Should You Do a Caffeine Fast before a Race?
Once the first half marathon or marathon is completed, many runners shift their goal from “can I run this distance” to “how fast can I run this distance.” With the goal of running faster, we runners strive to optimize every aspect of our training. A sound training plan, good nutrition, and a smart race day strategy are all key to improving as a runner. The desire to become faster can focus on the very small details of these areas, such as a fat loading phase, beet juice supplementation, or a caffeine fast before a race.
One question I hear again and again from the runners I coach is about caffeine fasting before a marathon. First-time marathoners and Boston Qualifiers alike have inquired if they should abstain from caffeine before a race in order to run their best marathon. Is it worthwhile for an age group competitor or recreational runner do a caffeine fast before a race?
What is a Caffeine Fast?
Caffeine, particularly coffee and tea, is perhaps the most powerful legal performance enhancers for endurance athletes. Caffeine not only helps you feel more awake and alert on race morning; caffeine reduces perceived effort and improves running performance.
A caffeine fast before a race, especially a marathon, is a typical practice amongst elite runners and is becoming more popular in the ranks of age group competitors and recreational runners. A runner abstains from coffee, tea, and other forms of caffeine (including chocolate) for one week leading up to a race. He/she breaks the fast and consumes caffeine on race day and experiences enhanced performance from the caffeine.
Some of the practices of elite runners that have dripped down to the recreational level are valuable for all runners, such as doing a majority of your runs at a truly easy pace and eating enough food on a high-quality diet. Is a caffeine fast one of those practices that is worth recreational runners adapting before their next race?
Personally, I have never done a caffeine fast before a race. I’ve been a daily coffee drinker since the age of eighteen, so the idea of a caffeine fast before a race sounds miserable. The combination of the taper and pre-race nerves can be rough – why add caffeine deprivation to the equation as well? I have never attempted a caffeine fast because no finish time is worth a loss in productivity or altered mood for me.
The theory behind a caffeine fast is that habituation to regular caffeine consumption makes you less sensitive to caffeine’s effect, therefore also diminishing the performance boost from caffeine. The body does certainly adapt to caffeine consumption as the brain becomes less sensitive to caffeine’s effect. Habitual coffee drinkers, for example, need to drink more coffee to feel alert compared to non-coffee drinkers, who may feel jittery after just half of a cup.
A 2002 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology on the timing of caffeine ingestion before exercise found that non-users experienced greater improvements in exercise time to exhaustion and felt the effects of caffeine for longer than compared to caffeine users (all subjects ingested 5 mg of caffeine per kg of bodyweight). In order to get the maximal benefits from caffeine on race day, the one must be a caffeine non-user – at least for a week.
Does A Caffeine Fast Really Work?
Recently, the Journal of Applied Physiology published a study on the impact of habitual caffeine consumption on the performance response to caffeine. The researchers behind this study sought to determine the efficacy of a caffeine fast through one of the most rigorous studies yet. They divided 40 cyclists into three groups: low caffeine consumers, moderate consumers, and high consumers. Each group then performed three separate time trials: with caffeine, with a placebo, and with no caffeine.
A majority of the athletes saw significant improvements in their time trial with caffeine than with the placebo or no caffeine. Some athletes didn’t see any difference or negatively responded to the caffeine – but those individuals were not isolated to one of the control groups. A minority of individuals do not respond well to the combination of caffeine or exercise, regardless of their normal caffeine consumption.
In the majority of athletes who saw improvements in their athletic performance from the caffeine, the moderate and high caffeine consumers saw the same percentage of improvement in their performance as the low caffeine consumers. The study concluded that habitual caffeine consumption does not make a difference in the performance boost of caffeine. So, if you love your daily cup of coffee and want an extra boost on race day, you can still keep drinking your coffee as normal.
Should You Do a Caffeine Fast?
Ultimately, every runner responds to stimuli differently – including caffeine. The advice I always give my runners to consider how they function without caffeine. The side effects of a caffeine fast include headache, irritability, and drowsiness. If you struggle without a daily cup, then know that a caffeine fast will not have a noticeable impact on your race times, but it will have a noticeable effect on your daily life beyond running.
