I didn’t start drinking coffee until my mid 30’s. Micheal Engleman, my friend and a team mate on Wheaties-Schwinn, pretty much mainlined it when he was living with me in Boulder, but I never drank it.
The first time I drank coffee seriously was before a NORBA National in Spokane Washington. Paul Biskup, a friend that I’ve known forever, raced with me on the Levi’s team, and was working for SRAM at the time, insisted that I drink a double espresso right before the start of the race.
That was it. I finished 5th and felt pretty incredible the whole day. Now, I have no idea if the coffee made me feel that much better or if I was having a great day to begin with, but it started the consumption of mass amounts of coffee.
I never never race without drinking coffee before the event. I don’t necessarily drink espresso before every race, but I definitely drink coffee.
I drink black tea in the morning when I wake up. I’ve always done this and I just don’t feel like drinking coffee first thing. But when I’m going to be moving, coffee is the hot beverage of choice.
I was thinking of this yesterday when working. It almost seems more important to drink coffee when I’m doing other physical labor more than riding. I drank a ton of the stuff a couple years ago when I put that rubber roof on the building for two months. It was every couple hours on the hour. Building this fence is the same way. My energy level is normally good for a few hours in the morning and then starts deteriorating. A couple cups of coffee spaced out through the afternoon makes the productively quite a bit more.
If I was sitting around and doing non-physical labor, coffee wouldn’t work. I have to be doing something physical. I sometimes drink coffee when I’m driving, but it’s not a necessity. Driving is just about the least amount of physical exertion I can do and still not be jittery from drinking coffee.
I’m starting to get more and more into the snobbishness of coffee for some reason. I don’t know why that is because I have virtually none of it concerning wine. But hanging with the guys at the Flying Monkey/PT’s Coffee, it kind of rubs off. I have to put a stop to it, because it’s not in my personality to be concerned about silliness like that. It should be, if it tastes good, then it is good. Enough said.
These guys sell coffee and bikes in Europe.
Speaking of coffee and cycling, I just displayed my coffee bag cycling art in Salt Lake City’s Coffee Garden at 9th & 9th and in Park City Coffee Roasters for sale. Art features images from racing to leisure cycling imagery. Check it our on my website. I do custom work, too.
i always wonder whether i count as a “guest” or a “bot.” my caffeine use makes it even harder to determine, i suppose.
Anything that comes in that size cup that’s not a cappuccino is called acqua sporca (dirty water) here in Italy. Never could drink that stuff so didn’t drink any caffe until the first visit to ITALIA way back in 1989. Now we have a Gaggia espresso machine at home in the USA along with a backup unit that we can also take on car trips, plus another one here in Italy. Just bought a case of ILLY iperespresso capsules at a local bar today in fact! There are far worse things to be addicted too…..right?
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5015/5457501696_d553f03549_o.gif
Hi Steve, to add to your enjoyment of coffee, i create art on coffee bags. I just hung a few art pieces in a coffee shop in Salt Lake City this morning, great place, the Coffee Garden, across the way from a bike shop and local sunday group rides from Contender bike shop. If you want to check my art out it is on my website. Cheers! -Megan
Great F-ing coffee cup BTW.
The stuff will seriously dry out your joints when used long term at the levels described above. This is not a jones that you want to take into your sixties, that much I’m flat sure of.
(Steve’s racing performance over the last 15-20 years notwithstanding, of course!)
I suspect that drinking coffee and busting your ass doing construction when you weren’t just training period is better than drinking that much coffee sitting at a desk and then not getting to sleep at night. I was an eight cup a day man for years.
But I had organic food store hippies tell me for years that quitting coffee would be more effective than all the anti-arthritis stuff I was taking back then and they turned out to be right as rain. I just this month bought my first new bottle of glucosamine in years.)
Quitting coffee for good eight years ago was like getting two free knee surgeries’ worth of wear out of my old cartilage-seriously if you are facing any kind of chronic joint pain issues, cut back your coffee by 75 percent and try to tell me that it doesn’t make a difference?
I’m CERTAIN that I wouldn’t be skiing or playing hockey today if I had stayed on the stuff.
If you want good coffee follow these guidlines:
2 days after the roast.
good quality water.
proper coffee to water ratio.
correct steep time(press)
The most important is correct water temp. IMO hte best brewer is a nice press. As far as I know the only drip machine that brewa at the proper temp is the Technivorm.
I forgot to add a quality burr grinder.
I will brew a pot of coffee on Sunday morning, drink a cup, and put the rest in a container in the fridge. Then throughout the week if I want a cup I pour myself one and stick it in the microwave. Works just fine for me!
We Mormon bike racers consider coffee an illegal drug.
Old and Slow, I have never heard anything about coffee and joints. Is there any research to back this up? I would think you would have to drink a lot to mess your joints up. Coffee is my only vice and not sure I could/would give it up.
in response to double d….
no need to get a technivorm. just get an old norelco dial a brew. $10 = 1,500 watts = 25 more watts than a $250 Technivorm and they look awesome. i find them cheap on cl all the time and give them to my coffee snob friends only to blow their minds
I’m going to look for one then adn try it.
To Jody…
I have to agree with “Old and Slow”. I recently went from a pot-a-day, down to a cup-a-day because I suspected coffee to be the reason for my aching knees. (I’m 54 next week.) When people asked me why I cut back so, they all thought I was crazy when I told them. But you know what? My knees don’t ache any more.
Yes… I just had knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus. But I’m not talking about the occassional “hot ice pick stuck in my knee” feeling. The surgery took care of that. I’m talking about the constant dull arthritis-type achiness… the feeling of being older than I am. That is completely gone after cutting back on the coffee intake. I wish it weren’t so… because I love to drink coffee. I’ve just learned to use some moderation.
My right knee has a ache for years I stand at wor and riding seems to help should I consider surgury