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Abstract
Previous studies have shown mouth rinses (MR) containing carbohydrate (CHO) can improve endurance running performance in events lasting approximately 1 hour. Caffeine (CAF) MRs have been shown to have beneficial effects on sprint performance, but the impact on endurance performance is unknown. The objective of this thesis was to determine the effects of CAF MRs, both alone and combined with CHO, on 12.8-kilometer running performance in endurance athletes. 11 trained endurance athletes (5 men, 6 women) completed 12.8-kilometer timed trials on 4 separate occasions to complete 4 treatment conditions. Although there were small performance benefits with CAF alone and CAF+CHO treatments compared to placebo (water), these differences did not reach significance for the whole group or when analyzed by sex. There was also no performance benefit from CHO MR alone versus placebo. In this pilot study, CAF MRs did not have an ergogenic effect on 12.8-kilometer running performance.