I have heard that caffeine (a small cup of strong coffee), is good to give you a bit of en edge if say you are off for an hours run. Anyone know how this works, or how true it is?

 

 

 

There's actually quite a bit of evidence for it.  Many bike racers use caffeine before a race.  however, I wouldn't just do it before a regular workout.  It's more effective if your body isn't used to it.

It certainly gets me through the day!

There is really good evidence for this.  The caffeine fires up the metabolism, and increases time to exhaustion.  People also use this as a fat burning tool, but it has to be done judiciously - you can't just expect to drink lots of coffee and lose weight - you'll just end up wired and cranky!