Always be mindful of the placebo effect with any type of supplementation. A caffeine fast may not make a difference in your body’s response to caffeine, but your belief in the caffeine fast might lead to a beneficial effect.
If you do choose to try a caffeine fast, do not do so before your goal race without practicing it in training or before another race. Reducing your caffeine tolerance to that of a non-user could result in experiencing the negative impacts of caffeine such as lightheadedness, dizziness, or GI upset.
Most of all, remember that when an elite runner does a caffeine fast, it is because seconds matter for their success in a race – and therefore their paycheck. For a majority of runners, your livelihood is not determined by the time on the clock of your next race. And most of all, remember no caffeine fast or supplementation is a replacement for training hard.
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Have you ever done a caffeine fast before a race? How did it affect you?
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41 Responses
Ive never done one, but Ive read about it and considered it before my last marathon. I gave up coffee for Lent a few years ago, and the first few days were challenging. I really enjoy my morning coffee and don’t think I would try giving it up before a race.
I think there’s a huge difference between giving up coffee for Lent (and possibly still being able to have tea?) and giving up caffeine for a race – there’s a deeper reason for Lent which makes it easier when the lack of caffeine is hard!
I’m not a huge coffee drinker. I’ll have it every so often but it’s not a daily thing for me. I’ve had caffeine before a race and had it totally back fire on me as being a performance enhancer so I’m always hesitant to have some before now. It makes sense that a fast would work!
I can imagine caffeine backfiring when the body isn’t used to it! There’s already enough that can go wrong on race day so hesitancy is understandable.
I think the key here is to practice it before your goal race week–because if you go through horrible withdrawals and get no sleep or horrible headaches or whatever for the entire week leading up to your goals race, all the extra boosted effects of caffeine in the world aren’t going to help you make up for that week of misery!
Definitely practice it – the adverse effects would not be fun to discover on race day. And yet that would be the hardest part – practicing a caffeine fast randomly!
Caffeine Fast?! Those are harsh words, haha! I usually drink my normal caffeine in the days leading up, then 4-ish hours before race, if possible, have a couple cups of coffee (allegedly caffeine this early is best timing for glycogen sparing effect) and then another caffeine product about 30 minutes before race for alertness and energy.
That’s interesting about the glycogen sparing effect – I should see if I can find a good study on that! It sure sounds better than giving up caffeine.
I’ve read a little bit about this and wondered if it works. Like you, I have quite a coffee habit so giving it up the week before would be crazy hard!
It would be so hard! Not worth it in my opinion.
I haven’t done one but I’ve heard they’re a good idea and I wouldn’t be against it, although I don’t run races often enough to try it out. I’d have to do it for a hard workout long run or something and I don’t want to give up coffee just for that. Ha ha!
It would be a big pain to give up coffee for just a long run!
I don’t do a caffeine fast, per se, but I do try to drink just a little less green tea — which is normally my only caffeine source (along with chocolate, of course) before a race. Sometimes I’m so busy I don’t remember anyway.
I do take a caffeine supplement before a race (chocolate, of course). Does it really work? Or is it a placebo? I’m not really sure, but it doesn’t hurt me so I’m sticking with it.
Caffeine supplements are shown to work on most people – although there are some people who don’t respond to caffeine! But with something like caffeine, if you feel like it works, then it likely is!
I haven’t done one and don’t really think I would consider it… the extra boost I get would definitely not make up for the misery of going without my morning coffee 😉
I consume so little caffeine (half of my coffee is milk) that I am not even sure that I would feel the difference… but I guess theoretically, for caffeine sensitive people, I could see the potential benefit (but ONLY if they don’t have horrible ‘withdrawal’ symptoms the week they’re doing the fast).
The extra boost definitely would not make up for the misery without coffee, no matter how much one drinks in the morning! I’m also a big believer in not changing routine before a race – if morning coffee is a routine, it’s good to stick with it through the taper.
Give up my caffeine? Not likely! Plus, at this point in my running life, any improvement I’m going to get will come from a little more dedication to my training, not caffeine deprivation.
