Straight from Velo news...

http://velonews.com/article/84963/what-about-caffeine-after-exercise

 The results are that taking a HIGH dosage of caffeine with your carbohydrates after training increases glycogen stores in the muscles by 60% over taking carbohydrates alone.  The only problem I see is that Longbottoms will dose out caffeine in 100mg dosages and this study was recommending 700+ mg dosages (depending on weight -> 8mg/Kg, that puts me over 800mg I think)

Of course your milage may vary - and all the disclaimers at the end of the article of course - but I do SO LOVE my morning and post ride coffee... Plus it will do LongBottoms some good since we are using their parking spaces all morning.

I am holding myself out to anyone that wants to study post ride recovery on carbohydrates in solid form vs. liquid form.  I'll be pro liquid

And here I was thinking it was the good conversation. Maybe a two fer?

Well, I say chocolate is better. It has caffeine, plus carbs, plus protein. probably have to drink a fair bit of it to get the required dose, but I for one would be willing to sacrifice myself in the interests of science.

 Thinking about what Richard just said,  what about chocolate milk?  They were handing that out like crazy after each ride on cycle oregon. I couldn't get enough of it and kept going back for more.  It definitely had some sort of boost factor. 

I use a cup of hot chocolate every evening as recovery juice after my ride home. Plus a glass of red wine - for the tannins of course.

Russ Patterson:

 Thinking about what Richard just said,  what about chocolate milk?  They were handing that out like crazy after each ride on cycle oregon. I couldn't get enough of it and kept going back for more.  It definitely had some sort of boost factor. 

There was a study done not too long ago that looked at Chocolate milk as a recovery drink and it showed better recovery than most other drinks. The University of Washington football team was using it as recovery after workouts...but then that's not what I'd call a good example this year :-P

Link to a story on this: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/24/health/webmd/main1342839.shtml

All I can say... nothing like getting chocolate milk at the end of each day during Cycle Oregon. I'll pass on pouncing on my heart with high doses of caffine. Thanks but no thanks!