Look at Sammy Wanjiru. He was a train crash. He literally nearly got destroyed by Kebede in Chicago and only just managed to catch him and win in a slow time but that race combined with to much drinking broke him. Evan if he didn't died he would probably be lucky to run under 2:10 again.
Why don't you try an experiment?
Try two months with no drinking, see how you feel, train and race, how day to day life goes.
Try two months with your old drinking pattern. Compare the two?
You may find you feel differently about it after.
Too much is when you can't get out of a crouch start. And you usually have a standing start.
Drinking is pretty bad for you, best to use in moderation. If used very sparingly it can be okay, but not weekly and not to the point of getting drunk maybe a small buzz and being sure to stay hydrated. It has no health benefits like drinking scientists like to claim but if you are smart with it, it won't destroy you like it almost did to me and many other people and destroyed many others.
Not sure how old you are but at some point consuming all those empty calories will catch up to you. Alcohol has tons of calories. Seriously if you needed to get falling down drunk every week you may have an alcohol problem. Most people can have 1 or 2 and call it a day.
Eliud Kipchoge does not drink. That's all you need to know.
When training hard - well before the serious racing starts - I never bothered about a few beers a couple of times a week. Never totally blitzed, just relaxed and happy, say 3-4 pints at a time. Never hampered training, in fact did some of my best sessions the next day.
When serious racing starts think more seriously about when and how many, for no other reason than the fact that some runners find it easy to gain weight when easing off their training.
I mostly agree with Runnergrl's take that the calories are a big problem. I'm not at the elite level, but OP doesn't strike me as an alcoholic. In my 20s I behaved mostly like him but now in my 30s I'm pretty happy to call it quits after 2-3 drinks for the sake of my run.
I'll also agree with another poster who mentioned timing your drinking around your workouts. Just about everyone in my social circle is a runner and nothing happens on Friday night. We run long on Saturday and Saturday afternoon-evening typically involves a lot of drinking. On Sunday you can sleep in and take a nap in the afternoon and be ready to run hard again on Monday.
Weekday drinking is pretty much a no-go if you are working full time and running hard.
I'm trying to be a pretty serious runner myself. I'm still in my early 20's and run into this problem as well. I've started to experiment with drinking by noting each time I go out pass 12am. Right now I limit myself to 3-5 times a month, and once training notches up I'll taper to two times a month. I mean I guess this means I have a problem........
The alcohol interferes directly with muscle recovery and interferes with your sleep if you hare having more than 3-4 drinks. For us older people, 1-2 drinks can interrupt your sleep.
With this in mind, when you're young, each day of excessive drinking results in about an extra day of recovery between hard workouts. If you are getting after it once a week that's an extra 52 days of recovery each year and possibly 17 to 26 fewer hard workouts in a year. It's all additive.
It's also a lot of mostly empty calories.
What Would Pre Do?
eliterunner wrote:
I am a very serious runner with pretty respectable pr's (not gonna say them because it could get people guessing) and I constantly go back and forth mentally on what I think about drinking and its effects on my running. On one hand, I don't think that it is in my best interest to be out late at night drinking heavily but at the same time in my experience it does take the edge off. I have run some of my best times 1-2 weeks after getting very drunk.
I have decided not to drink until my season is over but I already feel mentally tired. I know people are going to say "just drink 2 or 3 beers" but when I drink I like to drink excessively. If i'm going to enjoy a few beers I may as well go all in and get drunk and have fun. But obviously if I do that it could have severe impacts on my recovery.
anyone have any advice or experiences they'd like to share?
Ya, not sure you need help as the other posters (who didn't notice that you can actually stop drinking during running season), but getting drunk definitely impacts recovery and competing with a hangover sucks.
check yourself in wrote:
eliterunner wrote:
I am a very serious runner with pretty respectable pr's (not gonna say them because it could get people guessing) and I constantly go back and forth mentally on what I think about drinking and its effects on my running. On one hand, I don't think that it is in my best interest to be out late at night drinking heavily but at the same time in my experience it does take the edge off. I have run some of my best times 1-2 weeks after getting very drunk.