As a side note, last year a did a challenge with a mineral water: For one week, drink only natural mineral water. No wine, coffee, tea, etc. While I was worried most about giving up my wine (yes, I’m that person), that was a piece of cake. After a few days without coffee though I had a steady headache that wouldn’t go away. I figured a little caffeine was better for my health than overdosing on Tylenol, so I gave up that part of the challenge and enjoyed my coffee!
I definitely agree that caffeine is better than pain medication! I also agree with you that most training and racing improvements will come with more dedication to training or nutrition, not deprivation.
This is very informative. Personally, I wouldn’t do a caffeine fast. Like you, I’ve been drinking coffee daily for years. The times I don’t drink coffee for a day or two I end up getting a headache. If I were to attempt a fast, I would have to do it slowly to wean myself off. And frankly, I don’t care that much. 😉
Thank you! Weaning off would be so hard even – that’s such a long time without caffeine!
I’m a daily coffee drinker, but I doubt I get the 5 mg/kg that study used on an average day. Maybe half that? It seems likely that just having more caffeine than usual on race day would have the same effect for me as a caffeine fast.
I do think it could work that way also – without all the nasty side effects!
I’ve never even heard of a caffeine fast — shows you how competitive I am! I probably wouldn’t try it; at the risk of TMI, I think I’d be worried if I gorged on caffeine the day of my big race, I’d be racing to the port-a-potty instead of towards my PR! 😉
I think that would be a very common fear – losing tolerance to caffeine can affect more than just performance!
This all makes total sense. I don’t do coffee, but have a chai latte’ every morning. Not sure how much caffeine is actually in the chai, but I drink it more for the taste than for a “boost.” The placebo effect sounds valid, as well 😉 Things that make you go Hmmmm…
The placebo effect is powerful!
I definitely couldn’t do it because I wouldn’t be able to give up my coffee for a week! lol. I guess we see where my priorities are. ha
Running isn’t the first priority! Elites can give up coffee because running is their job – there’s no need to be productive during the taper.
I can’t believe I’ve never heard of the caffeine fast before! I’m glad I don’t have to give up my coffee. I wouldn’t want to be more cranky during an already nerve wracking taper period.
There’s no need to make the taper worse than it already can be!
Oh man, I don’t know if I could live a week without caffeine…it was miserable enough to have to reduce my intake when I was pregnant, haha.
I can imagine reducing caffeine for nine months is hard!
This is so interesting! The thought of a caffeine fast never occurred to me. I could go without it pretty easily, but I truly enjoy my morning cup of coffee (and it has lots of benefits outside of alertness for me!).
Enjoyment is an important factor as well – especially as recreational runners, there’s no need to take enjoyment from other areas of life.
I actually haven’t heard of this. So interesting! I didn’t consume caffeine during my first marathon training cycle because I didn’t want to rely on it for energy, but I didn’t consume it on race day either. I might have to give this a shot.
You’d want to try caffeine in a few long runs, but it very well could give you a huge boost on race day!
I have never tried a fast and I’ve run some races without having any, and some with a cup of coffee, and I have a hard time knowing if it helps because there is so many other factors like heat, heavy legs, etc…that make an impact.
I am not a person that usually feels a boost from caffeine unless I am extremely tired and I try to be well rested before a race.
A large body of research supports the notion that caffeine helps with running and racing, even in the heat, but a big caveat is that some individuals are less responsive or even non-responsive to it. Different people respond differently to caffeine!
I’m actually doing a caffeine fast right now! I’m running the Steamboat Marathon this Sunday, so will not have had any coffee/caffeine for a week once I get to race day. The first and second day of the fast sucked; I was foggy and tired by noon. I’ve had coffee every day for basically eight years, so this was hard at first!
BUT I’ve been sleeping great. So this has been a good experiment. I’m excited to see what happens Sunday.
Good luck at your race on Sunday! That’s awesome that the caffeine fast helped you sleep better; I did not think of that possibility in writing this post, and it is potential result of drinking less caffeine throughout the day.
The second study seems to be useless, despite being touted as “one of the most rigorous studies yet.” The participants only did a 24-hour fast, and this article itself recommends a fast of “at least a week.” Of course there would be no appreciable difference between heavy, regular, and moderate drinkers for such a short fast!