I'm in college and the majority of my team drinks hard and drinks often.
How much does this effect training? Do most runners you know drink?
I'm in college and the majority of my team drinks hard and drinks often.
How much does this effect training? Do most runners you know drink?
not at all, yes
Contrary to the above post, drinking does effect training negatively between 15-35%, which is significant. To avoid these side effects, you need to bypass the liver and muscles while of course still getting plastered. To do this, remove your pants, do a handstand, place a bottle in your rectum, wait until empty, remove. Caution should be used with high proof spirits. Otherwise, feel free "drink" up to 4 or 5 days a week with little or no ill effect.
What team are you on? Just wondering if you guys are any good. Thenk I can tell better if it affects you.
D1 bro wrote:
I'm in college and the majority of my team drinks hard and drinks often.
How much does this effect training? Do most runners you know drink?
Im on a pretty decent d1 team. not national level but we do ok for what we have. a bunch of us hit the booze, most of us being the top guys in cross and on track. year after year keep getting faster. our training doesnt suffer from it. we still get up and get our miles in. more of a weekend thing. a few times during the week in the year. usually after cross. sometimes you gotta have fun because it is not wasting your college experience if you are not going to the olympics. train hard, booze hard, get some girls, run good times. thats how we do it
Qual-it-tee comes in glass bottles.
You are not going to reach your potential if you party every Friday and Saturday night. For one thing, partying every weekend will make it impossible for you to be at your best for the Saturday workouts and/or Sunday long runs. Additionally, you have a high chance of getting hurt during a night of debauchery. Keep in mind that I’m not saying that you have to be a prude, however, be mindful that you only have a short four-year window in college to see how good of a runner you can be. If you use that four-year window to party non-stop, and fail to realize your true talent, you’ll likely regret it later in life.
-your motherly figure (f**k it)
excuse me boys wrote:
You are not going to reach your potential if you party every Friday and Saturday night. For one thing, partying every weekend will make it impossible for you to be at your best for the Saturday workouts and/or Sunday long runs. Additionally, you have a high chance of getting hurt during a night of debauchery. Keep in mind that I’m not saying that you have to be a prude, however, be mindful that you only have a short four-year window in college to see how good of a runner you can be. If you use that four-year window to party non-stop, and fail to realize your true talent, you’ll likely regret it later in life.
-your motherly figure (f**k it)
you also only have 4 years of college to enjoy having minimal responsibilities and the ability to party hard with friends. once you leave college, its not quite the same. so to each their own. you really just have to choose what is most important to you. dont do something because someone else thinks you should.
excuse me boys wrote:
You are not going to reach your potential if you party every Friday and Saturday night. For one thing, partying every weekend will make it impossible for you to be at your best for the Saturday workouts and/or Sunday long runs. Additionally, you have a high chance of getting hurt during a night of debauchery. Keep in mind that I’m not saying that you have to be a prude, however, be mindful that you only have a short four-year window in college to see how good of a runner you can be. If you use that four-year window to party non-stop, and fail to realize your true talent, you’ll likely regret it later in life.
-your motherly figure (f**k it)
Not everyone likes running as much as you.
Looking back at college, it was the time with friends that I look back at most fondly. Not really drinking so much, although there were some fun times there. The ideal would be to party a lot without getting completely tanked.
Forcing yourself to train through a hangover is an additional "stressor" and if you can do it builds mental toughness and increased compensatory adaptive response.
Also, if you buy into Noakes Central Governor theory it helps push your mental boundaries and resets your governor in a way training without a hangover can't.
You are all familiar with Salazar's collapse and near death experience-- whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Same thing as training on an empty stomach, training without fluids, or running in the snow in army boots with your wife on your back like Zatopek.
I have done long runs, even a quick 20 miler, the day after drinking. I have heard that drinking makes it so your muscles don't recover properly and it makes you not get quality sleep, which obviously effects running. Are either of those things true?
"..he washed dinner down with 3 pints of stout." - Cold Clear Day biography of Buddy Edelen who broke the world marathon best the next day running 2:14:28 in 1963. "I ran and felt good all the way."
