Caffeine withdrawal is really unpleasant. My headache was even worse than before when I woke up this morning and I totally caved. "I'm getting an Excedrin," I moaned to my husband and stumbled off zombie-like to find one. (One Excedrin tablet has 65 mg of caffeine. I suppose drinking coffee would be more enjoyable, but I thought I'd cover all the bases in case something else was contributing to my headache.)
I'm going off on a tangent here, but bear with me. There definitely seems to be a connection between running and caffeine. I never used to drink coffee except on weekends, but over the last few months, I seem to have a coffee cup in my hand every time I turn around. I particularly enjoy a nice cup of coffee after a run, and it may even boost glycogen replacement. Runner's World agrees with the glycogen-replacement angle and adds a few more benefits to the list.
On the other hand, there is at least one study showing that caffeine reduces blood flow to the heart during exercise, and William Roberts, the "running doc" who had a blog on runnersworld.com until recently, cautioned people very strongly from consuming more than 200 mg of caffeine the day of a race. He felt that some of the sudden deaths that were occurring at races (such as the three deaths at the Detroit Marathon in October 2009) may have been triggered by excessive caffeine consumption. Of course, many gels have caffeine in them. I wonder if that is really such a good idea, given what Dr. Roberts wrote.
But anyway, back to the 65 mg of caffeine I downed this morning in hopes of killing off my headache. They took a surprisingly long time to kick in, but I really started feeling human again around noon and decided I was going to go and run. The temperature had climbed to a truly stupefying 51 degrees, and the sun was shining for the sixth (!) day in a row. What to wear, what to wear...I finally settled on a short-sleeve tech shirt and the new Brooks capri-length tights I bought at REI way back in Georgia over Christmas. The weather has been so bad that today was my first chance to actually wear them on a run.
I also got to take my new contact lenses out for a spin. Let me just say that clear peripheral vision is a very nice thing to have.
I was careful to take it slow and easy and felt very not-worn-out at the end. It was a beautiful afternoon and I didn't mind staying out in it for a few minutes longer. I covered 4 miles in 44:29 for an 11:07 pace per mile.
Now the rain is moving in and I have a huge batch of split pea soup cooking up in the crock-pot, but I definitely squeezed every possible bit of enjoyment out of the sunny stretch we've had.
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