Caffeine has multiple benefits for runners, including reduced perception of effort, increased focus and concentration, and delayed time to exhaustion. In short, caffeine lets you run harder, longer, and faster before experiencing fatigue - boosting endurance by up to 6%.
It’s important to note that, whilst caffeine is beneficial for 90% of us when it comes to performance, for around 10% of people it can actually have detrimental effects. It’s therefore important to try caffeine before using it in a race to see if it works for you.
Assuming you’re someone who benefits from caffeine, nailing your caffeine intake for a 10K race depends on two main factors: how you plan on ingesting your caffeine, and how fast you’ll be running.
Let’s take a look at each of these factors in turn.
(Heads up: the next few paragraphs are pretty maths-dense, but that’s because we want you to have all the information to make an informed decision. If you want to outsource the number crunching, we’ve built a Caffeine Calculator that builds a personalised plan for you. Take a look here.)
Ingestion Method
The science shows that chewing is the best possible way to ingest caffeine for athletes. That’s because of something called buccal absorption - a fancy way of saying ‘through the gums’.
When you chew, caffeine is absorbed through membranes in the mouth directly into your bloodstream, bypassing your stomach. This results in a caffeine kick in as little as 5 minutes. For comparison, a cup of coffee, or a caffeinated running gel, can take up to 45 minutes to hit.
Caffeine also peaks in your bloodstream faster when you chew, reaching maximum concentration in as little as 40 minutes vs 80 minutes for drinking. Which brings us on to our next point…
2. Goal Finish Time
The breadth of finish times in the 10k - from sub-30 at the elite end through to well over an hour at the back of the pack - mean the caffeine requirements of athletes taking part will vary substantially.
For faster runners who are aiming for a time under 40 minutes, a single dose of 80-100mg of caffeine taken near or just before the start of your race should be enough to carry you through, assuming you are chewing your caffeine as is optimal.
If you’re this fast, the time it takes for caffeine to peak in your bloodstream is roughly the same as the length of time it’ll take you to complete the race. So there’s not necessarily any need to ‘top up’ your dose mid-race.
However, if you’re likely to be slower than 40 minutes, we’d recommend a second dose somewhere around the 4-5km mark (2.5 to 3 miles.) This will kick in as you approach the second half of the race, peaking towards the finish.
Why Caffeine Bullet?
Most runners aren’t making use of caffeine effectively, because the vast majority of caffeine products are packed with sugar and slow to act, relying on gut absorption which can take up to 25 minutes to kick.
Caffeine Bullets are formulated specifically for athletic performance. Tasty, lightweight, and easy on the stomach, they’re available in two delicious flavours.
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MINTense (100mg) |
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ChocoLIT Orange (85mg) A perfect blend of dark chocolate and orange zest. |
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