How important is the ritual of the morning coffee for INEOS TEAM UK?
Very. It is normally the first thing that the majority do as they walk into the building. It is a great place to discuss developments in performance and also just to generally catch up. It’s a big team and without the coffee area we might not see each other all week!
What kind of role does coffee play when it comes to the team’s performance at Sea/Land?
Coffee as a stimulant plays a large role in both long boat development days as well as intense race days across on water operations. Caffeine can be a hugely beneficial supplement when you understand how to apply it.
From a health point, coffee is naturally high in polyphenols, a compound (specifically flavonoids) that when ingested by humans stimulate favourable changes in the body. In Aidan Goggins’ book (INEOS TEAM UK nutritionist), ‘The Sirtfood Diet’, he mentions the ingestion of polyphenols and how they activate our stress-response pathways – our sirtuin genes that produce cellular resiliency. We know that due to the nature of training and competing being both volume and intensity driven, our population of athlete is at greater risk of free radical production (cellar stress) impacting the immune system. As such, coffee among other sources becomes an easy win for keeping athletes healthy.
For performance coffee certainly plays a key role. Caffeine helps to make fatty acids more readily available from adipose tissue to be potentially used for energy through fat oxidation.
It’s important to note that this is an adaptation that is multifaceted and needs to be targeted over time to be effective and does not necessarily equal fat loss as commonly thought.
When trained, this added availability to mobilise fatty acids into the transport chain for energy can decrease or delay the onset of lactic acid production at certain workloads further increasing efficiency and time to exhaustion during maximal exercise as well as decrease an athlete’s perception of effort.
Are there any myths that could be dispelled?
‘Caffeine is rapidly absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract and peaks around 45 minutes’
Caffeine has a half-life of between 2-8 hours depending on individual absorption rates and quantity taken. A half-life is the duration of total quantity to reduce by 50%. For example: if you consume 200mg at 1300 for some individuals, you’re essentially having 100mg at 2100 before bed.
Without measuring it’s almost impossible to know how much caffeine is in your coffee, it depends on many variables such as the bean, how it is roasted, how you drink it and serving size. You could multiply the grams of coffee from 0.8-2.2. A good estimate is between 125-142mg per double shot.
Normal circadian rhythm (sleep-wake cycle) wakes us in the morning by elevating a stress hormone called cortisol from the adrenal glands, that peaks 30-45 minutes after waking and naturally drops off every hour until we go to bed. Meanwhile, adenosine, the key mediator to sleep, is at its lowest when we wake and builds every hour until we go to bed. Coffee inhibits this cycle by binding to the adenosine receptors and releasing more cortisol from the adrenals further delaying the sleep cycle.
Do you have any tips to maximise coffee for more sustained focus with less ups and downs?
- Try maintaining consistent sleep and wake times.
- When you wake, drink 1L of water. If possible, add a vitamin C tablet with iron & sodium to help absorption and rehydration, supporting the immune system and brain function.
- Get sun first thing to help the natural hormone production, exercise if possible.
- Allow the cortisol to peak at 30-45 minutes (naturally stimulating) and after at least an hour look to have your first coffee with some food for a consistent uptake.
- Aim for intervals of 4-6 hours stopping roughly 8 hours before planned bedtime and within that time swap to a lower caffeine green tea or instant coffee (40-80mg) if needed.
- Increasing body temperature (tea & warm shower) & reduced blue light will help trigger the onset of sleep hormones.
Are there any major differences between the team’s community and inner culture when located at Portsmouth vs Auckland?
It’s an interesting question and I think you could have a few different answers based on who you ask, their perspective and role within the team. For me, I believe there is a noticeable difference and I think it comes down to three factors. Location, building and time.
We have all moved away from home and people we miss to a location with one purpose, to win the Americas Cup. Intrinsically, that creates a dependence on one another as an extended family and you know everyone is in the same boat.
The building and culture are not often discussed but will have big influence. One thing that is consistent across every base is the coffee machines location. In Auckland, we have one that’s central to every department and being only two stories over four in Portsmouth, it creates a greater frequency to interact with everyone. Those short interactions across departments can often allow for conversations or perspectives so far from our own expertise that it moves us forward our thinking process. A problem can’t always be solved with the same mind that created it.
Time also influences culture in interesting ways. Work will always expand to time allocated to it. As that time has reduced and competition has started the energy and focus across the team has certainly increased.
