How much does alcohol affect training?

Pro tip of the day: Never take advice from someone that has a sub-par (at best) grip on grammatical nuances of the English language.

Evil Legs wrote:

Pro tip of the day: Never take advice from someone that has a sub-par (at best) grip on grammatical nuances of the English language.

Its "nuance's."

Evil Legs wrote:

Pro tip of the day: Never take advice from someone that has a sub-par (at best) grip on grammatical nuances of the English language.

My grammer grip doesn't effect my advise. I know the dangers of alcohol and how it effects running to. Please mind you're own business. I am just trying to help the running community.

Great post. It's probably good for me to mention here that I'm not necessarily recommending a six pack a day for running recovery nor am I saying that a lot of beer will improve your running. It didn't do much for guys like Neville Scott or Henry Rono. I would say that drinking will affect your running negatively at about the same point it starts affecting the rest of your life negatively.

i'm drinking write now

I don't want to sound like a kill joy. But it is having a pretty big effect on your recovery. Straight after you exercise your body to a high standard, it wants minerals, protein and rest.

The alcohol effects how your body metabolism works and will effect your sleeping.

Training is really simple. Train hard, rest, Train hard, rest.

Recovery is really half the equation.

it will start to affect you more noticeably around 30 years old. right now, if you stay hydrated and get enough sleep, you are invincible.less alcohol will allow you to train better though.a wise coach, talking about the up-coming track season once said at the beginning, " if you are in a relationship, stay in it. If you aren't in a relationship, don't get in one until the season is over. if you drink a beer every night now, keep doing it. If you sleep 11 hours a night now, don't stop doing it." keep your routine kids.

Beth543 wrote:

I am a college senior and an 800 runner. I'm definitely conscious of what I eat and try to eat healthy especially in season. However, I am over 21 and I have gotten into the habit of having a glass or two of wine every other night or so (a little more on the weekends). Also the occasional beer. It's nothing out of the ordinary for a normal college student, but I'm curious if this is affecting my training at all? It's not like I'm getting drunk every night, but I'm definitely drinking more than I have in years past. Should I cut back? I really haven't noticed a difference in my workouts, but I'm thinking more about when the spring season starts.

HRE wrote:

Too bad guys like Shorter, Walker, and Dixon didn't know that. They may have been able to win some Olympic medals or something if they'd not drunk so much.

Too bad Shorter never ran a marathon under 2:10.

It doesn't necessarily affect your training, but it also doesn't mean it won't. It all depends on how much you consume and what sort of training it is you're doing.

steve4321 wrote:

I don't know about you guys but I've had my best runs after drinking 3-5 beers the night before. I usually run around 6pm the next day, but for some reason I feel great. Now if I do this 2 or 3 times a week, I get sluggish because your sleep and hydration and other stuff can get out of wack. Once a week should be fine and a beer a night probably nothing to worry about at all.

I've had some of my best runs as well. More to the tune of 10+ miles @ 6-6:15 pace after a long night of heavy drinking.

I started drinking in college and I mean really drinking...and I dropped my 10k time by 2 minutes. And all my PR's came one week after getting completely trashed.

A Typical LRC A-hole wrote:

HRE wrote:

Too bad guys like Shorter, Walker, and Dixon didn't know that. They may have been able to win some Olympic medals or something if they'd not drunk so much.

Too bad Shorter never ran a marathon under 2:10.

Nah. He ran as fast as he needed to.

WebMD and Mayo Clinic indicate light alcohol use is okay for your health and may have cardiovascular benefits

I used to binge drink until blacking out in college at least once a week. I didn't admit it then, but it ruined my college running and is something I really regret. I equate a night of binge drinking (8 or more) to a night of getting no sleep.

Now, I am 29 and still like to drink beer. With me, even one beer (7% abv) has somewhat of an effect on my sleep. 2 beers even more so, and 3 is when I start to have an effect I feel the next day. Like a poster said above, most of the negative effects are related to a decrease in the quality of sleep after 2 or more. You should be fine.

heres the answer my friend wrote:

Firstly, your right to be concerned about the affect of alcohol on you're running. Alcohol has serious affects on running. It will effect training in the negative way. If you're drinking gets out of hand you could loose in you're meets. Alcohol can effect you're personal life to. If you drink to much things can be bad.

So many grammatical errors

Two glasses will not hurt as longs you keep hydrated. 2 bottles however will play havoc with your training.

You should switch to weed. SO much healthier than alcohol.

Rono is a good example of a gifted runner who managed in some cases to run superb times even after heavy drinking, but whose drinking ultimately compromised his gift. I'd encourage everybody to read his autobiography.

I remember my friend, the late Merrell Noden, a Sports Illustrated writer, talking about seeing Rono with a beer belly still running well, and how he whipped himself back into shape one summer and stunned everybody. (I can't remember which summer this was. Maybe the summer he raced Salazar in a match race.) Epic story. But his drinking clearly diminished his running. He drank for several different reasons, as he tells it: I believe that his mother brewed her own and ran a little beer-joint out of the house when he was a kid. He drank because he was pissed off with the way he was exploited by his coach, John Chaplin, and he drank because he was a self-concious Kenyan at an overwhelmingly white American university back in the mid-to-late 70s.

So yes: Rono's story is worth knowing. There are reasons why a certain strain of asceticism runs through some athletic lives.

Listen to your body! It will tell you what you need to know.

[quote]heres the answer my friend wrote:

Firstly, your right to be concerned about the affect of alcohol on you're running. Alcohol has serious affects on running. It will effect training in the negative way. If you're drinking gets out of hand you could loose in you're meets. Alcohol can effect you're personal life to. If you drink to much things can be bad.[/quote

YOU'RE right to be concerned

YOUR running

YOUR drinking

LOSE in YOUR meets

YOUR personal life TOO

Drink TOO much

BTW - your a twat