The coffee experiment, revisited

Once upon a time I didn't drink much coffee. Then we got a French Press and fell in love with good coffee. The only problem with that is that it becomes easy to drink too much coffee. For a while at Penn West I was drinking too much and tried to cut way back, too much too fast. I started getting some headaches that went away as soon as I drank some coffee. I experimented a bit and found that a cup at home, plus a cup brought from home in a nifty little travel thermos was perfect.

It turns out lots of habits change when you stop working. Who knew? The two cups still happened, but often both at once. Then sometimes there was a coffee after a swim or a run, or coffee with a buddy. We were out for a swanky brunch buffet on the weekend, and I drank their coffee like I'd never have it again.

Then I realized my sleep has been crap for the last little while, and decided it was time to take myself in hand, or rather take just my mug in hand. It's been a cup and a half only since Sunday, and I'm sleeping like a rock. Yay! So that will continue for a while. I think the better sleep will help the fitness.

What's your experience with coffee affecting sleep and fitness?

I'm bumping up the fitness stuff a bit, mainly trying to build consistency. Right now it's swim and run, and I'll add in the bike soon. Swims are typically 500 m then a bunch of 100 m intervals at CSS pace. For today, the 500 was 8:50, then 7x100 on 2, max at 1:45, and most were 1:43. This has been pretty typical. Then 100 fast (trying to keep up with Ed the Repsol swim coach), 87 seconds. Then some backstroke to cool down.

Running has been going well too, spending some time on the treadmill, wearing my heart rate monitor again. So yesterday:
-1.1 K brisk walk to warm up
1.3 K easy run to warm up more
On the treadmill, 5 min at 7:30 pace with HR steady at 125. (this could have gone on for a long time, till I was thoroughly bored.)
5 min at 6:00 pace, with HR steady at 140 (I'm not sure how much longer this could have gone on, but a while anyway.)
2 x 2 min at 5:28 pace, HR at 146 first time, 143 the second time. (My legs were starting to come apart, and my breathing was really hard, I'm pretty sure this is right up at the top of the aerobic zone, maybe even into anaerobic.)
Cool down a bit on treadmill, then another 700 m or so walking on track to cool down.

It felt surprisingly good, and my legs have felt really good since. I was on snowshoes about an hour and a half today, but I was getting tired at the end. Not like I was plowing through a ton of snow, it was pretty hardpacked. West Bragg Creek is nice.

Sunrise the other morning was lovely, though I missed a good one today.

I'm getting ready to count up and publish the score for the bridge photos, probably tomorrow. If you want to take a look and have your opinion counted, visit and comment.