The mornings are cooling down, and longer runs are getting easier for those runners training for half and full marathons this fall and winter. With longer runs comes the need for fluid replacement, and different runners favor various options that are out there to improve performance. Water is always good; but for a longer run, sometimes it helps to add a little energy component such as carbohydrates, sugar or caffeine.

Caffeine has been said to be a benefit for longer training runs to help utilize the transfer of energy stored in the body to active muscle tissue. A runner can get caffeine in various ways. The easiest is in a pill form, but most of the runners I know would rather get in a morning cup of coffee or hot tea before the run. Drinking iced tea or coffee before the run has a drawback in that if you drink it too long before you go for the run, the urge to use the bathroom hits you just before the starting gun for the race. It usually has to be downed within 15 minutes of the race or the start of the run to be effective.

There was an article in the September issue of the Tufts Health and Nutrition Letter on caffeine levels in various drinks. Aside from coffee and the loaded energy drinks that really push heavy caffeine content, some of the report was a little surprising. For instance, name-brand sodas are more likely to contain higher levels of caffeine than their store-brand counterparts. The researchers from Auburn University made three categories to study: the “colas,” “pepper-like drinks” and citrus sodas. They compared Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew brands against the store versions of those drinks.

The citrus drinks had the most caffeine; and diet drinks had more caffeine than the drinks that had sugar. The biggest jolt of all came from Diet Mountain Dew, with 55.2 milligrams of caffeine for 12 ounces. Regular Mountain Dew was close behind with 54.8 milligrams, followed by Diet Coke (46.3), Diet Dr. Pepper (44.1), Pepsi (38.9), and Diet Pepsi (36.7), and Coca-Cola (33.9) was at the end. Compare this to Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Cola with only 12.7 milligrams of caffeine in 12 ounces.

The problem becomes a little more complicated if you bring in the other ingredients of the fluid. Regular calorie drinks have a good portion of sugar in them. Most are around 150 calories, with 41 grams of sugar included. There are some studies that show that by ingesting sugar before exercise, the athlete’s performance and energy levels will be decreased by as much as 25 percent.

The question then becomes, does the runner want the benefits of caffeine for longer runs at the expense of decreased performance from the sugar of a soda? A diet drink has minimal sugar calories and higher caffeine levels, so that might be a better choice if you are into drinking diet sodas. But on longer runs, once you start your run, sugar is an energy source and will not decrease your performance but will actually help it. Maybe it is best to drink nonsweetened iced tea just before the run to get started; but after five miles distance, maybe try a caffeine-and-sugar soda to see if that will work.

If you are not into drinking your energy, there is the option of the small packets that contain carbohydrate “goo” or chocolate-frosting-like substances and water for keeping that energy level up. Pills might work, but it is tough to swallow a pill on the run; and if your mouth is dry, it sticks to the inside of the mouth and really causes problems if it dissolves in the mouth, as some of that stuff is not very tasty.

Other than that, water is always nice; and on a long run, try a Hershey’s or Snickers bar of candy if you don’t want to spend big money on the carbohydrate energy bars, as if you read the labels there is not that much difference in some of them.

See you at the races; and for the 5K races, wait until after the race to replace the energy part of eating and drinking. Water works great for short distances.