Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Caffeine Taper: Detox/Fast


With Ironman China only seven weeks away I have to focus on one thing and one thing alone - my caffeine taper. Swimming, cycling and run training are relatively trivial.

The coffee dependency has spiraled out of control in recent weeks. I knew I had hit bottom when I returned from Seattle and woke up in night with headache and had to brew some coffee in order to fall asleep.

Starting today I will begin the long, dark road back. My goal is to cut back from the 500ml of caffeine per day (five 8-ounce cups of coffee or 2.5 tall Starbucks coffees) I am drinking to zero by the end of March and sustain until the week before China IM.

Since I am cutting out coffee, I might as well cut out beer and food (most) in March as well, and totally detox and see how I feel. That part should be easier.


3 comments:

  1. you have just made me realised that my consumption of caffeine is about the same as yours..4-6 mugs of (relatively weak) black coffee a day!! no wonder i dont sleep well so far!! You have inspired me once again!

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  2. Well, it's 5:20 AM here and I'm only on my second mug of coffee so I don't think I read this correctly. You're going to give up coffee? Just so you can sleep and not get headaches? Are you sure that's a good idea?

    Congrats on your Oyama run!

    Pete

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  3. Thanks for the nice note Pete.

    Sleep and no headaches are nice - but other real benefit is the extra boost I will get from caffeine when I start drinking coffee again.

    Wish I could make it out to Boston Marathon and Maine.
    Jay

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