Did Dave Bedford really drink 3-4 pints every night?

Carbonated wrote:

“I ran 200 miles a week and drank three to four pints every night, and that was the same for every runner I knew.”

http://allaboutbeer.com/article/the-thirstiness-of-the-long-distance-runner/

Is this an exaggeration? That's at least 6 standard drinks per night (2.2 per pint).

60 second first lap in the Olympic 10. Viren probably owes him a couple pints for acting like a pace setter.

A pint is not 2.2 drinks. It's 20 oz, vs 12 oz for a standard drink. Also English ale is typically very low alcohol. They weren't drinking imperial IPAs. 3-4 pints might not be what the doctor recommends, but it's unlikely to have a detectable effect on training.

800 dude wrote:

A pint is not 2.2 drinks. It's 20 oz, vs 12 oz for a standard drink. Also English ale is typically very low alcohol. They weren't drinking imperial IPAs. 3-4 pints might not be what the doctor recommends, but it's unlikely to have a detectable effect on training.

It's 16 oz

pint = 16 oz wrote:

800 dude wrote:

A pint is not 2.2 drinks. It's 20 oz, vs 12 oz for a standard drink. Also English ale is typically very low alcohol. They weren't drinking imperial IPAs. 3-4 pints might not be what the doctor recommends, but it's unlikely to have a detectable effect on training.

It's 16 oz

An imperial pint is 20 oz.

800 dude wrote:

pint = 16 oz wrote:

It's 16 oz

An imperial pint is 20 oz.

Pints, defined as 568 ml (20.0 imp fl oz; 19.2 U.S. fl oz),

Carbonated wrote:

“I ran 200 miles a week and drank three to four pints every night, and that was the same for every runner I knew.”

http://allaboutbeer.com/article/the-thirstiness-of-the-long-distance-runner/

Is this an exaggeration? That's at least 6 standard drinks per night (2.2 per pint).

60-80oz per night = 5-7 bottles a night. Not much by any standard.

Beer has always been viewed as basically a thirst quencher/hydration in Europe.

It started when potable water wasn't readily available so people drank basically "preserved" water.

800 dude wrote:

Also English ale is typically very low alcohol.

It isn't really. Typical English ales have ABV's of around 4%, compared with 4.5-5% for many american lagers.

Crucially though, although the biggest selling beer today is Carling, a lager, the English ales I assume he would have been drinking in the 1970s would have been less fizzy, which would work better with running.

I saw Arthur Lydiard speaking in the mid 1990s - he said that he used to advise his runners to drink a quart of beer before going on their training runs. No wonder Snell used to throw up on most of his training runs (it's mentioned in one of his books).

US Pint 16 Oz

Euro Pint 20 Oz

I guess Americans are stingy with beer but not with big gulp sodas.

Exaggerated like everything else from the 70's & 80's. In reality, Beford probably ran 200 miles in a week once in his lifeon a dodgily measured route and drank a few beers a few nights a week but those guys were tough as nails in their own imagination.

Trex wrote:

Exaggerated like everything else from the 70's & 80's. In reality, Beford probably ran 200 miles in a week once in his lifeon a dodgily measured route and drank a few beers a few nights a week but those guys were tough as nails in their own imagination.

And of course you were there to observe it all so we should believe you.

Woodsman wrote:

800 dude wrote:

Also English ale is typically very low alcohol.

It isn't really. Typical English ales have ABV's of around 4%, compared with 4.5-5% for many american lagers.

Crucially though, although the biggest selling beer today is Carling, a lager, the English ales I assume he would have been drinking in the 1970s would have been less fizzy, which would work better with running.

I saw Arthur Lydiard speaking in the mid 1990s - he said that he used to advise his runners to drink a quart of beer before going on their training runs. No wonder Snell used to throw up on most of his training runs (it's mentioned in one of his books).

Arthur and Dick Taylor had a couple the night before the 1974 Commonwealth games 10,000m and he came out & blitzed the field in 27:47.

Just to be clear wrote:

US Pint 16 Oz

Euro Pint 20 Oz

I guess Americans are stingy with beer but not with big gulp sodas.

A pint is a pint either use the Imperial system or don't.

I doubt he drank every night. People would go to the pub after club nights though & at weekends. Buddy Edelen drank a beer in the pub every night when stayed in UK according to his book.

Back then beer or ale tended to be about 3 %. Max 4

Just to be clear wrote:

US Pint 16 Oz

Euro Pint 20 Oz

I guess Americans are stingy with beer but not with big gulp sodas.

A US pint is 19.2 oz.

Agree - to an extent. Bedford has said in interviews with serious running publications that his weekly mileage was not 200. He did occasionally hit this level but a typical week would be about 170-180. He certainly trained hard - in "How They Train" published in the 1970s more or less every day has three sessions.

From my own experience runners in the 1970s did drink plenty of beer. Maybe it was to do with the link, long established in both the UK and the US, between manual labour in mines and factories and having a few pints after work? More runners came from those sort of backgrounds in that era.

Jack Holden wrote:

Trex wrote:

Exaggerated like everything else from the 70's & 80's. In reality, Beford probably ran 200 miles in a week once in his lifeon a dodgily measured route and drank a few beers a few nights a week but those guys were tough as nails in their own imagination.

And of course you were there to observe it all so we should believe you.

I remember reading about how he was frequently injured because he ran 3-4 times a day and up to 200 mpw.

Every week? Of course not, when he was healthy? Yes

When he was healthy he dominated.

I was friends with the British 100K champ back in the early 90s. He won the London to Brighton race (a hilly 55 miles) the day after drinking 6 pints of Guinness before going to bed. Then he went clubbing after the race and had a skinful

And the pubs were full of cigarette smoke. In fact it was almost everywhere. Disgusting, but that was the way it was.

Now that the UK is transitioning over to Sharia law will we be able to drink pints at the pub, or will we have to do it in the privacy of our homes?