Aug 28, 201208:55 AM

A local volleyball player digs into the South Bay’s beach scene.

i take mine with a little bit of cream

on any given morning, i'd much rather set my alarm to a less comfortable hour and make a cup of coffee than use that time to sleep in. i wholeheartedly enjoy going through the motions of making a perfect cup--grinding the beans, boiling the water, steeping the grounds and letting the aroma fill the air--up and to the moment where i cradle the heat source in my hands. i chill out before tackling the day ahead. and on the morning of a volleyball tournament, just add ESPN (and up to ten minutes of slathering on sunscreen) and you've got my pre-competition ritual. it's therapeutic. it's redundant. it's my comfort that grounds me and connects me to the rest of my family who are just as nuts about coffee as i am. when we are all together, just talking about where we are going to go to get our morning java turns us on as much as actually drinking it does.

i know that there are many benefits associated with consuming coffee--the pure stuff, not frappuccinos or overly-sweetened, syrupy concoctions. all the research makes me more convinced that a cup (or two) a day keeps the grumpy away. here are just a few snips of interesting information that i've recently stumbled upon that re-ignites my faith in the all-mighty coffee bean. you should be excited, too. 

two is better than one. research shows that drinking more than one cup of coffee daily can significantly improve your health. as stated in the september issue of men's journal:

11% lower risk of heart failure in people who drink two cups daily

17% lower risk of skin cancer in people who drink more than three cups daily. 

and how can we athletes really make the caffeine from coffee count? drink a cup before your workout. eight oz of java 45 minutes to 90 minutes to be exact. the suits do this all the time pre-presentation to boost their alertness and so can we. as the Ph.D in details magazine says, "it takes at least 20 minutes for caffeine to be absorbed, and effects peak about 25 to 70 minutes after that." it's as simple as psychophysiology.

oh, and this won't be the last write-up linking coffee & athletic performance. drink up.