How much do you drink?

guinness is good for you.... high in fiber, low in calories and fat.... great sorce of iron and ribofl. 2 pints a day, and you'll live to be 120... you have my word

I don't drink at all and I feel great. But I love being around drunk people; some just need alcohol to have a good time.

A glass of wine or a beer sometimes does not hurt your running, getting drunk does. I have had a few beers the night before marathons and I have performed great. It eases the tension and you sleep super. In Europe drinking is not at all the taboo it is in America.

zzzzzz wrote:

Not much. I've probably had fewer 5 beers in my life (35 y.o.), and I've never been drunk. I can understand people enjoying a beer once in a while - that seems perfectly normal if you like beer (or other alcoholic drinks). But I have no idea why people would want to or allow themselves to get smashed. That's not my idea of fun.

I also don't know why you care if others are just drinking water. I don't complain if someone has different food or beverages preferences than me. If you are a vegetarian, I'm not going to think something is wrong if you decline a nice steak or whatever. Why are you trying to put a stigma on people who don't want to drink for whatever reason?

You dont know why people get smashed because u have never done it pussy...

In reply to lighten up: I didn't say anything about what is fun for you or fun universally. I said, "That's not MY idea of fun." The original poster asked, "How much do you drink." And I gave my answer. Why do you take offense at that? The great majority of respondents drink some... does it bother you that it's not 100%? If so, you must be pretty insecure.

As to the question of how would I know - you don't always have to try something to know. Some people like self mutilation. They put out cigarettes on their arms. You don't? How do you know you know if you haven't tried? Other things like smoking, I don't have to try to find out because I see the effects. I hate smoke. The few times I've gone into smoky bars, I've regretted it because I've smelled absolutely disgusting coming out afterwards. Not to mention that I value my lungs. I kind of think that people are like sheep... in our culture drinking is supposed to be something that people do (and some people have problems with) and college kids are supposed to like to get smashed. I've always been more of an independent thinker and have had very different ideas of what's enjoyable than most. There's an infinite number of things to find enjoyable - I skip the drinking, you probably don't do a lot of what I find really enjoyable, so what?

I don't think I'm being self righteous. I don't mind that you drink (except for all those people who drive while tipsy). I did mind that a previous roommate of mine always missed the toilet when he was drunk, pissing on the floor, but he was a good guy otherwise. I've even tried a few brews in my life. They didn't do much for me, so what?

Hey, guys, running isn't life. Having a good time is. If it means alcohol, then God bless. I get smashed every weekend and get up at 930 every Sunday to do my mileage, sometimes still drunk. Gotta love college.

Apparently I'm the only one who really drinks. Probably avg. 4 drinks per night. (Sometimes zero, but sometimes 18)

YES!

It's been my experience that drinking is fairly relative, the amounts of alcohol that get me shitfaced may or may not affect someone else the same way. I remember in high school health class that "binge" drinking is something like 5 or more drinks in a night, which I find to be laughable. I drink heavily on the weekends but have virtually nothing during the week. Has my running suffered? Nope, except the Sunday long run feels like hell the first few miles. I actually didn't drink for almost a year and my performance was the same. I wish I could recall the name of a study that came out 2-3 years ago, it was conducted by Swedish/Australian researchers and the gist of it was that they were trying to quantify the effects of alcohol on endurance athletes. Granted, they studied elite cyclists, but in the end they found that as long as the athletes drinking alcohol hydrated afterwards the effects of alcohol were neglegible. They even simulated the social environment by having the different groups drink at late hours of the night, etc.

So go on, take down a few when you need to, science supports it, as well as a laundry list of elite runners. It'll only affect you if you think it will.

There is nothing wrong with not drinking. I hate drinking. I had had 1-2 beers once or twice before, but the first time I REALLY drank, my friend was making screw drivers and put WAY too much in there, I thought I was a badass and got really smashed very very quickly, ended up puking everywhere and I felt like I was going to die, and if it hadn't been for a good friend that made sure I didn't pass out and choke on my own vomit, I just might have died. I'm not opposed to having ONE OR TWO beers with some friends every now and then, but that's it from now on... I never want to experience that again.

