Drinking and Running

Are you a female runner of the D3 variety?

Yes.

No.

just don't drink every day or get loaded the night before races and you'll be fine, you're overthinking it.

During serious training blocks I think you do need to eliminate or seriously limit drinking. 1 drink every not and then won't do much, but 1 night of binge drinking can (but doesn't always..) throw off an entire week of hard training, which can in turn change the tune for a whole training block. If you really care about optimizing your performance you'll save the booze for the post-race celebration.

I drank a fair amount in college but never on the night before a race. I of course made up for that after the race was done. After college I was still running but not as intensely. Drank on most days, usually just beer.

Once ran a half marathon that was sponsored by a beer company. In the swag bag that they gave when you finished was a can of their product. Not everyone drinks and someone gave me their can. I knocked those two cans down pretty quickly. Man does that go to your head fast! However, it also leaves your buzzed feeling pretty quickly too. It's like being on fast forward. I'm fine, I'm buzzed, hey, how come I'm not buzzed anymore?

OP, you just need to decide how serious you are about running... You can run fast and drink a lot, but if that is happening you need to understand that you could be running even faster if you weren't drinking.

Since you are an XC runner, I am assuming you are in college. You need to decide if you want to maximize your college career or balance it with typical college fun. I wish I had been less serious about running in college because I was pretty mediocre in retrospect and gave up a lot of fun. That said, I also have 5,000 and 10,000 times that I am fairly proud of and don't think I'd have attained if I were partying all year. Also, I have had plenty of time to party since graduating and sometimes thank my lucky stars that I wasn't a big drinker in college because I have friends who developed bad habits.

The truth is that you should probably just avoid alcohol altogether during the racing season and wait until after it is over to party. Have a few fun nights/weeks and then get serious about training again.

It is definitely a tough balance in college.

TheXCrunner wrote:

Does drinking have a negative effect on my training/running? Is drinking on the weekends okay?

Nick symmonds talks about this in one of his videos

He drank in moderation in and out of season

oh good lord wrote:

Are you a female runner of the D3 variety?

this

Once a week won't kill you.

Anything is excess is bad for you.

O.P., you obviously are drinking more than an occasional glass of wine with dinner. You obviously think you are drinking too much. Your brain needs to produce natural dopamines. Alcohol use affects natural dopamine production. The best pain tolerance is the pain you never feel due to dopamine. Your body needs to process sugars efficiently. Keep drinking and you will eventually damage your pancreas. Your liver turns fat into fuel. Keep drinking, your liver will be a big bag of fat working inefficiently. I think you know alcohol and optimum running does not go together.

If you plan to drink, don't run the next day unless it's just a common jog to rid yourself of the hangover. Better to save the party until after a race IMO

TheXCrunner wrote:

Does drinking have a negative effect on my training/running? Is drinking on the weekends okay?

The real and definitive answer, and I'm certain you already know this: even if it doesn't hurt, it certainly doesn't help. So you need to decide what's important. If you value running over drinking then don't drink during training blocks--at all. If you're not especially serious about your running then might as well enjoy life and have a drink or two.

I drink once a month tops, if I drink every week then it starts to negatively impact my running. Why? Because alcohol deteriorates the human body, messes with your liver, stiffens you’re arteries and alters your genetic code. Sure, some people can get away with more drinking than others and people with elite running ability like Nick can get away with drinking and running and still be fast, because they are exactly that - elite. Nick is a 1:42 800 guy, even if he half arsed training and binge drank 3 times a week, he’d still go sub 1:50 with not much effort whereas an average person probably can’t even be trained to run 1:50 pace for even 100m no matter how fit, healthy, dedicated or smart they are. In fact, I have seen guys who eat well, are active in many ways, never drink, never smoke and sleep well who will never sniff a sub 2 timing. Jock may have even been a 1:40 flat guy in his prime had he not drank.

A certain team just won the national cross country championship. It's obviously because they are not allowed to imbibe.

TheXCrunner wrote:

Does drinking have a negative effect on my training/running? Is drinking on the weekends okay?

I tend to drink more than most runners I know since I'm pretty involved with the craft beer scene in the city/do a lot of beer trading. I've gone to breweries the day before big races, went out with my dad to a brewery the day before I ran a 2:30 marathon and did a beer trip through Vermont and Portland a couple of days before Boston this year.

With that being said, it's definitely all about moderation. While I do have a beer most days of the week, I don't find myself getting drunk with friends very much when I'm in the middle of a build-up or leading up to a big race. I try and hydrate while I'm drinking too so that I don't find myself dehydrated for a long run or workout. My drinking habits do tend to take a big drop during big stretches of training though (I'm not trying to feel rough before a hard session). There is a difference between partying and have a beer here or there.

This is my stance as well...I miss living in NE and being able to pop up to VT from Boston every couple months for a beer run...now My dad just sends 40 lbs porch bombs every couple months from Trillium.

I have 1-2 a night during the week 3-5 on the weekend and haven’t gone more than a day without having a beer in over a decade. I always make sure I hydrate though( I probably drink my weight in oz daily) That being said I’m going to cut it out a couple weeks before my first marathon.

Yeah, I think it depends how you define these things. Are you having a beer with dinner or glass of wine while cooking 4-5 nights a week? Or are you talking about getting college-style s**tfaced?

I agree with the above posters - having a beer in the evening some weeknights (and a couple on the weekends at good breweries/taprooms) doesn't seem to have any impact on my training.

However, when I was in college, any binge drinking would certainly impact our ability to do hard workouts, long runs, and just recover, so most people saved it until after the season.