processing important to sport alertness, concentration, reaction time, focus. Improvements have been seen with concentrations of just 1-2 mg/kg Body Mass.

Caffeine Side Effects

Caffeine has been reported to produce minimal adverse effects, but include insomnia, headaches, dizziness, flushing, tachycardia (rapid heart rate), trembling and gastrointestinal distress. Whilst these symptoms are caused by the effect of caffeine on the Central Nervous System, they are individual in nature which is why trying caffeine should be trialed in training prior to use in competition especially if you aren’t used to consuming caffeine on a regular basis.

When ingested in high doses (greater than 500 mg per day) for use in sport, caffeine can have side effects. Consuming too much caffeine may reduce the performance benefit due to reducing your sensitivity to caffeine. As a result, caffeine is best used as a performance aid in competition, and not regularly in training except in the right circumstances such as a tough training session.

Whilst caffeine is a known diuretic, (generally at doses exceeding 9mg/kg Body Mass), if it is consumed just before or during exercise it doesn’t affect known markers of hydration. In moderation caffeine also has no effect on thermoregulation during exercise.

How Much Caffeine Should You Consume?

3-13mg/kg Body Mass caffeine is suggested to improve endurance performance. For someone weighing 60kg this is around 180-780mg, although unless you normally consume a lot in your diet, there isn’t much benefit reported with more than 3mg/kg.

Caffeine is found already in many foods and drinks so you may not need to supplement your diet that much, although here are some common caffeine sources:

  • 40-100mg in cup of instant coffee
  • 60-150mg in brewed coffee
  • 40-50 mg in 12oz cola drink
  • 100mg in 2 tablets of caffeine tablets such as Pro Plus
  • 80mg in 250ml can of Red Bull
  • 80mg in 500ml of Lucozade Sport with caffeine

It is recommended to consume caffeine 1 hour prior to exercise to allow the caffeine to peak in the blood stream. However, caffeine is likely to start to exert an effect within 15 minutes and therefore consuming a caffeine drink or supplement at the start of exercise could still have a beneficial effect as long as the duration of exercise is longer than 45 minutes.



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