No, nobody died, but after about 10 years on the stuff, I've decided to stop drinking coffee. Went cold turkey last Sunday and I'm surviving. I never drank coffee when I was younger (always preferred tea), but when I moved to LA in 2000, I started drinking it a lot. I think it was the combination of working for a record label, publishing
Vendetta magazine, trying to start my own record label, and DJing that left me needing a stronger kick than tea was providing. But now that I've taken up competitive running again, I've found that coffee has its pluses and, lately, too many minuses. I love the boost caffeine gives me before a hard workout or race, but on the down side, it's been messing up my stomach too much. When I was much younger, I was diagnosed with
ulcerative colitis, and, while I have been mostly in remission for the last 20 years, certain stimulants like coffee and too much alcohol can trigger things. After having some up and down days since the Meteor 10K in early April, I'm starting to feel much better, and definitely looking forward to some good races this summer. For the time being, I'm keeping my training volume a little lower than usual, focusing on 2-3 optimal workouts a week and doing less than normal on recovery days, until I feel 100% again.
