Coffeeing-Up

 “Coffee is the sweet nectar of life” 

Three things I attribute to drastic positive changes in my running career: 1) Switching from Nike trainers to Brooks, 2) introducing a regular strength routine into my training regimen, 3) Embracing the gloriously dark, heart-thumping nectar of life that is coffee.

Many people see coffee as nothing but an unwanted, unsafe caffeine boost that grabs hold of you and enslaves you for life. I won’t disagree that once you are hooked, you are hooked for life. However, I am fine with being dependent on something as useful, cheap, and easily available as coffee. The day they stop making and selling coffee at every convenience store, corner market, snack stand, and organized gathering of over 10 people, is the day that I will give up running and possibly being a productive human being all together.

Opponents of coffee fail to see the positive nutritional effects of it on physical activity. Not only does coffee increase your heart rate and warm-up your body up for activity; It helps you store glycogen and burn fat more efficiently. Yes, it is a diuretic, and yes it can dehydrate you if used incorrectly. Just make sure that you double-fist hydrate with both coffee and water or a sports drink. Also, leave yourself plenty of time to use the bathroom, which you will have to frequently.

One of my best friends since high school—and my longest legitimate training partner (7 years and counting)—was a huge opponent of coffee. Not only did he have an intense hatred for the taste and a loathing of the smell, he saw no real use in terms of running. Needles to say, he was adamantly against my favorite beverage and we spent many runs bickering about the topic. I’m not quite sure what made him cave, but I received a text from him a month or two ago that read: “ Dude. Drank a cup of coffee. I feel like I can run a 4 min mile. And take over the world.” Beautifully put. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Fam's Alaskan brew- Dead Man's Reach

I have woken up late for a scheduled longrun, forgetting to eat a breakfast, and made it 20 miles up and down South Mountain with nothing to fuel me but a steaming cup of joy. Ryan Hall puts coffee in his pancakes (true fact). Anthony Famiglietti gets Alaskan Coffee shipped to him that he brews only on race days. Even the famed Quenton Cassidy disappeared into the woods with little more than a pair of trainers and coffee pot, and we all know how that turned out. (Disclaimer: Not even coffee will make you run 60 barefoot 400s in 62-63 seconds)

One the biggest proponents of coffee I know is my former college coach. Ironically, he also happens to be the single greatest mind in the land when it comes to distance running, and he himself was one the most accomplished long distance runners in the history of the country. He is the proverbial Godfather of running— if Vito Corleone could run a 2:12 marathon and win a bronze medal at the World Championship. Anyway, he once told me that using coffee the right way could take 30-40 seconds off my 8k time. Now, this is by no means a proven scientific formula and may have been highly exaggerated, but the point is: when an Olympian talks, you listen—especially when you are a young, impressionable freshman. And listen I did. My running career took off and I never looked back… or stopped drinking my liquid stamina.

If you are feeling stiff and asleep for the first half of your morning run—coffee up. If you are having trouble mustering the energy to get in a 30 min afternoon run—coffee up. If you have a tough workout that you absolutely need to nail—coffee up. If you can’t make it though the day of work because you are at the tail end of a 90 mile week—coffee up. If you see it mid-race at a fueling stop—just kidding, don’t coffee up mid-race. Anyone who has been shunning this beverage, needs to wake up and realize the benefits! We need to start a coffee revolution in the running community. Do your part. Make your fellow runner coffee up!