Don't know about that Ed,but I do know that caffeine has far too many bad side effects (anxiety, loss of fluid),and for me that does not balance out any perceived or real performance advantages.
I've always believed that you should use by weight 50/50 caffeine to aspirin. The reason being that the caffeine can contract the blood vessels by as much as 20%(as some recent research has shown) The aspirin dilates the veins back to normal leaving the advantages of the caffeine kick.Any thoughts on that?
I am currently a third year student from the University of Worcester and I am planning an independent study testing the effects of caffeine on regular and competitive cyclists. I was wondering if any members of your club would be interested in volunteering for this study and if could I have permission to speak to your members. I would need 8 males over the age of 18 who would need to complete 3 separate 1KM cycling tests on separate days, with at least 1 days rest in between, in the laboratory at the University of Worcester. Participants will be administered with 3mg of caffeine per KG of their body weight for one of these tests. The first test will be a baseline test, and then the final two will be the caffeine supplement and a placebo supplement. In accordance with the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA), caffeine is a legal supplement but is currently on the monitoring program. Participants will be required not to have any caffeine intake 24hours before each test and participants will not be told when they are supplementing caffeine.
The testing equipment used will require a real bike to be used on this, so participants will have the opportunity to bring in their own bikes to do the testing, giving them a sense of realism and more accuracy as they are using their own bikes which they are used to and more comfortable with instead of using a cycle ergometer. During the tests, the bike which will be linked up to a computer which will measure time to complete a distance, peak power and other factors such as heart rate and rate of perceived exertion will be measured. Participants height, weight, age will also be recorded but data taken will remain anonymous. This testing will be helpful for future reference as to whether caffeine can benefit cycling performance, and may even be beneficial to your cycling club. Would you be interested for any of your members of your club to participate in this study as this would be of great help?
If you could get back in contact with me if you are willing to let your club members participate and then I can arrange with those who are interested dates and times to carry out this study.
