Caffeine Pills

lfc_westy

Okay before we start. I DID NOT KNOW THEY ARE A BAND SUBSTANCE.

i bought some creatine and got some free sports 200mg caffeine pills with it .. so i decided to take one about 10 mins before i left for an interval ride today...

bottom line is i was alot faster up the hill climb and in the sprint at the end ( later end of a 2 hour ride ) than i was on near enough the same route last week. I left my friend for dead on the hill and i was about 3 inches away from winning the sprint ( he is a v fast sprinter and unbeaten locally in club sprints and he won 3/4 road races for our club against 2 ex pro's )

I am curious to know if such a dramatic increase is possible .. i want it to be an accumulation of all the training ive done over the summer then after 4 days rest my body has caught up with it ... I took it because i was feeling a bit tired and i was interested to see if it worked.. it never crossed my mind on the ride that it could be the pill but who knows..

Livestrong say large doses can give a 6% muscular endurance increase .. but this was only a 2 hour ride and it mainly increased power..

Heres ride data for last week

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/107711140

And todays slightly shorter route

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/109300787

i aim to do the same route tomorrow to see if there is any decrease/no change/ increase in performance with no caffeine

I am a member of bikepure and i believe in sport .. now after my friend told me on the ride they are band i will not use them for any form of competition on any level as its misleading for myself and it also untrue and unfair.

any comment is accepted unless you just want to slate me off.. Im 17 and naive and i mean i got them for free so who wouldn't be curious?

amaferanga

Caffeine isn't a banned substance and 200mg is only about two cups of coffee worth. Many energy gels contain caffeine even. I bought 100g of caffeine from myprotein and sometimes add some to my pre-race drinks.

neiltb

probably a lot to do with a 20 mile less ride, average speed was the same, bpm similar. You probably felt like you had more energy as you'd used less. As above, it was only about 2 cups of coffee worth, not commenting on the banned or not.

Maybe your training is working?

StageWinner

Band = a group of people playing musical instruments or singing together.

Banned = is what you meant to say. And no, caffeine pills are not banned. (Although there was a time when a certain amount of caffeine WAS banned in competition. Not out of it)

lfc_westy

Sorry i forgot to mention the Difference was on the First climb so if you look at the Elevation profile it was equal distance and at that point equal energy levels etc and sorry for the Spelling Error StageWinner :-P

danowat

Placebo effect?

jp1985

Caffeine and creatine are actually two supplements that have substantial evidence to support there use But someone may want to tell the company you bought them from that high caffeine intake negate the effects of creatine. Oh and creatine won be of much benefit to endurance at all, it aids recovery between maximal efforts.

Livestrong say large doses can give a 6% muscular endurance increase .. but this was only a 2 hour ride and it mainly increased power..

Power over 2 hours is the same thing as muscular endurance

StageWinner

lfc_westy wrote:

Livestrong say large doses can give a 6% muscular endurance increase .. but this was only a 2 hour ride and it mainly increased power..

Not saying it is wrong, but I would take anything said on the Livestrong site with a grain of salt. They seem to want to promote things that have very little genuine benefit to 'serious' cyclists. And anything that can help make them money.

Anyway, as has been said, creatine probably isn't a good cycling supplement. It'll add unnecessary weight.

lfc_westy

Yeah Livestrong seem to think themselves higher than WADA in some cases, and Creatine helped last year when i peaked and i didnt notice a massive change in base weight, just more taught muscle mass... [/quote]

lfc_westy

okay to clear things up i know what creatine does and i have used it before i just was curious about the caffeine .. but thank you anyway :')

ozzzyosborn206

it probably helped you a bit, its the same as 'coffee legs' when after a coffee stop you feel awesome, but also if you have been training hard and then had a rest you would expect to feel good too