We did the same thing in college, but we were not on scholarship- I'd stay away from the hard stuff though and avoid major hangovers.
excuse me boys wrote:
You are not going to reach your potential if you party every Friday and Saturday night. For one thing, partying every weekend will make it impossible for you to be at your best for the Saturday workouts and/or Sunday long runs. Additionally, you have a high chance of getting hurt during a night of debauchery. Keep in mind that I’m not saying that you have to be a prude, however, be mindful that you only have a short four-year window in college to see how good of a runner you can be. If you use that four-year window to party non-stop, and fail to realize your true talent, you’ll likely regret it later in life.
-your motherly figure (f**k it)
you can still run and compete after college, but it makes it a hell of a lot harder if you haven't put down fast times in college
Im on a pretty decent d1 team. not national level but we do ok for what we have. a bunch of us hit the booze, most of us being the top guys in cross and on track. year after year keep getting faster. our training doesnt suffer from it. we still get up and get our miles in. more of a weekend thing. a few times during the week in the year. usually after cross. sometimes you gotta have fun because it is not wasting your college experience if you are not going to the olympics. train hard, booze hard, get some girls, run good times. thats how we do it
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http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4337946#ixzz1f6DrZEzP
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I have to say i agree with this guy the most. I ran at a mid of the pack d2 school, and was kind of the outkast for having views such as this. Personally, i have never noticed a decline in my performance from drinkin on the weekends, and honestly, for some reason, most of my quickest, strongest long runs came the morning after being pretty f**ked up. However, im not completley niave, its ignorant to believe that alcohol consumption in mass ammounts wont catch up to you. But like one of the other guys said, if you arent an olympic prospect, lettin loose a coupple times a week and relaxing and mentally taking a step back from running is probably more mentally healthy than we all think. Just my 2 cents...
I think it was Greg Meyer who used to say "The only way to the party is through the race." My team kept that as our unofficial motto when I was in college: we had some legendary booze-fests, except we only ever drank beer and only ever partied at the end of the season the night of our last race. Worked for us.
The seasons where I didn't drink were better then the season when I did. You can probably get away with more during track esp between indoors and outdoors.
I would recommend staying away.
You can drink when you graduate and the last meet of the season, running will never be the same.
Any idea how much top teams and pros drink? I've seen jager tweet about drinking and have heard of a lot of partying at some schools.
jollyroger wrote:
I have to say i agree with this guy the most. I ran at a mid of the pack d2 school, and was kind of the outkast for having views such as this. Personally, i have never noticed a decline in my performance from drinkin on the weekends, and honestly, for some reason, most of my quickest, strongest long runs came the morning after being pretty f**ked up. However, im not completley niave, its ignorant to believe that alcohol consumption in mass ammounts wont catch up to you. But like one of the other guys said, if you arent an olympic prospect, lettin loose a coupple times a week and relaxing and mentally taking a step back from running is probably more mentally healthy than we all think. Just my 2 cents...
I was in the same situation as this guy. I went to a mid-level D2 program in a rebuilding era, so there was even more pressure on us to perform. Being a state school, we were surrounded by parties and drinking, but kept to ourselves and would just have team parties for the most part.
Quite honestly, I would say that in moderation, it actually helps. In a school environment when things can be stressful (esp. being a student-athlete), alcohol was kind of my vice. I lived it up my senior year, drinking 3-4 times a week, and still ran way faster than any of my other years. I think it was a combination of good training and managing my stress. So really, as long as you're smart and not getting hammered 3-4 times a week and not drinking the night or 2 before hard workouts/races, i don't think it has a big effect on you. Unless you're olympic caliber, i'd just live it up.
Junk Master wrote:
...You are all familiar with Salazar's collapse and near death experience-- whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger...
Are you sure that running "to the brink of death" philospohy didn't actually help result in Salazar's total physical destruction? Falmouth, Boston, etc certainly took an immense cumulative physical toll on Al Sal.
Back to the OP,
I suppose people are effected in different ways. You will never know until you try to focus on running and school without drinking to see how your current level of drinking effects you. It's up to you if you want to try.