Coffee, and other addictive drugs

Yesterday, I was tired, sore and had a headache all day. Basically, I was in caffine withdrawal. It’s my own fault.

Last week I was tired and struggling to get through training so a few days in a row, I found myself using PhD’s “wired” before the session. That not only has caffine in, but also a bunch of other stimulants – taurine, tyrosine, and some other good stuff. Trouble is, it always makes me feel invincible. I might start out the session feeling lethargic and apathetic but by twenty minutes in, I think I can do anything. Kettlebells? Pah, give me the 20kgs. I’ll show the lot of you.  

Of course, it never seems like such a good idea the next morning when Luis is bouncing up and down on my bed at 7am and I’m feeling like i’ve been repeatedly rolled down a hill in a barrel. Then of course, I have to take a load more of the stuff just to get through that day’s training. Repeat several times, then cap it all off with three days studying osteopathy in Oxford which – between the driving, the early starts and the lectures – usually involves several bucketfuls of coffee.

The trouble is, using stimulants amounts to borrowing from the future. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and the way the human brain is wired, these things tend to balance out over time. Any drug that gives you a high also comes with a corresponding low.

I could just carry on using them. That would make me feel better right now, for sure. But when you do that, it’s like living off your credit cards. You don’t have any more money, you just end up paying a lot of interest.

Caffine is a potent drug. It’s easy to forget that, because so many people use it routinely and become tolerant to it. Used sparingly, though, it’s great for getting through a tough few days, when I need a kick start, or even (within drug testing limits) for competition.

The difficult bit is remembering to pay the borrowing back. After a few days of overdoing it, I have to force myself come off the caffine, and get some real honest rest to get body and mind back to normal. I spent most of the afternoon curled up asleep in a corner of the gym yesterday. With that, and ten hours sleep last night, I feel half human again. Which is about as close as I get…