Don’t do caffeine, kids. Needless to say. To kids, the taste of coffee is awful. As a child I never understood why my parents drank coffee – let alone look forward to it. Now, 15 years later I am converted. Coffee is there to wake me up and I am there to wake up for coffee. My love for coffee is two-fold: the love for the taste of coffee and the love for caffeine.
The latter is problematic. For a long time, I have tried (and managed) to limit my caffeine intake. I kept caffeine for races and only allowed myself coffee on study or work days when I really needed the boost. But this turned out to be a sliding scale. Unconsciously I lowered the barrier to drink coffee. I moved from races only to races and key training sessions to all training sessions in general. And if I had the coffee before my training session anyway, why not another one at work after training?
“I did already have 2 coffees before my morning training, the third after lunch doesn’t really matter.” ~me
At this point I have reached a stage where I am literally craving my morning coffee every day. And yes, not having it does lead to occasional headaches. I do have one rule still and that is no coffee after 3.00 PM. But then there is e-racing (Dun Dun DUUUUUUN!).
I have mentioned it a few times in earlier posts that I am an elite e-racer. This means that I am riding my bike indoors and compete in virtual races against riders all across the world. Something I do with great pleasure and passion. The only downside: races are often in the evening. To perform at my best, I do have quite a lot of caffeine pre-race. On a typical racing evening I would have 1 or 2 energy drinks (they tend to be easier on the stomach than coffee) pre-race and another drink or caffeine gel during the race. So ~200mg of caffeine at least.
So much for the no caffeine past 3.00 PM rule. Yes, I have gone down the caffeine drain.
But how bad is it?
Purely looking at the evening races? It’s bad. Caffeine and HIIT late night is the perfect recipe for sleepless nights. I can’t sleep until 3 hours after a race and the sleep that I do have is very light. Research shows that HIIT in general can greatly improve sleep quality, but it is better to avoid late night HIIT sessions. Training late? It is best to keep the intensity low to moderate.
Same for caffeine. Caffeine has many positive effects on your performance and cognition. But stay away from it in the evening. It comes as no surprise that caffeine does mess up your sleep. The closer to bedtime large doses of caffeine are consumed, the greater the reduction in total sleep time. Research showed that:
To avoid reductions in total sleep time, coffee (107 mg per 250 mL) should be consumed at least 8.8 h prior to bedtime and;
A standard serve of pre-workout supplement (217.5 mg) should be consumed at least 13.2 h prior to bedtime.
Well, whoops…
Luckily, you can build tolerance against the effects of caffeine. This will probably make you sleep better. Or you will just find yourself having more and pushing you further down the caffeine drain.
Don’t do caffeine, kids. *Unless you want to ride your bike, fast.
Did you like this post, please share and subscribe! Want to know more? Check my prior articles about the effect of supplements on performance and sleep tracking.