impact of alcohol

Legendary story confirmed by all. Rono was hungover and a drunk racing a clean non-drinking Catholic Alberto Salazar, running 27:21 to defeat Salazar, beer belly and all. They had to pull Rono out of a hotel in a stupor to race.

I don’t think you’d find someone disputing that Rono was an alcoholic. Nor that he was an amazing runner who put up stellar performances.

I believe the point is that even when you take those two facts together, that doesn’t necessarily demonstrate “zero” effect on performance.

That would be not wholly unlike saying that turning to the side and gesturing to the crowd 80m into a 100m doesn’t slow a person down because Bolt did it and still won a gold medal and set a world record.

And the remark about counterfactuals is that no one knows for sure what Rono’s career would have been like if he hadn’t abused alcohol (even though it appears that much of his problems came after his best running). And one certainly cannot make assumptions to claim “zero” effect.

Of course, it’s fairly reasonable to assume a number of better outcomes for him without those problems as part of his life.

This is Coach. I’m pulling the plug on you.

When I was drinking a lot (30-40 drinks a week easy) it honestly didn't effect my running that much. I woke up everyday fairly hungover, but nothing a couple glasses of water and a few cups of coffee couldn't solve. So by my lunch run, or after work, I was just fine. Where it gets weird is when it comes to the psychology around punishing yourself when you're drinking that much and using hard training to justify it. Which is what I did.

After about 5 years of that, getting into the 100+mpw range consistently, I turned myself into a pretty decent functionally alcoholic runner. The only days where I knew it could impact me was race day with early morning start times. I always had to have 4-5 drinks at night to deal with my anxiety (all alcohol induced) and fall asleep. So I was always worried I wouldn't be rehydrated by the race start. But I usually pulled it off.

Once I stopped running regularly, that's when things got off the rails with alcohol. And it got REALLY bad. And there's no way I would have been in that spot if I didn't use running to justify/offset my alcohol use. So my point is, yes, you can run and train and do both pretty damn well while drinking. And in my case, drinking a lot. But all you're doing to delaying the inevitable with having to face your real issue. So my advice would be to face that while it's still your decision alone. Not when your life is crashing down because of it and you have no choice in the matter.

You'll be fine. Obviously, drinking hard a week before a race isn't ideal but it doesn't have that much of an impact as you think, at least not to me nor other competitive runners I've known.

Some real-life examples I and others I know have experienced: 8:35 3k two days after getting black-out drunk, a 1:15 half marathon 7 days after drinking two nights in a row for a friends wedding (one night on the excessive side), 15:18 5k after having a few beers during a round a golf less than 48 hours before the race. The 3k was was the only aforementioned that took place under the age of 30.

Everyone is different, sure, but as long as you over-hydrate, get back your rest, drink an adequate amount of electrolytes and maintain a clean diet, you'll be fine. Don't overthink it and focus on having a good week.

In college we'd always drink 12 beers the night before a 24 mi run for the 24hr challenge. Many of those runs would close with 5-8 miles at 5:30-45 pace which was blazing for mere d3 babies like us. Our theory was that if you were being responsible and not constantly binging during the season, then you don't have the cumulative negative impact of alcohol, and the constant carbo loading right up to a few hours before your run may actually be mildly beneficial. But sometimes the challenge lined up with somebody's early indoor 3k, in which case they would do absolutely terrible.

moral of the story: beers before marathon, run like an amazon. beers before track race, you'll yak on your face

When I was in my early to mid twenties I could do it all while drinking alcoholically. Hit the wall pretty hard a couple years ago though, a night of heavy drinking can definitely derail a whole training plan if I’m not careful (missing workouts).

I drank gambled and chased fast women for half my life. The rest of my life I wasted.

It's obviously not going to be good for you, but I used to drink very heavy during my season and still saw success in the 800 and 1500.

The drinking itself won't cause too much of an impact as long as you get enough sleep and make sure you don't get too dehydrated (lots of fluids before, a little bit of water mixed in throughout the night, and a Gatorade before you go to bed)

You’ll likely run faster as result of letting yourself indulge a bit.

The impact of alcohol is that it makes everything feel better.

It also relieves stress and makes you feel darn good.

unless you last name is kipchoge, it doesn't matter.

One effect from NOT drinking- I'm 66 and I've always drank socially. My girlfriend wanted to get pregnant so she quit drinking. I did too in solidarity with her. Since December I've lost about 6 lbs- from 140 to 134. I'm not doing anything different and I don't "look" like I lost weight. My doctor says it's from not taking in those empty calories.

66 is kinda old to be knocking up your girlfriend Pop's.

Just remember alcohol is toxic to the body. It damges every vital organ especally the liver. Even just three drinks can cause the liver to swell and consistant moderate drinkng creates scar tissue in the liver. Make sure that you understand these negative impacts if you have the desire to be intoxicated.

You don't know me so don't assume. My doctor says that I'm at least 20 years younger than my chronological age.

Good genes, running, working out, and healthy diet. I love it.

That seemed to be true for a good while. But then it led to obesity and early death, both of which had a profound impact on his performance.

(I support using alcohol in moderation. Avoid in puberty if at all possible.)