Triathletes use caffeine or caffeine products coupled with plenty of fluids to improve their performance.
Belgium triathletes Sarah Piampiano and Sam Gyde believe caffeine helps them in long races like the Ironman. The Ironman Championship is a 2.4-mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bike ride and concluded with a marathon.
In such an event, triathletes need to be well-prepared and consume plenty of liquids and eat lots of energy bars. But most widely caffeine is used among many to enhance their performance.
"While I'm racing, caffeine is actually a pretty important part of my day, particularly in the Ironman, where it's such a long race," Piampiano, a professional triathlete said in a report published by NPR health news.
Piampiano also explains how she manages consumption of caffeine in the right way which helps her in a way.
"Before the race, I typically take one gel that has one shot of caffeine in it, and then when I get onto the bike, each hour I take one shot of caffeine," she said.
In the last part of the marathon, Piampiano increases her dose to two shots every 20 minutes. Each shot is 50 milligrams of caffeine.
Matthew Ganio, director of the University of Arkansas Human Performance Laboratory explains how important it is to take the correct amount of caffeine.
"Caffeine has been well-known to be a beneficial drug to use during sport," he said. "It's been studied for many years over a variety of different types of sports; it will improve your performance. The general consensus is 3 to 6 milligrams per kilogram of body mass, and it can be quite a bit. The example being, an 80-kilo individual needing 6 milligrams per kilogram body mass - that's four strong cups of coffee."
Gyde admitted he's a heavy caffeine user.
"I have a very busy life and a very busy work, and I train a lot, so I just drink lots of coffee so I am naturally very caffeinated," he said. "During training and racing, I use gels, which contain caffeine, and it's not with any purpose."