Ok, so someone said alcohol isn't as bad as 90% of the stuff that you put in your body... ok you're an IDIOT. For starters, what are you eating? Even if you eat McDonalds 3 meals per day, I don't think that eating three big macs in the course of an hour will kill you, whereas if an inexperienced drinker knocks back one too many shots just a little quickly, he can DIE. That's it, dead... it happens all the time. I hope no one impressionable saw that post, because that mindset is very dangerous - alcohol can be deadly, be careful.

no serious runner drinks or does that whacky tobaccey. When yu drink your liver is busy processing alcohol instead of lactic acid. You know how long it takes for your liver to process just one beer? 24 hours. It takes 36 to process the hard stuff. Think about it, if you drink 3 beers on saturday night, you can kiss any gains from a tuesday workout goodbye. If you drink 7, you are out for a week. A long weekend in the off season can take years to recover from. How do I know this, a doctor told me.

Did you read what I said, or is that your reading comprehension level? OK, one more time for the kid at the back of the class:

" getting sloshed day in and day out is not going to help your life or running any, but a few drinks on the weekend or from time to time? What's the big deal?

And spare me the misdirected "the bottle ruined my life" stories. Alcoholism and gross alcohol abuse are not what we're talking about here"

There are people incapable of driving down the street w/o having an accident, but it doesn't mean the rest of us shouldn't drive. Likewise, those mature enough to handle alcohol should enjoy it when they want. Those that are incapable (read YOU) of handling a few drinks w/o shitting their pants, should, for the general good, stay the hell away from it. And yeah, I'd put a few beers up against a diet of Big Macs, fries, sugar drink and whatever you wanna throw in for dessert. That shit'll make you fat and stupid.

d.d.d. wrote:

no serious runner drinks or does that whacky tobaccey. When yu drink your liver is busy processing alcohol instead of lactic acid. You know how long it takes for your liver to process just one beer? 24 hours. It takes 36 to process the hard stuff. Think about it, if you drink 3 beers on saturday night, you can kiss any gains from a tuesday workout goodbye. If you drink 7, you are out for a week. A long weekend in the off season can take years to recover from. How do I know this, a doctor told me.

Thats wondeful that a doctor told you that, but it's clearly not true. Based on empirical evidencefrom the 50,000 threads that have been posted on this subject before it's clearly possible to run and drink without suffering more than minimal performance backlash. I'd be willing to bet that atleast 25% of division 1 runners at universities binge drink at least everyother weekend. C'mon now where all the old guy war stories, "When I ran we would run hard and drink hard. That's the way it was back then." Mmmmm Newcastle.

I was at a small party one night, and was not drinking. There was one other runner from a NAIA school close by he wasnt drinking either, he said it was cause he ran track.

So you know i asked him how his season was going an i swear to god the kid said.

"not bad I'm finally starting to break 18:00min pretty consistant, i think I'm ready to move up to the 10k"

lol...i didnt know what to say to that.

Any after that i grabed a beer.

lighten up wrote:

More importantly (and this is my biggest pet peeve about self righteous non drinkers), how would you know if it is fun or not if you have never tried it?

Getting ass pounded by a big black man isn't my idea fun; I don't find it necessary to try it before I come to my conclusion...but that's just me.

Dr Hoo wrote:

Getting ass pounded by a big black man isn't my idea fun; I don't find it necessary to try it before I come to my conclusion...but that's just me.

Responses as idiotic as this speak for themselves.

DIAF wrote:

Dr Hoo wrote:

Getting ass pounded by a big black man isn't my idea fun; I don't find it necessary to try it before I come to my conclusion...but that's just me.

Responses as idiotic as this speak for themselves.

I don't think anybody else would have noticed that had you not pointed it out dumbass.

BeerBeerBeer wrote:

Thats wondeful that a doctor told you that, but it's clearly not true. Based on empirical evidencefrom the 50,000 threads that have been posted on this subject before it's clearly possible to run and drink without suffering more than minimal performance backlash. I'd be willing to bet that atleast 25% of division 1 runners at universities binge drink at least everyother weekend. C'mon now where all the old guy war stories, "When I ran we would run hard and drink hard. That's the way it was back then." Mmmmm Newcastle.

you have me convinced. an argument based on the letsrun.com threads really bolsters your argument.

as for the ond guy war stories, here is one. This old guy was an all-american in cross and the steeple. I also graduated with a 3.9. I never drank. The closest thing that I did was a couple of salt tablets before a big race. I nearly died from it.

you clearly are not a serious runner with a name liek BeerBeerBeer. If I were your coach, I'd have your balls hanging from a flagpole.

d.d.d wrote:

you clearly are not a serious runner with a name liek BeerBeerBeer. If I were your coach, I'd have your balls hanging from a flagpole.

I think you mean you'd have his willy hanging from a flagpole. Nothing wrong with going a little crazy sometimes.