For the first time in a long while I have been caffeine free for 7 days.
I had developed habits of drinking coffee or matcha tea every other day or every few days. Sometimes multiple days in a row.
I believe that caffeine makes my decision making worse as it gives me artificial enthusiasm and focus on things. I think I am still in the caffeine withdrawal phase, but I’ve been rethinking a lot of the areas I’ve been working on.
Caffeine is a major boost for endurance sports like my cycling though. I had primarily been using caffeine as well as high cacao chocolate for my cycling races. I finished second in the zwift classics out of thousands of people in my category a couple of weeks ago. I took a couple of weeks off to build my shed and recover from the efforts I put in in that race series. Now that I’m going back to cycling, I feel like I’m a lower tier C rather than being an elite C without caffeine. Mostly I’m guessing it’s my motivation as well as the layoff. Hopefully my enthusiasm rises again as the caffeine withdrawals subside.
I’m not sure if I should stick with this long run or not. My wife has said that I can be meaner when I’m on caffeine. I have a tendency to over obsess on certain things.
Paradoxically, I think I’m actually more productive without caffeine although I generally don’t enjoy the work or lose myself in it as much. I am able to keep a calm head and focus on the things that matter and not go down tangents or get distracted.
Last night, I started rethinking some of my bigger goals and priorities that I hadn’t really questioned in a while. I think that this is important and I am glad to do it.