How and When to Use Caffeine In a Long Distance Triathlon
A lot of athletes might already be aware of the basics of sports nutrition; consume carbs for energy and protein for repair… But it goes a lot deeper than that!
Caffeine is a natural stimulant that can incredibly improve your performance. You just need to know when to use caffeine in a long-distance triathlon, and I’m here to guide you through that!
What is caffeine?
When I say caffeine, I suspect most of you think of coffee. It's probably the most famous, most used and arguably the most loved by triathletes worldwide.
And yes, coffee contains caffeine, but so do many other plants!
Caffeine is a naturally occurring substance found in over 60 plant species, including tea leaves, cacao beans and guarana.
It's been consumed for centuries for its stimulating effects when people realised that it made them feel more awake and alert.
This is actually due to caffeine's ability to block adenosine receptors in the brain. Adenosine is a neurotransmitter that promotes sleepiness, and blocking it leads to increased alertness, improved mood, and enhanced cognitive function, which would all come in handy for peak performance.
While caffeine is a stimulant that could certainly aid your performance, there are other nutrition strategies like carb loading, which would also make a huge difference to your triathlon performance.
The benefits of caffeine
Caffeine is one of the most researched supplements for exercise and training and it has been shown to enhance endurance performance by 2-4%.
This might not seem that impressive, but over the course of a long-distance triathlon, those percentages can translate into some major time saved.
For instance, knocking off 30 minutes from a 14-hour race is massive and could easily be the difference between a podium finish or smashing through your previous personal best.
There are 4 primary mechanisms through which caffeine enhances performance:
1. Reduction in Perceived Effort: Caffeine affects the central nervous system, reducing the perception of effort and allowing athletes to maintain a higher intensity for longer.
2. Increased Fat Oxidation: Caffeine enhances the mobilisation and utilisation of fatty acids as a fuel source, which helps spare glycogen stores. This may be beneficial during Ironman events, where glycogen depletion can be a limiting factor.
3. Improved Neuromuscular Function: Caffeine can improve muscle contraction efficiency and delay fatigue, contributing to better performance in endurance events.
4. Enhanced Focus and Alertness: Caffeine improves cognitive function, helping triathletes stay mentally sharp and focused, which could help with decision-making later in the race and mental positivity.
The nuances of caffeine
While it's great to think you could use caffeine to get some pretty badass performance benefits, there are some intricacies that you need to understand to properly leverage its benefits.
Half-life of caffeine
Understanding the “half-life” of caffeine is super important because it will guide how frequently and how much you should use it during racing.
The half-life is the time it takes for the concentration of caffeine in the body to reduce by half, which is between 6 to 8 hours in most people.
However, individual variability can significantly influence this, so it might be different for you, but I’d suggest using this number as a benchmark.
I'll discuss how often to consume caffeine, but the first question should be how much caffeine you need to get the endurance performance benefits.
This is important because you want all those awesome benefits while minimising the chances of developing any side effects.
Dosage recommendations
The recommended dose is 3-6 mg of caffeine per kg of body weight. If you weigh 70 kg, you should aim for a total intake of 210-420 mg of caffeine.
You can check out the average caffeine content of commercially available food and drink in this article.
So, the important thing to highlight is that more is not always better. Getting closer to 6mg of caffeine per kg of body weight or above will just increase the risk of side effects like jitters, increased heart rate, anxiety, and gastrointestinal upset.
I advise experimenting with different doses while training to find what works best for you without causing negative side effects.
If you're in the 3-6mg per kg range, you can be pretty sure you're getting the benefits even if you don't always notice a specific difference.
It's likely working away in the background for you without you having to experience all the potential troubles.
Practical examples
Before we jump into practical examples of how to use caffeine during your Ironman race, just a heads up to say I cover caffeine and everything else you need to know for racing long distance triathlon in my triathlon race nutrition workshop.
It's a 90-minute workshop in which I discuss the most effective strategies for helping you race faster, finish strong, and minimise stomach upset.
It's been watched by many triathletes and has received a lot of positive feedback. You'll get access to my customisable race nutrition template, my ultimate carb loading plans, and my perfect breakfast guide, all designed to make your next Ironman your best yet.
Incorporating caffeine into your race strategy involves optimising both the timing and dosage of your use.
I'll give you a practical example, but please be aware that there's more than one way to do this.
This is just one way I've used with triathletes that has worked really well, but you can try alternatives.
Pre-Race Intake
About two hours before the race, I recommend you have a strong cup of coffee or around 200mg of caffeine. The aim is to get into what's called the therapeutic window, which is within that 3-6mg of caffeine range.
About 15 minutes before the race, have a gel with around 100mg caffeine to pump up your levels to get you through the swim,
During the Race
During the race, the aim is to consume enough caffeine to counteract the half-life of caffeine.
Roughly halfway through the bike, take 100-200mg of caffeine, which will give your caffeine levels a big boost.
Then, halfway through the run, take another 100-200mg of caffeine, which will keep you going until the end.
Now, you absolutely could just start consuming caffeine later in the bike or run and not take any before that if that's your preference. Rather than taking 100-200mg of caffeine in one go, you could take frequent, smaller doses, such as 30mg every hour.
There's no specific right or wrong answer here. It's really individual and based on how well you tolerate it and your preferred strategy.
You can also choose whatever source of caffeine you want.
Caffeinated drinks, gels, chews, tablets, and even gum all work well to provide a source of caffeine.
If you want the quickest hit of caffeine, then caffeinated gum is the best choice. You absorb the caffeine through what’s called the buccal route, which means you miss the digestion and absorption process through your gut. It’s super speedy, with peak caffeine levels within about 15 minutes compared to 45 minutes if you use something like a tablet or gel.
Habitual caffeine use
I get a lot of questions on my Nutrition Triathlon YouTube channel and through email, and a common one is, “Do I need to stop drinking caffeine in the run-up to the race?”
The answer is no, you don't.
You can continue drinking caffeine before your race, and let's be honest, you're going to want to because if you don't, you'll get caffeine withdrawals and feel absolutely rubbish!
There's no strong evidence that you need to reduce habitual consumption to get the benefits, so it's not something I tend to advise unless you're drinking about five cups of coffee a day, in which case I'd tell you to drink less regardless of racing.
The downsides of caffeine and tips on how to avoid them
While caffeine can be a powerful performance enhancer, it's not without the potential drawbacks. Common side effects include tremors, a high heart rate and every triathlete’s nightmare: stomach upset.
To minimise the chance of this, practice your caffeine strategy during training sessions to identify your tolerance level and any adverse effects.
When you do this, try to keep everything else the same so you can isolate the effects of caffeine.
By that, I mean have the same pre-session food and carb amounts, and only change the caffeine levels.
If you get this nailed, you can unlock those performance gains through caffeine, which can be so helpful for bringing your Ironman times down.
Now, caffeine is just one part of racing. You really need to think about other critical nutrition aspects, like carbo loading and a race nutrition plan. Read up on those to learn how to take your triathlon racing to the next level!
