It’s the end of an era. Two weeks ago I made the rash well-thought out impulsive decision. Get my brief, shaky justification here. Basically I committed myself to yet another challenge without fully understanding my reason behind it. But over the last two weeks I’ve come up with a succinct, well-reasoned response that should at least appease the most fervent skeptic.

Here’s the deal: I was tired, pretty much all the time. I know why, too. Go to bed late, wake up early to run, repeat. So I had coffee to compensate (like most of the human race). Well the coffee became part of the norm, and my tiredness incorporated the coffee in its calculation. What I mean is, the coffee was now part of my normal tiredness, and not a boost. With it, I’m at “normal” always-tired level. Without it, I’m a certified zombie. There was no more “feeling refreshed and energized”.

So my plan (and I use the word “plan” loosely) was to remove coffee from the routine, effectively unlearning it from my body’s tiredness. Then, as I saw it, when I reintroduced coffee: bam, instant boost! I decided to hold out for two full weeks to make sure the caffeine dependence was sufficiently detoxed. Wouldn’t you know it, though, on the last coffee-free day, I was strug. a. ling. Useless and barely awake. But I held strong.

And so today I enjoyed my first cup of coffee in 336 hours (but who’s got a timer running on his computer counting. With that all realized and making sense (at least to me), my new routine will hopefully involve only drinking coffee as-needed, rather than everyday just-because. We’ll see how long that holds up…