I have decided not to drink until my season is over but I already feel mentally tired. I know people are going to say "just drink 2 or 3 beers" but when I drink I like to drink excessively. If i'm going to enjoy a few beers I may as well go all in and get drunk and have fun. But obviously if I do that it could have severe impacts on my recovery.
anyone have any advice or experiences they'd like to share?
You need help, bro, and I think you know that on some level.
Don’t listen to this dude with the stick up his ass. I say send it
In my Division 1 days (75% scholarship, alas, without board) I found that drinking to any degree was problematic. I did notice that one or two drinks in moderation was a welcome diversion from a psychological standpoint, but that given my diet (I went to university with no financial help from parents or anyone) was for many weeks diluted pancake mix and potatoes, I was constantly on the edge of getting sick or being sick. Nothing major in terms of illnesses, but combined with hard training (3:40ish 1500 guy), my immune system was not very capable. I found that I simply could not drink, even though even though at so-called college party blow-outs I had never had more than two beers. Not sure of the medical science behind it, but just learned to avoid drinking as a cold, flu, infection too often took hold. In hindsight, I think the better choice would have been to choose a school I could afford (I was admitted to a service academy as well), eat decently, and to have lived a balanced life, which likely would have included some modest alcohol intake (I don't drink at all today because of health restrictions, but it is hardly a burden as I can live without it).
I have lots of humility and am fearful of moralizing over alcohol. I had a completely and totally absent parent (a nice person by nature) due to alcohol. This was all her reaction to horrific abuse being visited on her, but at some point the addiction took a strong and inexorable hold. I have had to take care of her in one way or another my entire adult life. I have always had a voice in my head as to any sort of addictive propensity, knowing it can happen to anyone. I think keeping that inner voice in your head is helpful.
Easy Peasy wrote:
Look the LRC trolls are out.
The answer depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re asking if this is going to have SERIOUS long term health impacts, the answer is probably no. There’s a lot of evidence out there that any alcohol is not good for you (contrary to the BS we were sold that 1-2 drinks is actually better for you), but saying that you binge drink here and there makes you an alcoholic and you need to receive professional help is absurd. If that was the case, probably 80% of people aged 20-25 need professional help. I bet these people that say that think that running 80 MPW is healthy for you.
If you’re looking to reach your absolute potential, then sure, any alcohol is bad for you and you should really avoid it except for maybe right after your championship run / goal race.
Life is about moderation in our “vices.” If you avoided everything that is unhealthy for you, you’d have to live in the country in clean air, only eat plant based products that are 100% organic, and go for a brisk 30-60 minute walk per day, while completely avoiding red meat, alcohol, sitting, etc.
Enjoy your life OP.
Unless you're missing workouts because of hangovers I don't think alcohol consumption has much of an effect. My understanding is that John Walker and Rod Dixon drank copious quantities of beer and had some game that combined beer and running called "chundering".
Occasional heavy drinking might be OK, but if you're experiencing blackouts or self-destructive behavior then you have a problem
I like to use the Kavanaugh test. Are you drinking more or less than Brett Kavanaugh did in high school?
I love a binge. Do I think a 10 hour drinking session is good for me, no. Do I think that doing that once every six/eight weeks will have a serious impact on my training, no. I’m nearly 40 and have been binge drinking since my teens. Barely drink at all between binges. Just gone sub 2 in the 800 for the first time. I do come from a rugby background which may effect my drinking mentality.
If a few drinks blows off stress and makes you run relaxed, that's undeniably a benefit. Whether there's a cost and how much is a separate question. Then compare the answers to find the cost/benefit.
If you ever decide you're an alcoholic, at least stay away from pan-religious cult AA.
ooper wrote:
What Would Pre Do?
pre would drink and drive.
I quit drinking beer 30 some days ago. I feel much better.. and have leaned down to racing weight very very fast coming off of an injury. Cant think of any downside.